Do you believe that criminals should be immune from prosecution simply because they may have some degree of wealth or fame?
Should the size of your bank account or the level of your popularity determine which crimes you can be prosecuted for?
If a person is the victim of corruption and is unable to receive justice through the normal channels, do you believe it acceptable for the victim to bend the rules in order to expose the criminal?
Should criminals that have achieved some wealth or fame be able to commit any crime they want and get away with it?
I don't think so. I think that if you do the crime, you must do the time. Even if you are popular or wealthy; the laws apply equally to everyone.
What do you think?
So which famous and wealthy person do you have in mind? Or is this really just hypothetical?
i also think they should do time in the same prison as everybody else
**withdrawn** ppl are too sensitive
Be rich/famous. Commit a major crime. Hire a good attorney. Begin lengthy trial process. Be found guilty. Be given a reduced sentence based on "time served". Complete softer sentence. Wait one year. Hire ghost writer. "Write" memoirs. Publish. Become wealthier...
is this a great country or what?!?
American then?
Yes, please state your point. Name names.
Must be, Bdub. Our only wealthy and corrupt set are in the government, and who would want to buy their memoirs?
But yeah, who're we talking about here?
Everyone should have a fair and just trial in an impartial legal system.
(singing)Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time(/singing)
...for those old enough to remember Baretta.
the problem that we have is too much bribery (and I guarentee that there is some) and that allows people to get off easy. Remeber Bill Clinton pardoning his brother? The Jackass! I don't understand why people who scratch the other's back have to have special treatment. People need to have a little more morality and ethics like we used to have in the 60's. That was when people had more sense (you can correct me on this). We also need to hold our judges accountable and kick them off the bench if the do stuff like letting celeb's off easy or have a "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine" scenario. But people are too lazy to oust the judges. Maybe we need to look at the whole government and start with that
just my $0.02
Hey,
I'm trying to stay out of this because it is a tad vague but as for ethics in the '60s I got three words for you:
Chicago, Birmingham, Los Alamos.
I'd really like to know who we're talking about here. Robert Blake walked because -- as the jurors stated -- the case wasn't made and didn't make any sense. Martha Stewart got nailed because she *is* a celebrity and OJ walked because the state should never be allowed to convict with such a half-ass case that reflected how *conflicted* (to use a term) the LAPD can be. Before you all jump up and down, I didn't say he was innocent. But no one should be framed. Even the guilty.
As former Kansas City, MO mayor and current US Senator for Missouri, the Rev. Emmanuel Cleaver once said: A little corruption is the price you pay for progess. Oh, yes, he is a black Democratic preacher, former Black Panther, and has only paid the past 3 years of county property taxes when he was exposed twice in the city papers. They said "it sure seems like a guy who had spent so long spend other people's tax dollars sure has a hard time paying his own." Also, the quote above was when he was talking about some of his own hand-picked city council memebers taking bribes and being put in jail. He's a "man of the poor black people of inner KC." Yeah, it sure seems he's all for the little guy, just like the Demo. pseudo-slogan says... Those who are wealthy and famous might get off of certain punishments, but there will always be those who don't even get to court, too. Maybe this guy and his actions exposes some of why I see a bunch of illusions being projected around the liberals in the US, and generally stand center or right.
Okay, Jon, we've slipped from the judicial to the political; small slip, really. But to condemn all liberals, or anyone from another political POV, because of the actions of a few members is simply being political. For instance; let's say that you tend to vote the Beige party (I'm obviously making this up...); you toe the party line while not being 100% behind them. A member of the local Taupe party, the "other" guys, has just been indicted for a bribery scam. To you, this just seems to prove your point - that all Taupes are a lousy bunch of low-life-louts. It's justification for you to continue believing that your Beige party is THE party.
However, on a national level, in your country of Freedonia, there are roughly an equal percentage in both Biege and Taupe who behave inappropriately. You, as a loyal Beige, choose not to notice this fact, or if you do, you blame it on a Taupe media smeer campaign. That the Taupes may feel the same is of little or no importance.
In the end, politicians are politicians, after all.
Slamming liberals is just politics. Remember, liberalism, not "liberal" politicians, can be a good thing. It was, after all, a bunch of classical liberals who brought us such things as the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution... we tend to forget that these days.
I'm not making apoint of "slamming liberals." I clearly posted that I see illusions over what the liberals are and are not. Mayeb I should have used the Demo. party name instead. There are illusions over the Republicans too, I know that, too. They are not the "party of the little guy" as many people seem to say. That's one of the illusions. They are not out to fight corruption, as is in the current news, as both (US House Rep., not Senator, oops..) Cleaver (EDIT: some details here, and here it's a conservative site, but it came up quick in Google...) and Pelosi from CA (fined $21k for PAC violations) both have fairly recent scandals in their closet, but they point fingers the other way, ie. against DeLay and blame just goes in circles.
Anyway, my point against Cleaver is that he got elected to the House AFTER the scandal where, IIRC 3 of 4 of his City Council buddies did jail time. Is it morally correct to send him to Washington after that? Nope. I don't support a man who publicly supports corruption. Therefore, his politics are flawed and I'll lean away from them.
And, for the record, www.politicalcompass.org scored me very slighty left and libertarian a couple years ago. IIRC it was well under 4 from center each way. So, my politics really do tend to be centrist by a test, not just by personal decision to be a centrist.
Another quick point, to bring this back into the judicial arena, after 9/11 many around me was calling for the US to just go kill Bin Laden for the attacks. My opinion was and still is that he should be captured and tried like any other person has a roght to. Now, international tribunal, US court, or Afghan court, I dunno...
...and you know, the funny thing is, that everytime I've taken the Political Compass test, I've always scored next to the Dali Lama. Guess that makes me a liberal... though that isn't always seen in my voting patterns - Reagan (both terms), Bush 41 (first), Clinton (I admit it... both times), Bush 43 (both). Hope no offense was taken there.
Blame it on game theory...
Rob
Adapted from the Charlie Daniels Band's tune, Devil Went Down To Georgia.
Blackburn went down to Sarnia
They were lookin' for a soul to steal
They were in a bind
'Cause they were way behind
And they weren't willin' to make a deal
When they came upon this young man
Sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot
And Blackburn jumped
Up on a hickory stump
And said boy let me tell you what
I guess you didn't know it
but we're fiddle players too
And if you care to take a dare we'll make a bet with you
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
But give Blackburn their due
We'll bet a fiddle of gold
Against your soul
'Cause we think we're better than you
The boy said my name's Willy
And it might be a sin
But I'll take your bet
And you're gonna regret
'Cause I'm the best there's ever been
Willy rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
Cause hell's broke loose in Sarnia and Blackburn deals the cards
And if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose Blackburn gets your soul.
Blackburn opened up their case
And they said we'll start this show
And fire flew from their fingertips
As they rosined up their bow
Then they pulled the bow across the strings
And it made a evil hiss
And a band of demons joined in
And it sounded something like this
[Slander & Lies]
When Blackburn finished
Willy said well you're pretty good old one
Just sit right in those chairs right there
And let me show you how it's done
He played Fire on the Mountain
Run boys, run
Blackburn's in the House of the Better One
Chicken in a bread pan picken' out dough
Granny does your dog bite
No child, no
[The Truth]
Blackburn bowed their heads
Because they knew that they'd been beat
And they laid that golden fiddle
On the ground at Willy's feet
Willy said, Blackburn just come on back
If you ever wanna try again
I done told you once you son's of bitches
I'm the best there's ever been
And he played Fire on the Mountain
Run boys, run
Blackburn's in the House of the Better One
Chicken in a bread pan picken' out dough
Granny does your dog bite
No child, no
Let me take a shot in the dark here that all this has to do with Blackburn Radio Inc.
But why? What's wrong with them?
For those completely in the dark here...and that will be most of you, Blackburn Radio Inc. is a media company, formerly owning a big chunk of the London, Ontario media (they had the TV station, the radio and the newspaper). They tend to do that...being small-townish multi-media company. They're not a big player. Blackburn is (or at least was) family owned and run.
They seem to have moved their interests a bit south to the Sarnia area.
And, er...they own radio stations now, which is...upsetting?
Managed resistance, please cut to the chase.
And the political compass...just a tad right, and just a tad authoritarian. Pretty damn centrist, in fact. No one was more surprised than me.
Do you live in London, eeun?
Yeah, you're right about BRI. The correct name of the company is Blackburn Group Inc. Blackburn Radio Inc is a wholly owned subsidiary of Blackburn Group Inc.
They're still family owned and operated, although the matriarch, Martha, is deceased. Ownership of BGI is now divided among the estate of Martha Blackburn and the offspring (White family).
Actually, there's just this one dude that I have a vendetta with... but you take on the dude, you take on the family, right?
im just like, ok..... dont really understand all this but ill keep reading
im more of the geeky type, never paid attention to the news unless it had the apple name in it.....
I'm Brantford/Hamilton area, but work in the print media, so I get a an eye on who owns what. London Free Press was - briefly - a sister paper, after Blackburn sold it.
Oh yeah...and when I was in public school the London TV station always had good lunch-hour cartoons, followed by the agricultural report.;)
What're the Blackburns up to that's got you bugged? I don't know much about them other than what I've already posted.
The agricultural report? Yeah, I remember that. They did it in such typical Blackburn fashion.
Fortunately, Blackburn never brought such entertaining news items as the obituaries to television. Actually, does Blackburn even do TV anymore? I don't believe that they do.
Which is good, cuz I wouldn't be able to sit through a televised broadcast of the obituaries.
Bugged? Exactly!
"If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
it just MIGHT BE a duck!!!"