House Arrest: Are You Kidding?

So let me get this straight: two alleged white (collar) criminals, charged with everything from money laundering to crimes against the United States, are allowed to surrender to the authorities, are arraigned the same day they’re arrested, then given bail and placed under house arrest.

Oh yeah, I forgot, these two were also required to surrender their passports: all four of them – which should have been reason enough to deny bail since multiple phony passports is the very definition of flight risk.

In the words of Jesse Pinkman from “Breaking Bad” I may not be a criminal lawyer, but even I know that crimes against the United States is another way of saying treason. And for this alleged offense, for this greatest crime on the books, these two white (collar) criminal defendants get to languish in their multimillion dollar abodes while the sluggish American legal system runs its glacial course.

Now let’s imagine for a moment (and for those of you who've had a passing acquaintance with the U.S. injustice system you won’t need to imagine, just remember) that the alleged crime was, say, peddling weed, or boosting electronics from a Best Buy, or hey, stealing bread to feed your homeless family as they languish in your rusted out 1984 Chevy up on blocks in an abandoned lot.

Your ass would be snatched up by the Gestapo … I mean the police, arraigned after spending a day or two in a filthy, overcrowded jail, and given bail in an amount that your broke ass could never pay. So there you’d sit, in that filthy, overcrowded, dangerous jail filled with people every bit as poor and desperate as you are, until you plead out, get credit for time served, get moved to a penitentiary if you plead to a felony, and do a few years hard time for peddling weed, or boosting electronics or stealing bread.

Anybody who doesn’t think there are two systems of injustice in these Dis-united States must be rich, because they’re the only ones treated as humans, presumed innocent until proven guilty, granted bail in an amount they’re able to pay, and given house arrest instead of jail time while waiting for the wheels of justice to roll in their favor.

And people wonder why folks are pissed off? The next time that anger bubbles up into action and folks take to the streets … I bet they won’t get house arrest.