Reverb Press 📈
  • Home
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Investment
  • Real Estate
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Investment
  • Real Estate
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Reverb Press 📈
No Result
View All Result
Home Uncategorized

In A Shocking Twist, Wealth Can Buy You Justice

Reverb Press by Reverb Press
February 5, 2015
0
In A Shocking Twist, Wealth Can Buy You Justice
0
SHARES
20
VIEWS

This just in, from the Department of Why Do We Care: yet another scion of wealth and privilege has been caught behaving rather badly. Seems that Hilton sibling Conrad Hughes Hilton III had a bit of a dust up on a British Airlines flight back in July, during which he called passengers “f*cking peasants,” and made children cry. On Tuesday, he turned himself in to the FBI on charges of interfering with a flight crew, and theoretically faces up to 20 years in prison. Yes, I know the gut response is: who the hell cares if a child of wealth behaves badly? Why is this news? Why does this matter?

Fair point, but consider the following thought experiment. Imagine that, last July, I had been on a plane and behaved in a manner similar to Hilton. You certainly wouldn’t have seen anything about me in the news, beyond a cursory notice of a “disruptive passenger” having been arrested on a flight. I would have been assigned a public defender with an impossible caseload. By today, you wouldn’t be reading this article, because, more than likely, I’d be sitting in prison, working at a call center for 50 cents an hour — a rather different outcome, and a reason why this case is worthy of note, though it appears to be nothing more than a spoiled child of wealth acting the part of an ’80s movie villain.

You might also like

Republican Caught Using a Fake Endorsement from a Democratic Governor in Time for the Midterms

Ex-CIA, FBI Agent: ‘I Wouldn’t Stoop to Wipe My A**’ With GOP’s House Intel Report

Parkland Shooting Student Protesters Turned Away From Senate Offices

To be fair, Hilton’s case has yet to go to trial, and I certainly wouldn’t want to prejudge the outcome. It is entirely possible that, despite the presumably vast amounts of wealth that Hilton and his family will throw at the case, that justice will be served and Hilton will receive the appropriate punishment for being an insufferable cretin. I’m not going to bet on it though. It’s easy enough to find example after example after example of cases in which wealth led to a vastly different outcome in the criminal justice system. It isn’t exactly a complicated equation. More wealth equals better lawyers, equals a better chance of a favorable outcome. While personal wealth is not the sole factor in a favorable outcome in court, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

And this phenomenon isn’t limited to simply being able to throw money at the court until things turn out your way. The very fabric of the criminal justice system is woven to bring its force down upon the poor, rather than the wealthy. Way back in 1979, this glaring disparity had been noticed.

The current criminal justice system is shaped by economic bias–crimes unique to the wealthy are either ignored or treated lightly, while the so-called common crimes of the poor lead to arrest, charges, conviction, and imprisonment. The three propositions that support this statement are that (1) society fails to protect people from crimes they fear (homicide, burglary, assault) by refusing to alleviate the poverty that breeds them; (2) the criminal justice system fails to protect people from the most serious dangers by failing to define as crimes the dangerous acts of those who are well off (white collar crime, pollution, occupational hazards) and to prosecute accordingly; and (3) by virtue of these and other failures, the criminal justice system succeeds in creating the image that crime is almost exclusively the work of the poor, an image that serves the interests of the powerful.

But beyond the big and obvious things, such as sentencing disparities, the wealth gap within the justice system can be felt in other, less obvious ways. Consider the process of appearing in court. Easy enough, right? Unless your financial situation has left you without reliable transportation. Miss the bus and, consequently, miss your court appearance? Oh well. Go directly to jail. How about if you are, due to lack of income, surfing from couch to couch without a mailing address at which to receive a summons? You didn’t know you had a hearing scheduled? Oh well. Go directly to jail. In every way, lack of wealth makes navigation of the criminal justice system more difficult and more fraught with opportunities for disaster.

In theory, justice should be blind. In reality, not so much. Every element of the justice system, formal and informal, favors the position of wealth, in ways both obvious and subtle. And so, in America, justice has become a two-tiered system. If you’re lucky and have the requisite amount of wealth, you’ll probably do just fine. Perhaps you’ll be mildly inconvenienced. Perhaps a touch of community service. Maybe even a fine. Without wealth? Good luck. Prepare to have a significant part of your life destroyed.  And this is why those such as Hilton feel perfectly comfortable in displaying the naked contempt that some of wealthy feel towards the lesser “peasants” that surround them. Those of his ilk are insulated from and immune to any real consequences for all but the most egregious of crimes. Perhaps it is time to say enough. Perhaps it is time for us peasants to resurrect an old tradition, and revolt.

Previous Post

Now We Know ISIL Are Evil Morons, Not Brilliant Masterminds

Next Post

Nugent and Palin: Fifty Shades of EWWWW!!!

Reverb Press

Reverb Press

Related Posts

Republican Caught Using a Fake Endorsement from a Democratic Governor in Time for the Midterms

Republican Caught Using a Fake Endorsement from a Democratic Governor in Time for the Midterms

by Reverb Press
October 10, 2018
0

Colorado Republican Caught Faking Endorsement From Democratic Governor In a sign of desperation, and perhaps an indication of how defensive...

Ex-CIA, FBI Agent ‘I Wouldn’t Stoop to Wipe My A’ With GOP’s House Intel Report

Ex-CIA, FBI Agent: ‘I Wouldn’t Stoop to Wipe My A**’ With GOP’s House Intel Report

by Reverb Press
March 12, 2018
0

As the GOP led House Intelligence Committee ended it’s investigation abruptly Monday, in a shocking partisan action, without so much...

Parkland Shooting Student Protesters Turned Away From Senate Offices

Parkland Shooting Student Protesters Turned Away From Senate Offices

by Reverb Press
February 21, 2018
0

A group of students, some of whom survived the mass murder at Parkland High School last week, arrived at the Florida capital in...

2nd Alleged Wife Beater Resigns from Trump White House

2nd Alleged Wife Beater Resigns from Trump White House

by Reverb Press
February 9, 2018
0

David Sorenson, a White House speechwriter who had worked closely with controversial White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, has...

Next Post
Nugent and Palin Fifty Shades of EWWWW!!!

Nugent and Palin: Fifty Shades of EWWWW!!!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Reverb Press Logo Light Backgrounds

© COPYRIGHT 2021 REVERBPRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Investment
  • Real Estate
  • Contact Us

© COPYRIGHT 2021 REVERBPRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.