It may be unfair to single out Ms. Ortiz, she is after all only one of many federal prosecutors; but reforming the american justice system is an urgent priority, and we must start somewhere. A society where justice is widely perceived to be available only to the most powerful and well-connected is one that is primed to fall prey to any number of severe and most likely violent pathologies.
The legitimacy of the legal system is the result of centuries of work by jurists, judges, legal scholars, politicians and others; each of whom added their effort to making it so that not only they believed the law had dealt fairly with those who came before it but also that it had appeared to be fair to the rest of society. When that legitimacy is eroded, for personal benefit, for career aspirations, to please those whose favor is sought, for any reason; it takes much less effort. But the damage is subtle, people give lip service to institutions long after they have become hollow shells of their former glory.
In this country, at this time; the law is an instrument of social control, of thievery ( read the literature on civil forfeiture, if that statement bothers you ), of vengeance, and only rarely and incidentally of justice. Most of us know this. But it is one of the truths that cannot be spoken in polite society.
At this time, most of us know but are unwilling to acknowledge, that the law is an outrageously powerful instrument that acts randomly and capriciously. If you happen to be of the wrong color, speak the wrong language, or practice the wrong religion in the wrong place at the wrong time; you can be given a status equivalent to Orwell's formulation of an 'unperson'. If you happen to cross the path of someone who has access to the controls of this fearsome legal apparatus, your guilt or innocence, your rightness or wrongness; is irrelevant. All that matters is whether they decide to take an interest in your case; if you are deemed a target, all that matters is what crime can be made to fit your situation.
It would seem axiomatic, that this is an untenable situation; that once this state obtains, it will not be long before the law becomes a disreputable joke, a sad reminder of former greatness, and a jungle in which everyone is a predator and fears becoming prey.
That is why the reform of our justice system is such an urgent matter. We have eroded the legitimacy of our courts to a degree that their proclaimed fairness is a dismal jest to anyone who has been in prolonged contact with them.
We have allowed our legal system to be infected with concepts of intrinsic guilt, of theft under color of law, of monarchical privilege, of illegal truths; all of which are antithetical to a functional and free society.