Tell that to educated middle class people of color being harassed every day in traffic stops, border crossings and courtrooms every day. Class only trumps race when it is the 1percent of the 1percent. Normal people with a taillight out or Budweiser on their breath, or a suitcase that they do not want unceremoniously unpacked; had best look of European decent in this country. I am proud to live in a society that has made such great strides toward an egalitarian society, but my friend we have a very long way to go. If anybody thinks we are post race, I advise you try self tanner and Tehrani accent at the airport.
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The outrage is real, but is perhaps somewhat misdirected if only focused on the judge. The DA recommended probation, and likely did so because of this cretinâs family background and power. The judge is culpable so far as she went along with the recommendation. Nothing in that piece you referenced contradicts the general point of the OP.
I do love this quote though:
âThe imposition of sentence in criminal matters is vitally important not just to the individual defendant but to the community. It is one of the hardest things a judge does. That is why such time and effort is invested in the process. Highly qualified professionals are involved at every stage of the process. That is why attempts to analyze a sentence long after the fact without access to the entire process is both dangerous and unfair.â
Somehow, judges just like this one impose far greater punishments for non-violent offenders every day. And yet this piece of human trash who sexually molested his own 3 year old daughter gets probation. Its possible another white defendant couldâve received the same sentence. Possible but not probable. For a black defendant forget it.
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The US definitely isnât post-race, but perhaps for the first time in the history of the nation, class power and privilege is a bigger deterrent of how we are treated by the state than race.
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And to get into heaven as well!
I didnât read it like that at all.
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Can an appellate court review the sentence? It seems unduly lenient. In Britain there have been cases of sentences being extended on review, when the judge at the initial trial for whatever reason was too lenient. I think the 3 year old needs to be protected and her rights demand that his sentence is reviewed.
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Did you even read the linked article? I read it and it doesnât change my view that if this guy wasnât the heir to an enormous fortune there might have been a significantly different outcome.
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disproportionately dispensed to the wealthiest members of society
Ha! Cory misspelled âexclusivelyâ.
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The promises of rehabilitation should be weighed against the evidence that the guy is a repeat offender, having admitted also abusing his son.
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This isnât the first time this âillustriousâ family has been involved in a creepy crime. Canât we just sterilize them and be done with it?
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I guess it could have been pragmatic - if there was any physical evidence of sexual assault on someone under 12 years old, youâd hope the law would apply and the sentencing guidelines then are life without parole. The plea bargain they offered might have reflected the difficulty of getting reliable testimony from a 3 year old, absent any physical evidence. Three year olds can only just about talk, and itâs not certain they would get a conviction beyond reasonable doubt unless the alleged perpetrator also confessed. He could have gone with the âWoody Allenâ defence and claim that the child was fed the allegations by a bitter wife looking for a divorce and access to money - how would you know with certainty what had happened, absent a confession or physical evidence?
Holy Fucking Shit. I canât come up with enough obscenity to convey my feelings about this. Really? REALLY?
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Got anything to contribute? Besides know-it-all snark?
Lexicat, great cite! http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/2/343.full
Spatley & Mike; With the anti-muslim thing I wonder if the appearance of race is then a placeholder for a person perceived as enemy of my tribe in wartime, leading to things like Seiks getting attacked. I canât peer into the minds of those who we might call racist covert or overt, and there is a massive correlation with race and discrimination both official and personal. I just wonder what the mechanism is that goes from seeing a shade of skin or other externalities and translates to a cop, school, employer, or bank officer violating civil rights or handing out privileges. My thought is that people canât joke about murdering any minority any more but somehow killing the homeless is still a joke on televised comedy. It is still racism but perhaps of a different kind than the official old south or middle east pandering to distract a repressed class where a cop sees a well dressed minority in a sports car and assumes they are either a GTA or jumped above their station in life. Maybe it is that whatever leads to caste privilege, the problem is in official bodies the upper class is always over represented with their prejudices, and doms looking for subs are over represented in law enforcement and protected by the remainder of the force who do not work to eliminate them.
As always definitions, what do haters actually hate? Racism is often too convenient a definition, can we even easily group haters without defining their motivation? I donât have an answer, just more questions.
creepy as in like the Kennedy and Rockefeller families and the devious secrets they hide. âCanât we just sterilize them and be done with it?â as wellâŚ?
Good thing you put that trigger warning on a headline about a baby rapist staying out of prison, or I might have clicked through expecting cute kitten photos, only to be unexpectedly traumatized by a story expanding on the introductory graf.
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Well what I think doesnât really make the world go around. Sometimes instead of stating opinions I like to ask questions. Clearly this was the wrong forum for that.
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Iâd note that the deal was for a single charge of fourth-degree rape with a no prison sentence recommendation. This for a guy who trigger warning repeatedly âentered [his daughterâs] bedroom at night while she slept and penetrated her with his fingers while masturbatingâ. Iâd hazard that the family background that was key to how Mr. Richards got the deal is a combination of being related to really, really good attorneys (his father was a partner in the prestigious firm Richards Layton & Finger) and having the money to afford a really, really good attorney.
How are they related, do you know? I thought the same thing when I saw the headline.
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Beyond the normal - and appropriate - outrage over yet another tale of rich white folk experiencing a different form of âjusticeâ than poor, nonwhite folk several things keep surfacing in my head.
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Right or wrong to use as a defense, it is true that prison would be horrific for this guy. This points out that a fundamentally dysfunctional corrections system does not really support the purported ends of law enforcement. We simply do not have appropriate forms of justice for the types of crimes that actually happen. While this example seems absurd, it shows that proper prosecutions are sometimes as hobbled by the system as defenses. There is a point at which the technical notion of âoverprosecutionâ becomes an ambiguous line that can essentially blow a just prosecution.
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Perhaps we ought to think more distinctly about who we send to prisonâŚand why. Eg. By applying different types of âcorrectionâ for non-violent, low level offenses we might have the wherewithall to develop more effective and refined forms of incarceration for the situations needing ⌠or truly deserving it. The present horrifying miasma serves only to bolster an unfettered prison âindustryâ and cater to the interests of the correction worker unions.
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Money talks and waltzes throughoutâŚwith justice consigned to faux outrage, corrupt plea bargains that go both waysâŚor sheer inanity.
Itâs easy to get up on a high dudgeon over this ludicrous case ⌠but we might as well get used to such travesties unless we are willing to fix the penal system and refine the laws.
Or not. I dunno. Just saying.
I need coffeeâŚ
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