US "Justice"

[MattShizzle]

2 different articles. No explanation needed.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8lcOXmKoag8/TgTgdQG-GqI/AAAAAAAAKI4/O0OhI6wFX3o/s1600/tumblr_ln9aa10UAg1qzqlvr.png

[MarxSchmarx]

So there are two real problems with these kinds of arguments.

First,most people wouldn't conclude from this that Mr. Brown should get a lighter sentence. It is that sentences on Mr. Allen and his ilks should be harsher. As if justice would be done if Mr. Allen got life imprisonment. I think more troubling than the fact that Mr. Allen got a less severe sentence is that Mr. Brown got 15 fucking years for stealing 2 day's minimum wage labor. That's not egregious because people get less time for worse offenses. Just making the worse offenses involve even more jail time won't make 15 years for stealing $100 appropriate - rather, it's egregious because it offends our moral intuition that the punishment has to fit the crime. We need to articulate the moral problem more clearly - it isn't relative punishment, it's that in and of itself stealing 100 dollars does not under any sense of justice warrant 15 years in jail. In short, Mr. Allen's sentence should be irrelevant to the injustice of Mr. Brown's sentence.

But by comparing them, you are implicitly saying that because Mr. Allen "got off easy", so should Mr. Brown. To which the capitalist response is that Mr. Allen should not get off easy, not that Mr. Brown should get off easy. Until we make the latter case, the capitalist's retort is perfectly valid and we are walking into their trap by making this comparison.

lest anyone think this is academic hairsplitting when the whole crack-heroine disparity came up, not a few people argued that punishments for heroin should be made as severe or more severe than crack, rather than that crack punishments should be relaxed.

Second, I find particularly tragic about this the essentially democratic complacency the American people have given to this bullshit.

People who vote, vote overwhelmingly for these kinds of reactionary laws. Even people who don't vote, I understand where they are coming from, but I don't know how many non-voters would be sufficiently angered by this to try to do something to rectify the situation. Indeed, I suspect that it is fair to say that a majority or at least a plurality of people in Louisiana aren't troubled by Mr. Brown's sentence.

To me, the popular indifference that lets stuff like this happen speaks much more loudly, and is considerably more troubling, than the patent disparity between the two outcomes.

[MattShizzle]

Not to mention the fact this was the only way he could afford detox. Or a place to live. Once again, Capitalism itself is the problem.

[Catmatic Leftist]

Wow, that's a load of crap. At least he was trying to get back on his feet by going to the detox center and was trying to take control of his life which he really didn't have any control over. 15 years is a egregious abuse of the justice system, and I bet this charge was also racist too, considering he is black.

The corporate fraud coldly swindled money away from everyone and he gets off with a slap on the wrist.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Heres the source or A source (http://civilliberty.about.com/b/2011/06/23/two-sentences.htm)

[Blackburn]

The system seems very broken.
The Guy did perform an armed robbery. (Whether he had a gun or not). I think the 'violence' of that group of crimes is the reason for the sentence, not simply theft.

But that being said, with the largest prison population per capita in the world, it's clear the American Justice system is quite corrupt.

[Revy]

http://i.imgur.com/GCNy7.jpg


So an executive got 4 years for stealing $500 million dollars. But this poor homeless hungry guy gets 15 years for stealing $100.