The Verdict Is In

Bernie Madoff stole early retirements. He stole college educations. He stole confidence.

He stole money, lots of it. As a result, the 71 year old king of the Ponzi schemes was sentenced to 150 years in prison today. He’ll spend the rest of his life in prison. If pressed for an opinion, I would agree that is where the guy belongs. He was brazen and stupidly greedy. He derseves it.

According the article on CNN.com, the judge indicated the sentence was just, citing the need for deterrence. That, gentle readers, is important. Those of you shaking your heads in agreement at the moment, thinking “yes indeed, we can’t have any more nonsense like that” are right, of course. However, that’s not what I mean by important.

I’ve blogged on this before. You commit a financial crime in this country, be prepared to be dealt with harshly. Rob a bank with a gun, see you in 20-30. Defraud the government out of taxes, get ready for the full force of a Federal fiscal colonoscopy without benefit of anesthesia.

Flip side: harm a child, sexually assault a woman, murder someone, and there’s judiciary procedural issues that demand review, prison over crowding to consider, possibility of mental illness that should be treated, mitigating socioeconomic factors to weigh, and so on. According to my untrained eye, there exists a disparity in regards to the severity of punishment and the way crimes are viewed in our society.

Did Madoff get assistance from the ACLU for his defense? Was the good Reverend Jackson making the morning talk show rounds decrying Bernie’s poor parenting and a broken system that makes it impossible for a man of his “persuasion” to succeed in life playing by the rules? Where was the doctor for hire indicating that Mr. Madoff’s case exemplifies a man incapable of determining right from wrong, a clear sign of mental illness, making it incumbent on society to forgive him and fix him immediately?

Where’s the outrage when a skank in Florida doesn’t report the disappearance of her child for days and then refuses to help investigators find the body? Where’s the passionate cry for revenge when a father in Corpus Christi sticks his infant daughter in the microwave and burns her? Where’s the concerned jurist citing a need for deterrence when a 22 year old night school student is shot dead while he works the cash register at the local Texaco in Detroit by a two time petty criminal already out on parole? Where is it?

You folks can kill, rape, and thin the heard as much as you like, but what ever you do, do not even think about taking a buck the till. We have to have order and confidence in the financial engines of the country. Otherwise, we threaten to interrupt the machine’s ability to earn and govern and maintain the peace just enough.... so they can earn and govern.

Until we care enough to stop letting this happen, until we crowd the courts and the offices of our elected officials demanding that this craziness stop, I’ll be able to tell my son that he can safely deposit his dollar in the bank and not worry about it being there tomorrow. However, I’ll also have to tell him he can’t walk down the street by himself, nor ever go at night, to make the withdrawal.

Doesn’t seem right.