The U.S legal system is awesome!

[Xanikk999]

Compare these two stories and tell me with a straight face there is no injustice and bias in sentencing versus the poor and white collar criminals.

Story1

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The CEO of what had been one of the nation's largest privately held mortgage lenders was sentenced Tuesday to more than three years in prison for his role in a $3 billion scheme that officials called one of the biggest corporate frauds in U.S. history.

The 40-month sentence for Paul R. Allen, 55, of Oakton, Va., is slightly less than the six-year term sought by federal prosecutors....

Story2

Homeless man gets 15 years for stealing $100
By Chris V. Thangham.
A homeless man robbed a Louisiana bank and took a $100 bill. After feeling remorseful, he surrendered to police the next day. The judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

Sure maybe I don't know all the facts but at face value how is it fair that a homeless man stealing to get food gets 15 years while a white collar criminal who defrauded many people only gets 40 months? It's disgusting..

 

[GenMarshall]

Stealing is still breaking the law no matter how one looks at it.

 

[Xanikk999]

Stealing is still breaking the law no matter how one looks at it.

You have to consider the circumstances. Considering the circumstances between both cases the sentences make absolutely no sense at all.

I guess that's one way to get the homeless off the street. Prosecute them for trying to survive instead of helping them!

 

[Arakhor]

Do you support both judgements then, CivGeneral?

 

[civ_king]

Stealing is still breaking the law no matter how one looks at it.

The point is the person whole stole vastly more is getting a lot less time, and the circumstances

 

[Newbunkle]

A country forfeits its rights to have the law obeyed when it abandons people to poverty and suffering. Maybe when it grows up and changes it's behaviour it can start earning its rights back.

 

[nonconformist]

Sod that, all bankers are thieves.

Every penny subsidy they get is a penny robbed from the truly needy. Scum.

 

[Moss]

Whether logical or not, there is a difference between physically robbing a bank and fraud.

I do believe the 15 year sentence is probably too much, but without the facts of the case, I can't say. Saying he was "remorseful" doesn't say much. What is his past history, etc?

 

[emzie]

Generous American safety net grants homeless man subsidized housing, health care and 3 meals a day.

 

[innonimatu]

Whether logical or not, there is a difference between physically robbing a bank and fraud.

Now I'm curious: how exactly would you describe that difference - in your own words? It's a difference in what, exactly?

 

[pi-r8]

Generous American safety net grants homeless man subsidized housing, health care and 3 meals a day.

Most prisoners have to do work while they're imprisoned though, and get paid basically nothing. They have to spend all their money at the prison store.

 

[Bugfatty300]

Armed robbery is considered worse than fraud because the latter involves directly threatening the lives of others.

Which would be worse? Someone draining your bank account or someone putting a gun to your head?

 

[Moss]

Now I'm curious: how exactly would you describe that difference - in your own words? It's a difference in what, exactly?

If someone steals 10 dollars from my bank account. I'm annoyed.

If someone holds me up and steals 10 dollars from my wallet, the money is the same, but there there's the physical aspect of someone being right there. For psychological reasons, the stealing of 10 dollars from my wallet would be a bigger deal even though the money amount is the same.

The analogy isn't perfect, I understand, but a robber physically going in and robbing a bank is different than the fraud. That's not saying that the penalties shouldn't be the same, but it is saying that they are different and society seems to find one more criminal than the other.

Edit: or as Bugfatty300 much more succinctly said.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

The CEO should have gotten life without parole. And not in a country club. He deserves PMITA prison.

 

[innonimatu]

If someone steals 10 dollars from my bank account. I'm annoyed.

If someone holds me up and steals 10 dollars from my wallet, the money is the same, but there there's the physical aspect of someone being right there. For psychological reasons, the stealing of 10 dollars from my wallet would be a bigger deal even though the money amount is the same.

The analogy isn't perfect, I understand, but a robber physically going in and robbing a bank is different than the fraud. That's not saying that the penalties shouldn't be the same, but it is saying that they are different and society seems to find one more criminal than the other.

I see what you mean. But on overall damage to society, violence-wise, a large fraud pretty much always will be worse than an armed robbery. Just because the consequences of the fraud can't immediately be perceived (unlike the gun used on an armed robbery, for example), it doesn't mean that people's lives are not being ruined, that increased violence - probably much more violence than that involved in a small-scale armed robbery - isn't happening as a consequence. It would be ironic if the bank thieve were someone ruined by a fraud, wouldn't it? But it's not the case here.

It's funny, some times the negative consequences of fraud and/or excessive greed was stressed in the media and in public discourse: I'm thinking of Dickens and his Christmas Carol, or Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life", etc. At other times frauds are uncovered daily but there isn't any outcry. We're on one of the later stages now. Perhaps it's a sign that these frauds simply are not very important, That things are still "so good" that people barely notice. Concern about fraud, the moral indignation, happens on really bad times and afterward. I guess we're still not at great-Depression levels of trouble. Invisible theft is still only perceived as "virtual".

 

[Dreadnought]

The homeless man should have gotten the death penalty.

 

[JollyRoger]

Armed robbery is considered worse than fraud because the latter involves directly threatening the lives of others.

Which would be worse? Someone draining your bank account or someone putting a gun to your head?

Someone putting a gun to my head is only draining my wallet which has no cash.

Plus, why the hate for someone using a gun in their small business?

 

[amadeus]

Was this Brown's first offense?

 

[JohnRM]

You have to consider, first, that the two cases take place in two different states (Virginia and Louisiana, respectively) and, second, that one was a violent crime while the other was simply fraud. However, that being said, I sympathize with what you're trying to say. In the end, the bottom line is that we can tolerate crimes of greed far more than we tolerate crimes of desperation.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Armed robbery is considered worse than fraud because the latter involves directly threatening the lives of others.

Which would be worse? Someone draining your bank account or someone putting a gun to your head?

Wasn't an armed robbery. Didn't hold a gun to someone's head.