THAT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE SCUM AND ARE BEING PROTECTED BY THE LEGAL SYSTEM AND THE COPS (AND THE CIA, FBI, NSA, HOMELAND SECURITY, ET. AL)
It’s not just teenagers suffering from “affluenza.” In almost every area of the legal system, justice is distributed unequally based on how much money you have.
This week, The Daily Show had Rolling Stone reporter and best-selling author, Matt Tiabbi on to talk about wealth inequality in America. Tiabbi has a new book out covering the differences in criminal prosecutions for poor people and the wealthy. The contrast is stark and terrifying.
During the segment, host Jon Stewart pointed out that inequality is mainly conceptualized as a taxation issue or an income distribution problem, it’s rarely thought of as a legal problem. Taibbi argues that it’s the legal system which ensures that the rich stay rich, while the poor get poorer. His point: Before any lasting changes can be made, we must first address the legal snares that keep Americans perpetually poor.
As an example, Taibbi writes an anecdote in his book which shows just how easy it is to be viewed as a criminal when you’re poor – a system that is so commonplace as to become internalized, even among the lawyers, judges and victims whom experience it first hand every day.
A 35-year-old black man named Andrew Brown is arrested for “obstructing pedestrian traffic” in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Brown, having been similarly harassed by the cops countless times before, refuses to provide ID and accept a summons, and is consequently brought into court. Once there, Brown explains to Waldorf that he was talking to a friend outside his own apartment building after getting off work, and that, given the lateness of the hour (shortly before 1 a.m.), there wouldn’t have been any pedestrian traffic on Myrtle Avenue to obstruct.None of this seems to register with Waldorf. “What are you arguing?” he asks. He wonders aloud whether Brown was “being a wise guy” with the cops, and expresses surprise that a person such as Brown would have a job. He advises his client to pay the $25 fine.Brown refuses and explains it all over again to the judge. The judge turns to Waldorf and asks whether Brown will pay the $25 fine. Waldorf explains, for the second time, that Brown won’t pay, his manner suggesting that for the life of him he can’t figure out why not.Only then does the judge bestir himself to ask the arresting officer whether he saw any other people on the sidewalk that night. No? “O.K., then,” the judge sighs. “Not guilty.” Out in the hallway, Taibbi asks Waldorf why white people never get arrested for obstructing pedestrian traffic. Oblivious to the lesson that has just played out, and puzzled as to why Taibbi would want to include any of this in a book, Waldorf replies, “Low-class people do low-class things.” [source]
It’s so unfair, as to be almost comedic. Why was Brown even cited in the first place? It’s likely even the officer doesn’t fully know. The justice system is built on stories like that.
On the flip side, we see incidences of exploitation and victimization that are so blatantly harmful to society and so destructive to the people who fall prey to them, that they must be crimes, and yet the law either treats them as minor offenses, or ignores them completely.
It’s these crimes, which are committed by the wealthiest members of our society, which are the most rarely punished.
“For some reason, the white collar rip offs have been decriminalized to some extent, except for fines,” Stewart says.
He’s not speaking in hyperbole. The major actors in the financial meltdown of 2008 are almost universally sheltered from any criminal liability. In fact, hardly any banker or Wall Street executive has been charged with a crime for what essentially amounts to, as Taibbi puts it, “robbing old ladies” of their pension funds to enrich their shareholders and, of course, themselves.
The lack of accountability is not just bad, its historically bad.
It is now almost five years since the world’s financial system was brought to its knees and had to be bailed out by taxpayers at a cost of billions. Millions of people lost their jobs or suffered from lower living standards because of the recession brought on by the financial collapse. Yet almost no bankers have faced legal sanctions for their part in precipitating the crisis. In Britain, which had to bail out three of its biggest banks, not one senior banker has gone on trial over the failure of a bank. In America there have been just a handful of criminal charges brought against senior executives of banks, and even fewer successful convictions. This is very different from the response of prosecutors in earlier banking crises, such as the meltdown of Savings & Loans institutions in America in the 1980s. In that case more than 1,000 bankers were convicted for their misdeeds. [source]
The financial sector is always trying to push the envelope to see what the American public and the United States government will let them get away with. In 2008, they pushed the envelope right off the table and still no one batted an eye. That should be a warning sign that things are not alright.
It’s not enough for the economy to slowly get back on its feet, we must also address the criminal activities that led us here and that have, so far, been left unpunished. The media, the government, and the public may have ignored it, but the bankers surely didn’t it.
No comments:
Post a Comment