Two Standards of Justice

Dear Mr. President,

It seems as though I’m on a jihad against Goldman Sachs lately but I’m not. I’m simply using them to point out the double standard of justice in America. This morning, Julian Okeayaninneh, of Colton, California was sentenced to a 27-year prison term for bank fraud. He was the leader of an identity theft ring, 30 people around the country, many of them bank employees, who stole credit card and bank information from 500 people and then used phony credit cards and bank checks to rip off their accounts at a half dozen banks including US Bank and Wells Fargo. Now I’m not saying Mr. Okeayaninneh shouldn’t have been stopped or sentenced, but what about the ringleaders at Goldman Sachs who ripped off billions from thousands of people by selling collateralized packages of toxic mortgages which they knew were toxic? Or people like Mozillo of Countrywide and Killinger of WAMU who pushed loans without any controls or checks in violation of banking regulations, then walked away with millions in severance packages and left the American people holding the bag? If the Department of (In)Justice can prosecute fraudsters like Okeayaninneh, why not Banksters like Feinstein and Mozillo and Killenger and all the rest who brought down the economy and caused so many so much misery? And speaking about injustice, how about the latest revelation that a three star general in the Pentagon ordered Pfc. Bradley Manning’s solitary confinement in violation of the UCMJ as well as the Constitution and basic human rights? Even closer to home, how about your Kill Lists and Targeted Assassinations, Mr. President? War crimes, crimes against humanity, a violation of the Constitution and counter to the fundamental principles of democracy and the rule of law. There’s clearly two standards of justice in America, one for the elites who get away with unbridled criminal activity, and another for the rest of us, the 99% who are subject to the laws of the land—or whatever you decide are the laws of the land. There’s justified mistrust of government in America today and you don’t have to look far to see why. It’s all around us and clearly visible and it’s getting more obvious all the time. The division between the haves and the have- nots is not restricted to wealth; it’s also present in our unequal system of justice as well and that’s a very ominous sign for the future of democracy in America. Even more ominous, you are not part of the solution, Mr. President, but part of the problem.