Bridgegate

No one's going to be closing any bridges too soon. If only they put a few bankers behind bars...

The dirty little secret is the educated class believes it's inviolate. That prison is for inner city denizens, the so-called dregs, and that if you're wealthy enough and savvy enough you can hire an attorney and get off.

But not in this case.

It's impossible to go back and reopen the bridge, give the time back to those who were frustrated by lane closures. But this is not about restitution but prevention. How do we reduce bad behavior in the future?

Some deterrents don't work. Like the death penalty. That's just an eye for an eye. But put a middle class person in jail and they're changed for life. Look at the Watergate conspirators, one of the worst offenders, Chuck Colson, became a preacher. He had a lot of time behind bars to think about his bad behavior. And Dick Nixon may have been pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford, but his reputation was irreparably tarnished and...

We've got a government spying on its citizens, and a financial system that continues to wreak havoc on our economy, but we're complicit in this behavior. We think the best and the brightest are keeping us safe. Funny how the right wingers are all about keeping government out of our business but when it comes to going behind closed doors, into our communications devices, to keep us supposedly secure, they're all for it.

I remember when jail was anathema, not a badge of honor. Seemingly every rapper has been behind bars, and of course that's an overstatement, but how have we gotten to the point where we glorify this? Why do these performers find it so hard to do the right thing?

Then again, we revere the outlaws because we ourselves are afraid.

It seems the bad acting musicians, and it's not only rappers, a bunch of country acts have done time and a few rockers too, are running on instinct, they're not thinking about it. But these white collar criminals...they know exactly what they're doing and they act with impunity. And the same right wingers who believe in law and order have crippled the judiciary system to the point where if you're guilty of bad behavior there's a good chance you won't be caught, never mind prosecuted. No taxes, no prosecutors. Funny how it's all part of the same circle, you can't take out one element and expect the system to work. Explain to me again how reducing IRS agent head count helps us? Aren't these the people paid to collect the money?

So now while there's a camera on every corner, to the point the average citizen can't commit a crime and get away with it, those at the top of the pyramid are running willy-nilly over the system.

I've got no idea if they'll prosecute Chris Christie, one thing I know for sure is his political career is finished. And the bridge lane closures did it. It was akin to a rap feud. The mayor of Fort Lee wouldn't endorse him so he had to pay. The only thing missing was the bullets.

But there was evidence, electronic evidence. These nitwits didn't realize their mobile phones were incriminating devices. Once again, it's getting very hard to break the law and get away with it, but if you're committing conceptual crimes the odds of skating are much higher. Next time it'll all be done via conversation. That's what they do in Silicon Valley when a deal gets close, they get off e-mail, they go to the landline, because there is no record.

And there's a huge record of financial bad behavior but no one in charge, no one making decisions, was prosecuted. They said they didn't know, hid behind layers of management, and counted on their cronies in the government, like Timothy Geithner, to let them be.

Then again, we've got a corrupt system. Both political and financial. You can't make it unless you bend the rules. To the point where Donald Trump is boasting about bending the rules. Which way do we want it, zero tolerance or...

Put a few bankers behind bars and you'd be stunned how financial shenanigans evaporate. Nobody who went to an Ivy League institution wants to take it up the rear end. That's right, put 'em in with the general population, don't send 'em to a country club prison.

As for politicians... They do get prosecuted, they do go to jail, the attorney general of Pennsylvania, Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, was just convicted. But, is it the person or the system or both? And can we investigate the system as well as the person? How the hell do you raise the money to run and get elected? Inherently you owe favors.

We're all guilty. Of being two-faced. We want a pass here and strict tolerance there.

But when you send a message to those in charge, making decisions, that bad behavior won't be tolerated, it ripples through the whole system. Talk about trickle down...

So, today was a victory for our country. It showed no one is above the law.

But the truth is most movers and shakers believe to the contrary. They fly private, live behind layers of security and have access to the gatekeepers, they can make things go away. We live in a two-tiered society and most of us are on the lower rung when the truth is we're all in this together.

I don't want to ruin anybody's life, I don't want anybody taken away from their children.

But if they're gonna put African-Americans behind bars for smoking a little dope, all in an effort to feed the prison industrial complex, then those in charge of creating the system must be incarcerated too.

There's no crying in court. You can let the tears flow but the scales of justice won't be tipped.

Chalk one up for the good guys today.

Us.


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_source=phplist5627&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bridgegate
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz?utm_source=phplist5627&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bridgegate
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1&utm_source=phplist5627&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bridgegate

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5627&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bridgegate

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25&utm_source=phplist5627&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bridgegate




-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --