Hi there, sorry I didn’t post last week but I had been out the night before so I “earned” a rare Sunday morning lie-in!
My mother has put me on to a podcast called “The Best Of The Left” which, although it clearly accepts the “left v right” premise, is still a good listen. There is generally a new show every 3 days and each one features clips taken from various sources highlighting stories and issues which more than likely will have fallen through the cracks of the mainstream media, intentionally or otherwise.
One such story came from good ol’ Texas where a case was heard in court of a 16-year-old boy who was driving a pickup truck while drunk and killed as many as FOUR people as well as seriously injuring two who were with him in the vehicle.
To cut a long story short, he did no jail time. Why? Because his lawyer convinced the court that he “suffered” from a “condition” known as “affluenza” which apparently means “enormous wealth blinded the youth from the responsibilities resulting from his actions”.
So in other words, he got off with a 1-year probation because his family was rich. But for me, that’s not what stinks about this story. What stinks about this story is the fact that this was actually the “best” outcome for the families of the victims.
Were he to be convicted and do prison time, sure, the families would have had their sense of justice BUT they would have been denied the opportunity to take him to “civil court” where a financial settlement could be reached. This way, according to Reuters, they “may be entitled to monetary damages of up to $20 million each”.
All of which means in layman’s terms, if you have enough money, you can LITERALLY get away with murder.
One of the commentators on the podcast quipped :
“If this youngster and his family are overly burdened by their wealth, I’m sure the wider society would be more than happy to relieve them of some of it.” (paraphrase)
I certainly couldn’t blame the families for accepting this deal. I could blame the system which allows for such a deal to be put before them in the first place. Whoever said “the law is an ass” was spot on. JLP
First Person Plural 