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chipos ahoy
Nutter Butteros is great too!
F*** the american legal system. In Holland this would never happen. American Judicial System, learn some justice prior to practicing it.
Yeah, f**k the American legal system that provides more protection for defendants than any other in the world.
If you have a beef with sentencing guidelines, go to your legislature. But whining about sentencing for robberies — as if it somehow indicts the entire system — is absurd.
Not to mention, there’s a difference between scamming someone out of money, and holding them up in an armed robbery. One is a violent crime, the other is fraud. Hence, one gets a higher sentence, regardless of the amount stolen.
Now please, back under your rock.
But which one is having a large net effect on society?
Well the homeless guy gets free room and board for 15 years, plus paid medical and substance abuse treatment. If he sobers up and behaves, he’ll be out on probation in 6 months.
The executive, however, really ought to be looking at 25 to 30 years minimum, not the slap on the wrist they gave him. But just like everywhere else in the world, money will get you preferential treatment in life.
Really? 6 months? There is a mandatory amount of time that you need to stay in jail before you can get probation. The mandatory time changes with the sentence. So I highly doubt someone that got 15 yrs is gonna be out in 6 months.
My mistake, I forgot that since he claimed to have a weapon this is considered a “violent” crime. So he’ll have to serve 1/3rd (5 years) before being eligible for early release.
It still doesn’t excuse the slap on the wrist for the executive who bilked the public for billions of dollars.
It wasn’t armed, the clipping just says he had his hand under his shirt.
I agree 100%.
More than anything he should have all his assets seized up to the value of $3billion. If there is a short fall they should seize 50% of all future earnings until all losses are repaid.
But as it is he is probably going to keep his million-$ mansion which he paid for with stolen loot.
the history is repeating.
to be fair, that CEO probably cost a lot of people their jobs and some of them probably had to turn to robbery like the black guy who got 15 years for turning them self in.
And the homeless guy felt remorse, needed money, AND turned himself in. The CEO? Nope, just greed. I’m american and I agree that the legal system is f*cked up.
If you’re American and regard firing people as a crime, I’m ashamed that our unionized school system has failed you that badly.
Please move to France now. We cannot help you anymore.
The crime isn’t firing people. The crime is stealing $3 billion dollars which results in people having to be fired because their wages couldn’t be paid.
Nonetheless, he was focusing on the firing, and that’s what I was addressing.
White collar crime too often gets easy sentence. I think that the fact many people probably lost their jobs because of this douche. I think he should have either A) a year in jail PER person who lost their job because of this, OR, pay their expenses till they find new jobs. THAT is justice if you ask me.
Would you rather me come and take your $100 or take away your livelyhood, pension, and job. Make you loose your house, car, and possibly your family. Yeah, that $100 bucks that might prevent a LARGE BANK from replacing some pads of paper or a polish on the CEOs BMW sure is deserving of a stiffer sentence. You are a moron.
lmao you rescued us??? you only got off your fat american asses cause of pearl harbour. and look at the current war, we were there straight away and our men are still losing lives for you ungrateful yanks.
stacey, as a (proudly non-obese) American, I’d like to apologize for Mr. HonkyTonk up there. Not all of us are this hilariously ignorant (“commies”? Really, HonkyTonk? In the portion of your ass that your head appears to be stuck in, is it permanently the 1950′s?).
Oh, and Honky, in what way was this “violent”? Was anybody harmed? He didn’t even have a weapon, for crying out loud.
Talk about flawed logic… who do you think will pay for the $3B the CEO stole? You and the rest of the American people will. My “sub-par european education” hints me that will be way more than $100 the homeless stole.
Who is ‘we’? You and your fellow octogenarian fellow soldiers? You have excellent grammar skills and a lucid and vibrant manner of self expression for your age, sir or madam.
wow your an idiot…that man who robbed the bank is actually a good man (the irony), but truly, he refused the extra money he could have had and just took 100$, then he turned himself in, its actually an almost vctimless crime except for the man himself…it is also possible he wanted to go to prison… there are trade offs such as no freedom and being locked up with violent criminals, but you get the best health care in the country along with food, drink and shelter…
but the CEO is pure evil…stole three billion dollars and only feels remorse because he was caught…
(sorry for the long post) and did u seriously just insult a whole continent??? and also do u really know what communism is??? for a start, original communism was a good idea by keeping people economically equal wahile not at all or barely sacrificing liberties, soviet russia twisted that idea into something that was feared even outside tehh cold war…(sorry for hte spin off people)
the only true thing you said was that whitecollar criminals get less of sentences becuase htey are friends with politicians
WTF should determine the punishment you get for a crime if not net effect on society? I shudder at the thought of America becoming like Europe, but what the hell does believing in an eye for an eye have to do with Communism?
Look at the comment after yours. “One year per job lost”.
But I guess that person’s just covering up for me.
Keep in mind that there is a person behind the counter during an armed bank robbery. That person might be scarred for life, doesn’t matter if there are a million or 1 dollar that got stolen… If someone take (scam) your money with out you noticing at first, you most likely will feel violated, but not in the same way.
I think it should be determined by the victim. If he apologised to the cashier and they accepted then no further action should be taken. It could be dealt with a lot better than a 15 yr sentence.
And what if thousands people get robbed, fired, homeless, probably for life ? Is it better than one person being paranoid ?
Uh, yeah, how scarred can you get from one robbery? If you lose 100,000 dollars to fraud you are scarred for life. Now multiply that 3,000 times over.
Keep in mind that the person who thought they were being robbed with a gun… probably found out later that she, in fact had no weapon… which would probably also ease the feelings of fear and paranoia that she once felt.
Also I’m sure that when he only left with a hundred dollars out of a stack of hundreds, that any person with a good sense of logic, would realize that the dude was not a dangerous person, and thus release any feeling or fear they felt at the initial shock of being robbed.
in germany he could kill a person and only get 7 years max
well if I ever need to kill anyone I’ll try to get them to go to Germany
It was an inaccurate claim, though. 15 years is possible, also if you continue to be a threat to society you can be locked away for the rest of your life. Try Somalia, if you get along with the local Big Man you might murder without any difficulties.
I can’t understand that 15 year role at all. It’s a giant sign for everybody not to give money back or to be honest after having done a desperate stupidity.
heck if your going that far try afghanistan, or murder a woman in iran (not to be sexist or say i would)
or colombia or any other corrupt country (most countries in South america and africa) as long as you have money for the judge
Over 2000 lost their jobs.
The US legal system is absolutely riddled with these sorts of double-standards, however. No system is perfect, but the Netherlands, most of Europe, Australia, Canada, etc. are a lot closer to perfection than the US, and the race disproportion issue is particularly strong in the US as well. So instead of getting all defensive about it, I suggest you do some whining too—it’s not going to get fixed if not enough people complain.
And BTW, holding a hand under a jacket is hardly a violent crime.
Statistics, please. If you are going to make statements like this you need to back them up with documented facts.
Without documented facts your statements are worthless.
Violent crimes are given harsher sentences than non-violent crimes. There is no double-standard here legally, even though the bank scum and political scum are far bigger villains than this man is.
Do you really want someone to post a freaking thesis in the comment section of failblog? You (and others) commented about “violent” crimes.
The article above gives no evidence at all that the bank robbery was violent. It says he had his hand under his jacket. It never says he was actually armed or did any violent behavior. A 15 year sentence, based on what we actually know, is absurd.
Getting real statistics on this would take lots of time and work but the truth is any american who pays any attention knows of multiple examples like this. When I lived in Charlotte, NC, for example, a middle-aged white woman was sentenced to less than 1 year in jail for a hit and run while driving drunk when she ran over and killed a black, homeless man. There’s no rationale where that is just.
Isn’t it armed robbery if he pretended that his arm was a weapon?
Seriously though, armed robbery doesn’t require the use of a real gun. Pretending to have on and threatening to use it is enough.
Keep in mind folks… Robbing banks that are insured by the FDIC is considered a federal crime, which means longer prison terms.
That’s stupid in itself.
If you’re taking federal money(because guess who replaces the money), the feds prosecute you. I’m not sure where the stupid is except in your comment.
The stupid is that he took a meaningless amount from a bank that proabably wouldnt even notice normally. Meanwhile, some rich bigwig gets a “you shouldnt do that” and a time out when his actions likely had a FAR larger negative effect on society. Also willing to bet the CEO is a white guy.
Pure property crimes are prosecuted for less time than for violent crime.
“Society” is harmed far worse when violence goes unpunished.
For this particular crime, the threat of violence is considered equivalent to the act. You want to blame someone for that, blame your fellow gun-hating liberals.
To Ryan Waxx, you’re one stupid effing twat. 1) stealing any money is “stealing federal property” and since the corporate dude stole 3 billion of it you’re statement is pretty damn stupid…well actually, every post you’ve made is damn stupid, and 2) money is not government property. The federal reserve is the title or a private bank that prints American money for the American government to borrow. Taxes to the IRS are taxes to that private bank, not the government which makes your post even MORE stupid. Do us a favor and shut the hell up since you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.
@ Dave: The CEO got such a puny sentence because he was only a small part of the heist. Lee Farkas, part of the same crime, was given 30 years.
source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-30/ex-taylor-bean-chairman-farkas-sentenced-to-30-years-in-prison.html
@dave, true and also keep in mind that the man might not actually go to prison, he man just be locked in his mansion for a couple months and even if he does he will likely have no manual labor and definitely no violent mafiosos or gangsters or mobsters running the prison yards who can kill him if they want like the homeless man will
Keep in mind that this is also bureaucracy. If black and white says, “Armed (or pretended armed) bank robbery (regardless of the amount of money taken) = x years in prison”. Then damn it he’ll get that sentence even if it was 20 bucks that he stole.
Forget compassion, and the ability to see in differences. Think about it, the dude could have walked in with an assault rifle, completely visible, which would probably be even more psychologically scarring to EVERYONE in the bank, walk out with thousands of dollars… not feel guilty and be picked up by the police later and still get 15 years in prison.
Do you see the differences? Do you see how 15 years could possibly be excessive based on the circumstances?
HA. Dont add Australia in there with all of that. The legal system here is terrible. I wish the Australian legal system was more like the American legal system, at least then child rapists and pedo’s wouldnt get off in 10 years just to do it again
Actually that kinda sounds like the American legal system too… damn.
1) It’s not a double-standard. The guy who stole $100 did so in an armed robbery… that is why he got 15 years.
2) The race disproportion issue isn’t because of the US justice system it’s because the US has more minorities who are statistically more likely to COMMIT crime. Europe, Australia, and Canada have no where near the same amount of racial minorities. Oh, and they don’t have the massive amount of illegal immigration. We have 20 million people in the US who by their very presence in the US are committing a crime, not to mention all the addition ones they commit.
lol then ur the minority xD
You are so full of sh*t
Again, kent, where in the article did it ever say he was armed? It says he had his hand under his coat. That is all it said.
It doesn’t matter if he had a real gun, a fake gun. or just used his fingers as a fake gun. It is still considered armed or aggravated robbery.
If you’re gonna troll people, then go ahead, but don’t act like you know your stuff when you’re pulling it right out of your butt hole.
That’s usually what trolling entails. Making stuff up. Just sayin’.
Note what we see only says he had his hand under his jacket. Doesnt say he faked having a gun either. You are ALSO making an assumption.
Doesn’t matter if he had an apple in there. If he leads them to believe he has a weapon, it’s armed robbery.
Here in Slovakia (and other central ,south and east Europe countries) we have one “minority” which about 90% of them is unemployed band of criminals. They are gypsies (now we must call them “roma” because gypsy is racist word – really dont know why. they were allways called gypsies in history). Problem is they dont want to work, and they live only from social founds ( for unemployed) so normal working people pay their living (taxes etc.) They dont pay for water, electricity – (they are putting some metal wires illegaly on power lines etc to steal it.)… they live in shacks near forests (they use wood on cooking, heating)… they take wood from national natural reservation its no problem for them . when state gives them free living (in flats or small houses) they will destroy it in 2 months (they take everything that have some value like metal power cables, windows, furniture and sell it or simply destroy it). then they say that they cant live in so destroyed building and they start to use “racism” word. They have like millions of kids and no even one have school. (if some gypsy kids are in class with normal kids, gypsies are most of the time doing problems, gypsy parents want to attack teachers when teachers want to do something with it ). MOST of gypsies are parasites and criminals. when white man steal something they will put him in jail but gypsy can steal for 10 times and always with only light punishment for it.
Here in the states, we call our gypsies ‘mexicans’.
Oh my, your intelligent comment was so perfect, it really does describe the real situation here in Eastern Europe. You are totally not a crazy white supremacist nazi, and you are absolutely correct – gypsies are a major problem here and must be dealt with.
The lobbyists are just trying to blame it all on “corrupt” politicians and such nonsense. It’s absolutely clear that it’s all a well-organized gypsy conspiracy. True fact: Gypsies caused the current economic crisis.
And they are doing at all with the support of the Jews. My oh my, Eastern Europe would’ve done much better if it wasn’t for those meddling “allies”.
You’re right!
Saying members of a certain group tend to commit crimes more than normal… especially if it’s true… totally makes you a white supremacist nazi. I had no idea they had so many members.
In the future, I will try to keep the internet’s opinions more in line with the party’s platform, comrade.
Wow. You are an authority on every subject aren’t you? You know all the statistics for the US and Europe and everywhere else. You should go on jeopardy so you can show off how smart you are there too.
You’re the only one on here with a political agenda and twisting every comment to tie in that absurd world view discredits you and you politics. Not that I care I don’t live in America, but people who cannot see that good ideas can come from all sides (and equally bad ideas) tend to close minded and do not push society forwards.
And I’d be careful about mentioning Jews. You wouldn’t want to mix your left-wing bigotry in with the right-wing bigotry, would you?
I always enjoy mixing extremists of opposing factions, just for the fun of it.
Seriously, jew hating is a right-wing bigotry issue? Sorry, the right in America fight for the continued existence of Israel as our ally, and the left fight for the UN to dissolve Israel and declare Palestine as a country in its place. Jew hating is right wing? Do your research.
C++Wizard, You want to talk about doing homework? You should try it! The left in the US does not fight to “dissolve” Israel and replace it with Palestine, are you mad?! The fight for both to exist. You are the dumbest person on the internet. Or just brainwashed with lies from Limbaugh, Beck and the rest.
i dont live in europe so i dont know about the roma but i do know that i am half jewish and i do know that that whole last paragraph insulted my mother’s and grandparents’ and so on down teh line’s entire religion and established you as racist and not nessicarily nazi as that is not jew hating but jew murdering, facism, and belief in an elite race, much like modern day terrorists against western culture…and to most people, after that post you will be seen as a called a nazi
Yeah we have that in Portugal too… It seems that they really like to live here and although they are ilegal imigrants they get free houses that they destroy and free education that they dont attend to.
About the guy who stole the 100 bill EVEN if it’s considered armed robery, the regret, the act of turning himself down and giving the money back would likely garantee a minor sentence (1 month it would do the trick) or even none if they decided not to press charges. What will teach to people? That if the commit a crime is always better to try to run away… Because now they know that they will spend 15 years in jail… Unless you are a fancy white guy who stole 3b dollars
The man who actually stole the $3bn got 30 years.. The CEO had near enough nothing to do with it. He also showed remorse AND testified against the main defendant. So erm.. yeah.. FACTS people, try to get them straight..
Dude… What the hell do you smoke, because I really want some of that.
^like and LOL
I totally agree with you! The gypsies don’t do ANYTHING! Oh yeah they do…. They STEAL ! You need to be veeeery carefull when a gypsy is walking near you because they just push them selfs toward you and make them selfs “fall” at you and suddenly your pockets are empty! They also steal food and metal to get money, and they are always whining about that they never get the same rights white people do, but the fact is that they always get somehow out of the trouble they get in… I have nothing against the gypsies that work and that are at least trying to be normal but its not fair against the other people that they have to live with them because they are always just making troubles.
Your statement is a fallacy based entirely on prejudice of minorities. Your statistic of 20million illegal immigrants is a fallacy based on the fact that since they’re illegal, there are no tabs on them and thus, no way of measuring how many are in the US. Another fallacy is your statement that illegal immigrants are committing all those crimes…I guess all those Mexican workers you see standing on the sides of roads for work from dawn to dusk are just dummies while their real counterparts are robbing banks and stabbing people. ($100->15yrs)+($3 billion->3 1/2 years)….One had no gun, the other has lots of money….double standard, pretty obvious.
“Oh, and they don’t have the massive amount of illegal immigration.”
Oh joy, the ignorance… lol
Europe is in the same boat regarding illegal immigration as anyone else.
so because a small but larger percent of latinos commit crimes then whites they should get more jail time?
so because there are illegal immmigrants in arizona all hispanic people should be stopped on the streets and checked for papers
and because white people made this law, people should be outraged for a week, maybe 2, then forget about it along with all the other race-related outrages?
travel back in time to the civil rights movement and use a similar argument to defend murders of civil rights activists and their jailing for peaceful protest and then maybe sombody will agree with you
Killing swingers shouldn’t even be a crime.
you guys don’t have racial disproportions, b/c black ppl are scared to live in your countries. Further, judges decide everything in a continental system of law. At least here, you can get a good lawyer to defend you against being railroaded into a prison sentence.
ill say this…ill bet those, the crimes this page is about, and many others were either given an undeserved shorter or longer sentence in part because of hte media…look at the blakc dahlia murder in los angeles (for those of you who dont know or think the LA noire story is how it happened) elisabeth short, the black dahlia, was found murdered, mutiliated and body chopped in half at the torso a week after her disappearance. 50 different men confess, 200 total are suspects and hundreds of lapd detectives and out of department investogars investigate the murder. reporters actually go into police stations and answer phone calls about evidence or sightings of short between her disappearance and death impersonate officers all over LA, and the case is never solved.
Crap.
You’re a worthless sack of sh7t.
Exactly. Every body forgets that he may or may not have had a gun under his jacket. Either way a security guard could have shot at him or an innocent citizen may have tried to tackle him down… people could have been hurt or killed.
Of course, idiots only think about the criminal.
I absolutely have sympathy for the guy, way more than I have for the bank and political criminals, but robbing a bank is no small thing… lots of horrible things can happen during a robbery… you don’t get excused just because you robbed a bank and nobody got killed.
Again, I really feel for the guy and I would much rather the bank scum server 15 years, but the courts cannot pick and choose the violent crimes it prosecutes.
And I know from first hand experience.
It was not an armed robbery, he only had his gun in his pocket. I admit he should serve some time because what he did is a crime, but it is not a fair punishment. Especially when some states let out sex offenders and rapist within 10 years.
And for the record, I am a pro death penalty and nailing guilty monsters to the wall, but this guy is no monster.
So, he had a gun, but “it wasn’t armed robbery”. What do you think “armed” means?
And for the record, there is legal precedence that a robber does not even have to be armed in order to commit armed robbery. If he/she even hints that they may be armed, it is considered armed robbery.
So yes, committing robbery while armed (as this man was) is armed robbery.
I’ve heard it’s all about how others perceive you. You might carry a cardboard sword, but if people even think it’s real, and they fear for their lives, police have a duty to restrain you and if you refuse to surrender your toy, you might even get shot at. But seeing how this guy seems to have felt remorse, I wonder how it all went down at the bank in detail…
“I’ve heard it’s all about how others perceive you.”
Correct. If the robbery is committed using the thread of force with a weapon (whether said weapon exists or not), it is armed robbery.
really, armed robbery or not, the guy GAVE HIMSELF IN to the police PLUS handled the money back but I don’t see his penalty getting lighter in anyway because of this. THAT’s the critic point here.
You can start any sentence from 30 years based on the crime nature, but it certainly should go down or up if the judge cared for the circumstances. When it doesn’t happen, it’s in tyranny and not in democracy you’re living in.
Very well put beatriz. I agree. Isn’t the whole point of the justice system retribution and making someone not want to commit a crime. He gave the money back and turned himself in. That’s half the battle. Even the strictest parent has mercy if a child fesses up to what they did and are sorry for it.
These people here have no concept of mercy.
but even with armed robbery the huge difference in crime between $100 armed and $3 billion unarmed is retardedly steep
It wasn’t even ARMED robbery. He had just his hand in his pockets just like in every standard B-Hollywoodmovie.
Leading someone to believe you are armed is still a very serious offence, and in many places treated exactly the same as actually having a weapon..
@ Grimmy: but the armed robber endangered the lives at anyone at the bank.
10 ppl lives at stake in bank heist compared to millions being led to debt to pay for the $3B the CEO took.
The only way ppl will open their eyes is when they get a letter at home saying “You owe the Federal Gov $53.000 to pay for the $3B some of our homies stole from you.”
hey f**k you. why should someone that has money and a place to live need to rob other people of their money though schemes? instead of someone in such need, and so desperate, had to rob a bank, only to feel remorseful and turn themselves in. the system is totally f**ked. anyone who thinks this fair is a privileged douche.
The banker was in trouble. They needed money to save the bank, and weren’t getting any from the government. Oh, and about 1000 jobs that were going to be lost.
O, I think you forgot to mention the difference in lawyers too.
How the hell was he armed? He stuck his hand underneath his jacket and acted like he was armed. Read the damn image/excerpt before you go all “pro government”.
It’s still armed robbery:
(1) Causes serious physical injury to any person who is not a participant in the crime; or (2) is armed with a deadly weapon; or (3) uses or threatens the use of a dangerous instrument; or (4) displays or threatens the use of what he represents by his words or conduct to be a pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, machine gun or other firearm.
Notice (3) and (4) where it says threaten the use of a weapon…which he did
No gun = no armed robbery.
(1) Causes serious physical injury to any person who is not a participant in the crime; or (2) is armed with a deadly weapon; or (3) uses or THREATENS the use of a dangerous instrument; or (4) displays or THREATENS the use of what he represents by his words or conduct to be a pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, machine gun or other firearm
I’m seriously just going around and posting this.
You are not educated. It is.
Boulder*
Mmkay, your little emotions are not valid. Robbing 100 $ is always less dramatic than robbing 3B $. Are you abel to comprehend this simple concept ? If no, penetrate your head with your own rock.
umm you did read the part that says he WAS NOT ARMED right> you are just a white apologist that understands that this case is about black and white, wherein your race, the doinate one, that owns everything gets to do whatever it likes and ADOES NOT like it when others, non-whites point out what BS that is. Now, I will crawl back under my rock when you hit yourself over the head with one.
Did you read the part where IT DOESN’T MATTER if you actually have a gun or not, if you say you have one?
Hey, I have a little experiment. Enter an airplane without a bomb, then when you get on, start shouting that you have a bomb. See what happens.
Then, use your newfound free time to THINK about the mistake you made.
You, sir, are the biggest jerk here today. And that’s saying something.
In the state of Georgia, the case load for public defendants is so heavy due to underfunding that the standard approach they use for almost everyone using them is to meet with them briefly and advise them to plead guilty and ask for a plea bargain. That’s all the legal help you get.
In effect, this means that if you are indigent here and you’re arrested, then arrest equals conviction. Basically, it turns the arresting officer into both judge and jury…if you’re arrested and poor, you are going to jail or prison, regardless of the circumstances.
Psst. Moron.
You didn’t even read your own words? ADVISE. They ADVISE you to take the bargain.
Now, I’m not blind to the problems with a high rate of plea-bargaining, but you’re acting like they won’t give you a trial and a pro bono lawyer if you demand one, and that’s just plain untrue.
You don’t understand what the situation is in this state.
This might help…from the New York Times:
ht tp://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/us/06bar.html?_r=3&src=tptw
Yes, you can demand a trial and a public defender.
However, they give out this advice because their case load is so high that they try to actually go to trial only with cases that they have a decent chance of winning or ones that involve an obvious potential miscarriage of justice. If your case doesn’t clear this bar in their opinion, you probably won’t get much of an effort on your behalf. You would probably be better off accepting the plea bargain.
By the way…I have spent more than one night over a beer, talking politics with people who disagree with me radically. It’s possible to do that and still remain on good terms.
Your first word addressed to me was “Moron”. You are a lot more likely to win people over to your position if your first action isn’t equivalent to a strong shove in the chest.
1: this homeless person turned himself in. Usually this allows a more lenient trial, since it means he understood the gravity of his situation.
3: He pleaded guilty, which then again means he knew what he got himself into.
4: there never was a mention of a weapon. He had a hand under his jacket, nothing more.
I am obligated to wonder why you protect your legal system so much. I safely assume you were sexually abused by a stranger who was eventually arrested during your youth, hence your high regard for your legal institution. However, it is more likely social services took you in after taking away your parents when their investigation revealed they cross-dressed you and made you pee in your pants. Since you think your system offers protection to defendants, I understand you were present at your parents’ trial, and in a way did not want them to be taken away from you – they remain parents.
You realize that the mental capacity on top of the physical ability to commit a crime is already a crime. You can commit a crime only if you just have mens rea. the act of just placing your hand under your jacket to pretend you have some form of concealed weapon is already a crime. On top of robbing a bank.
Although America has loop holes in its system it is more likely the crime the homeless man did would turn out worst for society than what the banker did.
Ha. You’re a moron.
The reason Europeans need a passport is because you used to need one just to stretch your arms in those pis sant little sub-states you call “countries”. It’s not because you’re more cosmopolitan.
You take a sunday drive across a nearby border and all of a sudden you’re all cosmopolitan and worldly. Isn’t that cute.
Things you don’t yell at your friend whom you are picking up at the airport “you da bomb”
No, poor Ryan is wrong again. The average European is indeed more cosmopolitan than the average American. It’s unavoidable to be so when all we need to do is stretch our arms to be in another nation with a different language, history and tradition than our own.
Maybe you should learn more about justice systems outside your own boarders before making stupid claims that your legal system is the most just and provides more protection. Just a hint, its not.
the American legal system that provides more protection for defendants than any other in the world.
Ummm… no. F**k Americans who think that they, somehow, have the best of everything in the world. Your healthcare is crap (unless you are well off), your education is crap (unless you are well off), your emergency services are crap (unless you live in a well off area). You do have the best military, sadly your veteran’s services are crap.
Now excuse me while I get back under my rock where all people have access to decent health care, where all kids can get a good education, where public services are funded and our veterans don’t live on the streets.
Happy Fourth of July, from a better country than yours.
Almost forgot:
the American legal system that provides more protection for defendants than any other in the world.
Tell that to Cameron Todd Willingham and Humberto Leal Garcia Jr. My country hasn’t executed any innocent people lately.
Very well said
Yeah alright, what seems to be considered as the biggest fraud in the history, by someone who was rich already, is less serious than a homeless guy stealing 100dollars to eat (with obviously NO weapon, since he was only pretending to have one),i guess he would have sold it if he really needed bucks that much, since he only stole 100dollars.
How can anyone still blame him and saying he deserves that. The american system sucks, and the worst is that it still gets supported by the americans.
I’m American, I call BS! Why the h377 is the CEO getting a 40-month sentence while the robber gets 15 years when he turned himself in?! COMPLETE BS!
Factually incorrect. The American legal system does less protect justice and more to turn defendants into automatic convicts than most other western republics. The criminal system is a sham in precisely the way this blog post seeks to illustrate.
More protection for defendants? I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be judged by a bunch of inexperienced and bored people who involuntarily got called to judge wasting their time and most not even getting paid by their boss for the missed day(s) at work (and getting paid only a miniscule amount for being in the jury) with many more negative things. Inexperienced? Bad decisions. All the negative things? People who don’t give a crap and just do something.
I’d much rather get judged by people who chose themselves to take that job of judging and actually know what the right thing to do is in whatever situation shows up.
Yeah, America’s legal system is sooo great. Except it has the highest prison population and simultaneously the highest crime rate of the Western world. Hooray!
Everyone should rob banks, the world would be much greater.
f u…ceo’s of companies that pull this sh!t only to have obummer bail them out? i’m sorry, but that has a much larger impact than a hungry homeless man stealing 100 bucks! idiot!!!
“…more protection for defendants…” Mmkay you are right, more protection for defendant with more money. American law system now supports $3 billion + scamming defendants while honest people end up being punished. Congratulations, your amoral and unethical values have been registered.
everything should be proportional. While I agree that a violent robbery of 100$ should be punished much more than scamming for 100$…
the fact is that nobody got hurt, he turned himself in and really this is a case of the system letting himself down (he couldn’t afford to detox, that is sad). but they threw the book at him anyways.
while the CEO didn’t directly hurt anyone, 3 billion is a lot more than 100. He didn’t return it and he could of (or did) ruin the lives of many people.
so… while violent crime certainly requires stiffer penalties, in these cases the punishement is not fitting of the crimes. It is meant to highlight the extent to which people with wealth are protected from punishment, even when caught.
Wow! How can anyone even TRY to defend the american medieval legal system? Just go vote for your tea party.
Yeah, why can’t the whole world be as perfect as the Dutch! Never mind your country’s rather dirty history, its problems integrating minorities, and the fact that Dutch sentencing guidelines also punish robbery more severely than fraud. But don’t let a few facts get in the way of considering your country the most perfect on earth.
Not to mention you can end up in court for over a year when the prosecutes say you haven’t actually committed a crime from the onset but the government says to attempt to charge you any way (ala Geert Wilders).
Kevin Mitnick spent 3 years waiting for a trial. Anything else the Dutch do better other than just the justice system, or do you have something that beats 3 years?
One word: Guantanamo
one article
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/former-army-lawyer-some-prisoners-prefer-gitmo-living-over-going-home/
See above, and further reading: David Hicks
Actually, the slave trade was started by the Belgians. Yes, we Dutch have a dirty history, but look at us now.
@ Mike: You are basing your argument on the past. Don’t even get me started on the past of the United States (Should I also include the British, your ancestors?).
@ Kleanthes: Geert Wilders in my opinion deserves to be prosecuted. He is the black sheep of our nation for some of the things he is trying to implement, or would implement if he had assumed power. But again, as Shepd mentioned, our 1 year (by the way, throughout that year he has been in trial, not awaiting trial) is nothing compared to the 3 years Kevin Mitnick spent awaiting trial.
Slave trading has been around since before there was even money, before writing, and even before beer. The dutch didn’t start slave trading, they commercialized it in western Europe. If you really want to get down to it, slave trading started in Africa and spread to Europe.
how exactly are the British our only ancestors? you seem to be under the impression that the only real americans are white and came from England. you sir are a tard.
Dirty history?! Problems integrating minorities? Care to elaborate?
I think you are mistaking the Netherlands for Germany, you ordinarily educated yankee
In Holland there is no need to punish anybody because everyone there has AIDS anyway and is moments from death.
And where do you base your facts on?
Retard….
No, you are confusing Holland with Germany.
You sir need to go dig yourself a 6-foot hole and die in it.
Northern america has a twice as high prevalence regarding AIDS than western and central europe.
The estimated infection percentage is 0.13% for the netherlands and 0.39% for the united states of america.
(unaids.org, UNAIDS REPORT ON THE GLOBAL AIDS EPIDEMIC | 2010)
Looks like Hotello started a great debate!
Hey everybody, I’m from holland! Ishn’t that weird??? Hahaha
Austin Powers ftw… but seriously, these two guys’ sentences are some sh**…
F*** Holland!
uh yeah, I am dutch myself, and in Holland you get a mere citation for beating up and robbing a taxi driver, and about 8 years for double homicide. Though they’ll let you go after 5 years if you don’t kill anyone else in prison. Sentences are definitely messed up in the US, but I wouldn’t go so far to state that Holland is doing things the right way.
in holland women screaming rape in a closed building the cops cant bust in and save her because of holland privacy laws and its America that screwed, you are an uninformed person and holland sucks!!!!!!!
You’ll be happy to know that Dairy Queen’s Blizzard of the Month in August will be Nutter Butter!!! WOO HOO!!!
Whoa, really??? That IS great news! Thanks, Austin!
stfu
Hip Hip Hooray! Is it a great school?
:d, lolz
You guys are a bunch of ding dongs for arguing this. Do your research. This is the same homeless guy who stole $1 from the same place because he WANTED to go to prison for a free air conditioned 3 meals a day with medical treatment. The Judge didn’t even give him time before and said he’d need to steal more to go to prison.
You should be more appalled that he got 15 years because he wanted 15 years. It had nothing to do with the crime and now the tax payers need to pick up the tab.
His stay of 15 years in the prison does not even come close to $3 billion ONE CEO stole, not to mention the decades we will continue to pay for the TARP bail-outs with our taxes only to fund multi-million dollar exit packages and bonuses. The US is the only “developed” country not to cap CEO salaries.
The following will be stricken from the record.
Our world when there are new peaceful countryside and fresh air and you can enjoy the simple life like that?
Legal system fail!
At least he got a place to live for 15 years
The good news – he’s no longer homeless
Yeah… But, he’s not living in a mansion like Paul R. Allen.
He worked hard for the company before he embezzled it. Good try.
He wasn’t working, he was embezzling. Poor try.
Embezzling is hard work, shesh.
40 months is over 3 years do the math people
Instead of 180 months for 100 bucks?
And because you’re homeless and hungry, as opposed to avaricious as all heck?
how did he get homeless and hungry? Maybe he failed in the game of life…
So what?
and at this point we go into the massive argument about what do we do, if anything, to stop people perfectly able people from deciding they’d rather leech off the system than do anything productive. While there are people who do need help determining who gets the help is currently part of a giant inefficient corrupted system.
WEALTHY WAAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAAH ROFL,
US is in the doldrums, worse than any non african country, the looming insolvency only add to it’s govt’s blindness.
You’re reminding me of a comie. Democracy is based on the fact that you work-you get paid. If he’s homeless, it’s for a reason. Maybe he started doing drugs, maybe his job went out and he couldn’t get another, maybe he’s just plain lazy. If he wanted to change his position, he could have through some good ol’ fashion work.
You’re not talking about democracy, but capitalism. Other than that, you suck. Did you even read the comment you replied to? If yes, how come you lay blame on the homeless when you just read an example of how homelessness can happen without the person necessary being lazy/on drugs? And furthermore, haven’t you heard of the consequences of the economic crisis? In short: It lead to a high unemployment rate. People who want to work can’t find a job. Former middle class Americans now have to live in their cars. And so on.
Why am I even wasting my time?
Because like all communists, you believe human nature is infinitely malleable given the right conditions. Which is why when your little social experiments fail, you first turn the propaganda up to 9001 because obviously you aren’t turning them into good little slaves well enough, and when that doesn’t work you start killing and imprisoning the dissidents.
I bet you can’t even define communism correctly. In other words, you don’t know what you’re talking about, as always. Which is why I’m not surprised why you say that I’m a communist.
Or he lost his job when someone embezzled a company dry, couldn’t find another one, then no one would hire him because he was out of work or homeless. Then there is mental illness, or just regular illness.
See, if something crappy happened to you, and you didn’t have anyone there to help you out, you’d end up in his shoes too, regardless of how hard you worked. There is also an issue of the fact that what you start with in life determines how much you’re compensated for your hard work (which you know nothing about, btw), and that in turn determines your financial resilience.
Tons of people lose their jobs all the time. Are they all homeless? No. They get another one. See, when you get fired, you get unemployment, which is designed to support you until you GET ANOTHER JOB.
And what makes you think I don’t know about hard work? How well could you, a random person on the internet, know me, to say I don’t work hard. Please grow up.
Oh, and you have herpes.
there is some very interesting research by devah pager that shows the strong effect that race has on the ability to get a job. she did a matched-pairs experiment (white and black guys matched in as many ways as possible, including resumes), varying whether or not they had criminal records. get this… she found that white men WITH a criminal record were more likely to get a job call back than black men WITHOUT a criminal record. how you can argue that there isn’t racism??
Maybe there is. No, definitely there is some. But are you saying there are no minorities without jobs? NO, they still get jobs, by working hard and being good at what they do, just like everyone else
Because liberal-leaning studies usually have large problems with their methodology that liberal newspapers will never debunk.
Matched pairs? My god, what are the chances that the researchers had anything even CLOSE to a statistically valid sample size?
Kicking a$$ and taking names Ryan? You have some good arguments. But if jaymze was here it would be more interesting.
Just try getting a job while being homeless. I guarantee no one will hire you. Homeless people are not lazy. If they were, they wouldn’t not be living on the streets. It takes a privileged lifestyle to afford to BE lazy. Lives can change in an instant. You can have everything and suddenly have nothing, but it’s very difficult and usually impossible to have nothing and suddenly have everything.
Or maybe the bank found some BS reason to foreclose on him.
Yeah! Like not paying, or some stupid reason like that!
How about a stupid reason like this:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/06/bank-america-pays-florida-couple-in-mistaken-foreclosure-case/
Or this:
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2010-09-23/business/fl-wrongful-foreclosure-0922-20100921_1_foreclosure-defense-attorney-foreclosure-case-jumana-bauwens
Or this:
http://consumerist.com/2011/06/bank-of-america-threatens-to-foreclose-on-homeowner-if-he-doesnt-pay-000-asap.html
Or this, which I’m sure our friend Avis can relate to:
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-03-11/news/27058722_1_pet-bird-parrot-home-invasion
Or this:
http://www.conservativerefocus.com/blog5.php/2011/03/18/nc-realtor-goes-ballistic-bank-of-america-s-foreclosure-error-on-sold-home-gets-national-attention
Or just look at the broader problem here:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bank-america-finally-confirms-foreclosure-errors-and-whopping-incidence-rate
40 months is 3 years and 4 months, so it’s ABOUT 3 years
It says so in the story bro. Do the reading bit before you respond.
Yes, 40 months is a little over three years; yet the article describes it as “slightly less than the six years” sought by the prosecution. This, not the disparity of sentencing, is the communication failure.
While the Allen’s 40-month sentence is about one-twelfth the appropriate minimum sentence (given the grand scale of the theft, and the potential negative effects of the $3 Billion others lost), The 15-year sentece for Brown was likely given out of empathy. He’ll have housing, regular meals, and medical care.
Actually, more then likely he got a higher sentence because it was a robbery. Generally robbery (whether there was an actual weapon or not) is considered a “violent crime” and will be sentenced harsher then a “non-violent crime” (fraud in this case).
Somebody that stole 3 billion dollars should get more then 3 years though.
yes, but 15 years?!?! AND he turned himself in!? AND it was only $100?!?! The judge that would give him FIFTEEN years for that is a sadist b**tard.
Unfortunately our legal system tends to set certain perimeters for crimes you’re charged with. If the DA bought the case as robbery, there was likely a minimum sentence. If he had a prior criminal record (say, something relating to the detox) then that can increase the minimum penalty. :/
Judges frequently have discretion in sentencing, though. I’m curious what this judge was thinking when he sentenced this prisoner. I also wonder what he might have thought if he had known of the white-collar sentencing.
that and bank robbery is a federal offense. There was another post similar to this one not too long ago where a guy robbed a bank of a dollar because he needed health care and couldnt afford it, however because of the minuscule amount stolen, he was only charged with larceny
But the CEO was charged by federal prosecutors. Sounds like a federal crime to me.
What these two instances boil down to is who can afford the better lawyer.
I’m with Avis. Cases come down to who has the better lawyer far too often.
Ummm, no. You should probably realise that while one failed to steal money, and the other committed armed robbery, potentially endangering lives. Sure he stole a small amount and turned himself in, but that doesn’t change the fact that he committed a federal offence. That and the minimum sentence (if no money is stolen. Otherwise it is higher) is 10 years in Louisiana, and much higher in other states. He got off easy.
and stealing 3 billion dollars doesn’t endanger lives? particularly the ones who it was stolen from? when you’re out of money cause some hack decided he needed to steal it for another mansion, isn’t the lack of money for food or shelter endangering?
Sure it does, and maybe he should have gotten a couple extra years, BUT you should realize he didn’t steal the $3 bill, he had a part in the hiest, probably a minor one. That and it was embezzlement, which meant the money was stolen from the company, or others like it. Not from people. From rich companies.
if 5 men rob a bank, does the sentence get split between them when they’re at trial? it shouldn’t that he was only 1 part of the heist.
also, when a big rich company gets hit, you think its the executives that take the pay cuts and lay offs? no, its all the little workers who suffer because the company lost money.
so i stand by my previous statement.
Yeah, he should get a smaller sentence for a smaller part.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-30/ex-taylor-bean-chairman-farkas-sentenced-to-30-years-in-prison.html
The one leading the fraud got 30 years so….
Oh, and they needed the money to save the bank, which was going over. The bank, and some 1000 odd jobs.
interesting…i stand corrected then, thank you for finding the actual article.
30 years of prison seems much more appropriate a punishment, however it still seems like it should be longer for such a serious massive amount of money stolen.
also, committing fraud to save your company is still consequential, if you succeed, for every job saved in your own company, a job is lost in some other company. and if you fail, as this case did, the company gets put into a situation which is even worse than what it started in.
*cough* ignore that stray “serious” in there…
I’m not saying it’s a good excuse, I just wanted to point that out because everyone’s using the “But he was broke and needed argument”. It applied to both people, but shouldn’t justify the crime.
One own, 124091278097 more to go.
Yeah, you can thank the Supreme Court for that. Too much discretion in sentencing is unconstitutional. Consequently, you have minimum sentences for crimes.
That way everyone gets the same punishment, no matter how absurd the punishment fits the specific facts of the crime at hand.
Brilliant, eh?
There’s not enough in the news story (and I’m too tired to research it) to tell if the bank robber (I mean the one who didn’t commit fraud) was sentenced under mandatory guidelines. Sometimes the judge is required to sentence to minimum times based on prior convictions (which also isn’t clear here) regardless of the severity of the crime.
Bottom line: Unless someone has done more homework, we can’t tell if the judge or the legislature is responsible for the sentencing.
People used to get beheaded. We should go back to that. I’ll bet there won’t he anymore would there?
Right, there was no theft at all when there was still beheading. Oh wait…
I can’t speak for other countries, but back when theft was a capital offence in Britain (along with about a hundred others, which ranged from treason to impersonating a war veteran) an awful lot of people got let off by the jury, because they didn’t want condeming someone to death for a petty theft on their consciences.
*condemning
well, there are minimum penalties as well as maximum penalties. no matter what the sum. i agree to sir VG that 3 billion should get more as 3,4 years.
To me it sounds indeed like the second guy was HOPING to get in prison.
1) one hand in his pocket (so no info on if he actually had a gun
2) turning himself in.
I know that in some developing countries people go to jail voluntary, because there they have a roof over their head, food, and in some cases even the possibility to study and get a degree. So they commit a crime go inside and get a degree. things they can’t afford outside
still quite ironic that one chooses to go to jail in the “land of the free”
land of the free gift with purchase… says elle wood…
this
That’s ridiculous. That is not how the legal system should work. You don’t put people in prison out of pity. You get them assistance. Prison would cost the taxpayer waaay more money.
15 years of his life locked up, living with criminals, and his freedom taken away?! That is not doing him a favor.
“He’ll have housing, regular meals, and medical care.
“…and a girlfriend named Big Tony.
boyfriend named Big Tony***
that skinny old fool will be the girl
And regular beatings from inmates and possible abuse from guards and a record as well.
and AIDS. Lucky him !
Actually, I think you’ll find he got a 15-year sentence because he is a black man in Louisiana.
Well, IF that’s really the reason, it should be per request of the homeless man. Speaking about that, getting in prison should always be able per request (for a minimum of 1 year, just so things don’t get a mess or abusing that privilege), since you can easily go to a bank, demand money (“armed” including fake weapons, or unarmed!) and be put in prison that way of course.
Brilliant juxtaposition, whoever did that. You could almost say that it’s tragicomic, only that it’s not comic.
Out of all the evolutionary deadends we enjoy seeing here, this must be the truly most tragic one.
I feel bad for the guy.
what a stupid system…
Yeah I know… 3 years is a long time.
why? he’ll have regular meals, a place to sleep, infinite medical care, etc. what’s the point of being free and living out in the regular world if you’re too starving to enjoy it.
coz every prison is filled with hardcore gangbangers and other violent offenders, right?
…Pretty much, yeah.
yes
Not the one the bank executive is going to.
Have you ever seen the inside of a federal minimum security prison? I have. (As a visitor, not a resident guest.) I was probably about 12 at the time, which by itself tells you a lot. I guarantee you, there is no way in hell a 12-year-old would be allowed to wander around freely among the inmates in the place the second guy is going (not to mention my parents wouldn’t let me go there).
To answer the question before it comes up, my father was stationed at an air force base where the prison was located, and on Friday nights they would bus some of the inmates to the synagogue for Sabbath services, so he got to know a few of them. I happened to be visiting Dad one time when he went to visit. I didn’t even realize we were in a prison until I noticed the razor wire and the fact that everyone was wearing denim.
“club fed” anyone?
To Mark Fl — finally, someone with facts, rather than mindless assertions and vitriol dripping from their comments.
Well that’s Florida — who knows what it looks like in Lousiana?
I was describing a federal prison. It wouldn’t matter what state it was in since it is run by the federal prison.
Sorry, I meant run by the federal government. I’m not going to ponder whether that was a Freudian slip.
And by the way, although the prison was in Florida, I never said that. I don’t think the prison at Eglin AFB is signicantly different than the one at Leavenworth.
Here’s an interesting article I just found — Forbes magazine’s list of the Best Places to Go to Prison.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/04/17/best-prisons-federal_cx_lr_06slate_0418bestprisons.html
It’s a bit dated (2006). Draw your own conclusions as to why a business magazine would compile such a list. And no, I don’t know which prison Farkas or Allen are being sent to.
At the ones he would be sent to, yes.
Don’t underestimate the value of freedom. No matter how poor they are, most people are much happier free than in prison. If the judge gave this sentence out of pity, he was tragically misguided.
He tried to rob a bank!!!! Bottom line!!! I am sure this is not his first offense either.
awesome
I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, BidsNew.com
All those that would like to emily sentenced to 15 years, say “AYE”!
^ “see” emily sentenced…
AYE!
Can I vote twice?
Oh, well:
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Only if you are from Florida ;P
lolzzz nicely put!! bush days are over boi
I think you mean Chicago.
definitely Chicago, and dead people can vote there too!
Dear Non-Existent Failblog Moderator:
Many of us here know a little something about computer programming, and would be happy to write some code for you that will automatically delete any comment that contains the URL for emily/belorateur’s spam site. Free of charge.
There may even be a few of us who know even more about computer programming. If you’d be so kind as to provide them with emily/belorateur’s IP address, perhaps they could track him down, and arrange for several large trucks full of sewage to be discharged into his home.
Sincerely,
cthulu
Please send this directly to them via the “contact us” link! PLEASE!!!!
But if this stops, what will I use to troll people?
JUST KIDDING. Kill it with fire!!!
If I really thought it was you, I would sic the PTB on you.
What? I’m the real me. How could it be any different?
*wields the shellacked mackerel*
Go ahead. Make my day.
Er… sorry about that.
Holy sh!t! It’s the same email address for every comment. We need to invent something that decodes it…
And don’t forget the daily ass-rapings he’ll get in prison. Yeah, he’s definitely better off.
This system is a bit skewed me thinks…
This guy stole just one 100 dollar bill, and willingly brought himself into prison, and gets 15 years of prison, but then some douchebag company CEO (who already has enough money to fuel his fireplace with 20 dollar bills for half a year) participates in a 3 billion dollar commotion and gets (about) 3 years instead?!
This is so so so sad. This very fail, is a testament to the stupidity of your average person. *spits* Poor homeless guy probably won’t even get a probation. Or a lawyer. God, I hate humanity (in general).
I’ll bet since the guy’s got money, he’ll be in a “softie” prison like Camp Cupcake here in West Virginia.
What you said.
This is sad.
Drug abuse is a Medical Problem and should be treated as one.
So sad indeed.
False Capitalization is a Real Problem and should be Addressed.
Firstly, I believe that his grammar is more often then not fine compared to other memebase users as well as the whole internet community as a whole, his out of place capitalization is no where near people people who “tak leik dis” furthermore go easy on the grammar nazi thing and just look past tiny mistakes such as these.
P.S I just wanted to note I got a laugh out of your purposely ironic capitalization.
Good day Sir/Madam!
Bazinga!
Suppose the Judge gave him probation and got him into rehab? Then every moron in the same situation starts robbing banks, maybe with a real weapon, sooner or later someone gets hurt.
Armed robbery is a violent crime, the sentence curbs anyone else from trying it, regardless of circumstance. Further, we don’t know what his priors are.
He was armed with his hand.
He’s a negro, and i suppose tis nuf sed in the states. God help us. why do we judge people by the color of skin?
Being black probably didn’t help, but being poor was probably the bigger factor. (Of course, the two are correlated.) When you’re rich, you can afford expensive lawyers to help protect yourself from the law. Heck, you can afford the law-makers to make sure that the laws have little say about what you want to do.
People just can’t get over stereotypes. Racism won’t exist eventually, when everyone is every race… And we’ve nukes ourselves into the ground. It’s a horrible system for sure. I mean, murderers who plea bargain can get just 25 years. I say six months maximum for this poor man.
Or suppose the other judge gave the guy who stole billions a longer sentence?
The problem isn’t that the guy who stole $100 went to jail, it’s that he’s going to jail a lot longer than the guy who stole $3 BILLION, even though he did a hell of a lot less harm to society. Use your whole brain when you think, seth.
A fair point. Clearly, using a weapon (or pretending to) adds harm, both potential (what if it *really* gets used?) and emotional to the crime. But on the other hand, $3 BILLION is a lot of people’s money. Probably a lot of them who couldn’t afford what was stolen, either. (The $100 was actually small enough that the bank could have absorbed it without any customer even noticing, I’d imagine.)
Roy came in with a weapon (Or pretended to have one, which is considered just as cad in many places), and endangered lives. The CEO stole money.
Please prioritize those two in any* way you wish.
*WARNING: One or more (no, just one) answer may cause you to be considered a serial killer or of related sort.
“Then every moron in the same situation starts robbing banks,”
Huh, are you referring to the homeless guy or the CEO there?
Can’t tell if trolling or…
Let’s have the picture of $3 billion guy, too! …So we can respond appropriately when we see HIM on the street.
You mean kick him in the nuts? I’m all for that.
You will be sentenced to prison for 20 years for doing that.
What a barbaric country
I suppose the proper treatment overseas would be to beat him with a feather.
actually overseas some of us treat criminals with rehab instead of just locking up the problem…
Yeah, and it doesn’t work well: recidivism in Europe is very high, and crime rates are higher as well. Locking up people for long times is wrong, but nobody has come up with something more effective yet.
Really? European crime rates are higher than in the US? Then I guess these stats are false?
ht tp://www.civitas.org.uk/crime/crimestats6.php
Not actually.
Recently in Argentina a homeless man stole some pieces of cheese and juice because he hadn’t eaten anything for days. The judge dismissed the charges and acquitted him, considering the trial only would be even more expensive than the food he took.
This isn’t actually to prove that any other judicial system is better than US’ system, just to say that your comments are rather pointless.
And you suck.
Jeez… that was SARCASIM!
Well, I appreciate you
Thanks, victo.
HAppy 4th, jAdams !!
Same to you!!
*puts Rattman’s kind wishes in pocket with my greencard application*
You’d get less jailtime here in Norway for killing someone then what he got for stealing 100$ and we’ve got one of the lowest kill rates in the world, so…
Your statement makes about as much sense as “let them eat cake”.
He’s saying that the duration of the sentence has no impact on detering ppl from committing a crime. To put it even more clearly, a murderer in Norway will get sentenced for maybe 12 years, yet Norway has one of the lowest kill rates of the world. If you want to look into it, try finding the state in the US with the highest number of executions and how well that deters others from committing deathpenalty crimes.
To understand where most ppl get their idea about US prisons from, go watch the series Oz.
Great point. Countries/states with death penalties probably are most likely to have higher murder rates. If the state is brutal enough to kill people, that must be a reflection of its own people.
Well, IMO, punishments should NOT be to simply deter from people committing the crime. “An eye for an eye”: the killer imposed a death penalty on the killed one, a sentence that lasts for the entire killed one’s “life”, and so the killer should get a sentence that lasts for life.
I don’t live in Norway, but I live in The Netherlands where we also have these soft penalties for killing. It’s just a kick in the nuts with one afterwards for everyone who know the killed one when the killer gets free in no time.
very demotivational
welcome to america!
This is a FAIL of ridiculous proportions.
eat the rich
Ewww, the rich are all tough and stringy
I doubt it. With their diets most of them are probably quite well marbled. And, the lack of exercise from sitting in their cushy chairs all day means they are nice and tender.
Now he has a home.
The CEO stole $3,000,000,000 in “what is considered the biggest corporate fraud in history”, and he got 3 1/3 years in prison. A homeless guy who has no money at all steals $100, and even gives it back and turns himself in, and he gets 15 years. If I meet the CEO, I’ll take him to the police and show them this website. If I meet the homeless guy, I’ll give him several thousand dollars and a printout of this page to show the judge. I hate this planet, and especially its governments.
And I love your comment
What do you thinks the odds are the The CEO hid money in an overseas account?
He should consider himself lucky to get 15 years. If he stole $1 from me and I would have caught him he would be dead. Thief is a thief. Period. Only useful for feeding worms.
you don’t have problem with color, you’ve problem with negros, btw teh company ceo is also an honorable Colored man….
WTF?
What did the CEO do that was honorable? Stealing 3 Billion dollars from what were probably mostly innocent victims, at least more innocent than him. At least the homeless guy had some remorse and turned himself in.
This really is a justice fail, but you are a fail of much bigger proportions.
I’m lost. I don’t care if he is green, he takes money from me, and I catch him, I’ll kill him. Its that simple. Your life is ALWAYS worth less than what you are trying to steal from me. But that’s just me.
And that’s why you’re retarded.
Hey, get walked all over if ya wish. Me, let em die. Both of em should be dead honestly. Both are worthless thieves.
One day you will eat your words.
By this logic you should have killed dozens of people who’ve gotten in car accidents which caused you to get stuck in traffic, costing you gas.after all, they stole gas from you, right?
You truly are a horrible person.
The CEO is white..
the heck dude, the CEO who got about 3 years is also a thief since the in his act of trickery he took $3 billion that did not belong to him. I wont deny that both should be punished but its the scale in accords to their crimes that is skewed
Just out of curiosity: If you worked for the bank and lost your job because it was in trouble financially because it lost $3 billion, what would you do to the bank executive who committed the fraud?
Steal small and you are punished
Steal big and you will be introduced to top dogs
racism.
So if Brown decided to rob a bank because Allan lost his money, shouldn’t Allan be made responsible for partially causing the robbery ?
How many people out of those who lost money with Allan tether on the verge of financial bancrupcy ?
How many of them went criminal ?
Did any commit suicide because of desperation ?
Yes – 3 years is a JOKE. Fraud of that magnitude should have got him in jail for about ten years at least, as he was only “involved” instead of doing it all alone.
Read an interview about one of “our” rich bankers who got sent to jail because he was found guilty and who is claiming to be too sick to stay in prison.
I get that he might even get some harsher treatment then absolutly necessary, but I couldn’t resist smiling when the prison director stated that he couldn’t be discharged into home arrest on a private doctors assessment of his health. He expressed his respect to the wife of the imprisoned banker for calling out to the media for “fair treatment” of her husband, but neither he nor any judge could decide anything, and the enormous amount of damage caused by him warranted extra care in carrying out the judgement.
IMMD
Does anyone know if this story is actually true? I can only find a report in the Digital Journal but not in any more mainstream newspapers. I’ve checked Snopes but it isn’t in there.
And that is the difference between a rich man with very powerful lawyers and a poor man with the worst quality of lawyer possible.
No it’s not. It’s the difference between attempted fraud, and armed robbery.
Um, no, it wasn’t attempted fraud. It was actual fraud.
I assumed the money would have been returned, maybe not Fair enough. But even then, armed robbery is much more serious, AND the banker only had A PART in the heist, and probably a small one two
And it was first degree robbery not armed robbery. Louisiana distinguishes between having a gun and pretending to have a gun.
You are right though, violent crime = higher sentence.
Reminds me of the “Finding vs. Looting” bullpucky after Hurricane Katrina, http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/looters.asp.
I don’t understand this world anymore. I mean, I’m pretty sure I never did, but damn. Damn.
Louisiana and he’s a black man. Why are you surprised? You thought he’d be treated fairly? That’s sweet.
Louisiana and a case you disagree with. why are surprised? You thought racism would play a bigger role than the law? That’s sweet.
sig3ighh39aoih finding something that doesn’t square with his white republican beliefs and makes a snarky comment. why am i not surprised? you thought he was a human with compassion, instead of a fat sack of crap? that’s sweet.
I find it hilarious that you and everyone else here know so much about me. Really creeps me out. “white republican beliefs”? Maybe I’m black. For all you know I’m a Neo-Nazi. What would convince you I’m a white republican? “a fat sack of crap”? Please give me real evidence of me. If you could be convinced of this, surly you must have some proof. And by the way, I’ve been to a doctor lately, and I’m a very healthy weight. So maybe I am a sack of crap, but I disagree with the fat part. And here’s a little tip: next time you try to write down some crap to make your point, make it apt. What does any of your comment have to do with me defending the law? So I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t try and act like you know people on the internet that you know nothing about-You don’t even know my name! It makes you like like a major douche.
The problem that you all are forgetting is that robbery of a bank is a federal crime with different standards then what was, essentially, employee theft.
Yeah, and we are forgetting what justice means too… I guess the meaning got lost somewhere inside a technicality.
um I think fraud at that level and within a bank (mortgage lender) would also be a federal crime, after all its likely that it affected people a crossed state lines.
He was charged with first degree robbery under Louisiana law. He was lucky..
He is black and poor…
This is social control and repression at its best.
Now he will work for pennies in a private owned prison.
Slave Labor 2.0
Though we don’t know the homeless guys criminal history though do we?.
Still seems very unfair.
think of it this way…
banking in america is a complex system, when a problem occurs in it, noone can easily look at an offender and say, ‘hear, you, you have crushed this flower or smashed this glass.’ The harm done is a consequence of emergence of the complex themes of the system and can be of orders of magnitude larger than any individual person can comprehend. Thus when a man robs one bank, a simple transaction, we can simply say, this was done thusly. While if another man robs 10,000 banks we can fail to understand any rational mode of punishment. Didn’t hurt that the dude probably had buddies that went to Harvard law.
deconstruct the prescience!!
The only thing i feel needs mentioning here is that putting a homeless man in jail is probably doing him a favor. Now instead of sleeping in the cold and not knowing if your going to make it the next day, he’s getting three square meals and a warm bed.
Going to jail in the US? First-world problem.
Lady justice is SUPPOSED to be blind. A pity it doesn’t come across that way.
This kind of thing makes me want to vomit. If western society topples it will be because of the upper echelon, not the 95% that they feed on.
Browsing through the comments I couldn’t help but notice some disturbing comments, I hate thieves, believe me, I do, I got my first car stolen and totaled so I can really vouch for that.
This time it was his hand under the jacket (or not, it’s not specified in the article) maybe that won’t be the case next time so I agree that violent crimes should be punished harshly, but still, this was a homeless man who repented of his action and turned himself away, I don’t know about you, but being homeless and having the conscience of your wrong doings to the point of turning yourself in with an 100$ bill in your pocket.. that’s some pretty big balls in my opinion, specially when you have an addiction problem!
I’m not saying he shouldn’t be arrested, he should, and he was, too much time or not, only his priors can say.
(I hope that was the case in my country, but around here the thief gets out laughing while the officer is still filling the reports..)
But treating a thief who stole 3 BILLION Dollars lightly just because it wasn’t a violent crime?!?
Can you even imagine the extent of such a thing??
You can decrease significantly the quality of life of a small nation. Financial systems are all linked up, a big hole in one side will drain it’s surrounding systems. It’s not the same amount since this was “only” 3 Billion but.. does Madoff ring any bells? He stole 50 Billion Dollars and was one of the starters of our current economic crisis.. he at least got what he deserved, 150 years.
(Sorry about the big text and eventual grammar error, I’m not a native speaker)
It’s okay about the gramatical errors-I didn’t see anything wrong.
And very true about the Madoff scandal. I think the reason they let the 3 billion guy off so lightly was because, well, perhaps he wasn’t the only one involved? And Dan may be right-perhaps he had prior records, and this was the only point in which the cops caught up with him.
These crimes aren’t the same, though.
The guy who robbed a bank gets 15 years probably because he had many prior records. Armed robbery carried a mandatory 8 years sentence and they probably added more charged on top of that probably due to him violating his parole.
The accountant who just changes numbers is not the same thing although they both in the end do the same thing: steal money.
I would say this isn’t really a failure of the justice system.
We don’t know that he had priors. In fact, if he was handed $300 and only took $100, then turned himself in the next day, I rather doubt he had a record.
The guy who robbed a bank gets 15 years because it’s a violent crime. It has nothing to do with priors. The minimum he could have served is 3 years, the maximum 40.
Welcome to America.
This is an apples and oranges comparison. The CEO’s involvedment was minor, the homelessman committed a federal crime, and they had different judges.
The CEO also committed a federal crime.
I’d like to note, that the homeless man probably is going to a low security prison, will most likely survive, be able to work, learn a trade skill, be fed for 15 years, etc etc.
I mean, there’s always a chance.
I really doubt he’s going to a minimum security prison. But there is no doubt the bank exec will.
a day for every 2c — and now it’s gonna cost the taxpayer $15000 a year to keep him locked up. wtf
The difference is that the homeless man committed an ARMED Robbery. An armed robbery means that the homeless man threatened violence. It is small but very significant detail. The articles also don’t provide any information on what the homeless man’s prior convictions were. I would be willing to bet money that he was a repeat offender based on the sentence.
I hate this kind of sensationalism. It bothers me even more that so many people here (and generally) get suckered by it.
Firstly, the homeless man may have said he had a gun but he didn’t actually have one so why consider it armed robbery?
Secondly, he gave some of the money he was handed back to the teller only taking what he needed.
Thirdly, since he turned himself in saying his mother didn’t raise him to behave like that, I would conclude that he would have no priors. The only thing he likely had on his record would be dealing with drugs, not armed robbery.
If someone goes into a bank with his hand in his pocket and says that he has a gun, then a security gurad thinks he’s about to shot and shoots at him, but misses and hits a bystander, is that harmless? Or the cops are called, told that the man appears armed, is acting armed, and claims to be armed, then get into an accident rushing a dozen patrol units to the scene. Is that harmless?
THAT is why most states consider claiming to have a gun exactly the same as actually having one. They have to treat the threat as real, and there is a very real possibility of someone getting hurt because they’re under the impression that a very serious threat exists.
Yes. He’ll have housing, regular meals, and medical care.
But no freedom. Not much of a trade-off really.
What is not outlined in these news reports is that they are two totally different crimes.
The CEO that EMBEZZLED 3 billion dollars was an embezzler.
The homeless man only stole $100 yes, however he most likely got charged with armed robbery due to the fact that he stuck his hand under his shirt, appearing to be a gun. The banker did not know that it was his hand and feared for his/her life.
The charges in each case and for each man are not favored or discriminatory, but fitting for the crime. read the full story, not just the highlighted sections.
I read the whole story for both and still feel that the decisions in the cases are not fitting for the crime. A man who embezzles that much money, to be considered the biggest fraud in history, has impacted our economy on a large scale. He had no remorse for his actions and got a good lawyer who got him a sympathetic judge.
The man who pretended to have a gun may have scared the teller for a bit, but he didn’t really put the tellers life in danger. Also, he handed most of the money he was handed back and he turned himself in. If that is not cause to lower the armed robbery charge to robbery then there’s something wrong with people. He did not really put anyone in danger and he had remorse for his actions, which were caused by need, not greed.
It should be noted that first degree armed robbery (pretending to have a weapon), is considered nearly as heinous a crime as armed robbery, and almost always treated the same. It’s the same difference as murdering someone, and threatening murder, while torturing them.
The CEO did not embezzle anything.. He misappropriated funds and defrauded banks.. They (Yes they, there were at least 4 people involved) were trying to keep their tanking company afloat by defrauding banks and hiding holes in their funding. No one pocketed the $3bn, it was put into the company.
So they STOLE money from banks to invest into a company.
While he was certainly somehow clever to get that amount from banks, it was a criminal offence for a very real gain: keeping a defunct company afloat.
By doing so, they gained a regular salary for a longer time then they where entitled to – lets say they earn a regular CEO wage for a year for the context of this crime : thats AT LEAST four times 180.000$
Unrightfull appropriation of 720.000 $ they did not earn with honest work.
There is no question that armed robbery is a felony that should be punished severly ~15 years might be a bit over the mark, but we don’ know his background.
If they both went into jail for 15 years, I wouldn’t have any problems with the ruling.
My point was not that they didn’t steal it or that they weren’t guilty, my point was it was NOT embezzlement.
Embezzlement is siphoning money or property from assets you are entrusted with (like a trust fund) for your own use. It was not embezzlement. Not all fraud is embezzlement but all embezzlement is fraud.
Also the man who started the fraud (before the CEO even joined the company) got 30 years. The CEO got a short sentence because he testified against the guy that started it.
Makes me ashamed to be an American
im with you
I’m so pissed and saddened I don’t know whether to cry or rage.
why’d he get 15 years in jail like wtf here in canada he would get like a year 2 maybe i dunno but 15 years!!!!!! people murder others and get 5 months the judge should go to jail for that
You revealed a secret flaw in the American Justice system. Report to the nearest education camp for reprogramming.
Wow I think thats insane. It’ll cost the state more than $100 dollars to keep him. I think Its time to petty theft to inflation about now.
While keeping a criminal off the street.
How dare they use our money to keep the streets safe! outrageous!
I hope the CEO enjoys Club Fed! I’m fairly sure he’s not headed for the average State Pen. While poor Roy Brown will most likey serve his time on chain gangs and the worst hole in the South. If there was true justice a meteor would strike these two judges at the same time.
I wonder what would have happened if he had passed a nate saying “I do not have a weapon. And, I have no intention of hurting you. But, give me $100.” I mean… tellers are trained to comply.
Well, if you’ve been following failblog, you’ll know that he would need to bring his own bag for the money.
The difference between the two cases is the “position” of the thief in the crime. The one man who stole the 100 dollars was the entity that performed the robbery, while the ceo had his company steal the 3billion. The problem here is that companies are essentially entities that act as fall guys for the person directing them. Thus the person directing the company is considered unjustly an accessory to the crime.
According to the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case, corporations aren’t “entities,” they are people, with the same right to free speech as individuals. Thus, doesn’t it follow that they should also have the same responsibility to observe the law? Perhaps the bank should be convicted of being an accessory to its own embezzlement. I realize it’s impractical to put a corporation in prison, but perhaps it (he? she?) should be fined. Nah, forget that — just put the board of directors in prison.
Lesson to society:
STEAL BIG
NEVER TURN YOURSELF IN
/\ /\
Three years for Fraud — fifteen for Burglary. Sounds about right to me.
I guess 3 day weekends are universal huh? since this is a repost and so were several on ICHC and PK
RON PAUL 2012
Well, the homeless man is kind of getting a “promotion,”
1. he has a home
2. free state mandated food 3x a day
3. get cleaned up in the showers (as long as his soap is secure)
4. if he plays his cards right, safer (maybe)
Since when is 40 months “slightly less than the 6 years requested”??? 6 years is 72 months, 40 is barely over half that.
Wonder how many palms that guy greased to get that lenient of a sentence… Seriously, an unemployed guy stole a single $100 bill a couple days ago and turned himself in the next day and he got 15 years. He stole because he was homeless and needed help, this guy is just greedy.
Seriously, 3 BILLION dollar scam and he only got 40 months? He will probably be in club fed and be out in less than a year. Living it up on an island.
this is sad, just shows what is wrong with america , hope this gets the publicity it deserves
So stealung 3B should be less punished than stealing 100 bucks?? Pretty unfair isn’t it??? I understand someone needs 100 to live in a despair situation, but needing 3B is a joke. The way you steal the money is important, but the amount you steal and the reason you have for that is as important (doesn’t matter if you are American, Australian or European)
Google “who owns the federal reserve” then start to read between the lines
I asked on Yahoo Answers who owns the Fed. They said it was some guy named Fred.
OK, here’s a bit more info:
The mortgage company where Mr. Allen was CEO — Taylor Bean & Whitaker — collapsed, resulting in 2000 people losing their jobs. It also led to the collapse of another bank in Alabama — the sixth-largest bank failure in US history — and two more banks losing a combined $2 billion.
Also…wait for it…Taylor Bean applied for $500 billion in TARP relief, although they never received it.
OTOH, Allen may have been in the dark about the fraud, as it began before he became CEO, and the board chairman who was apparently behind the fraud — Lee Farkas — was sentenced to — oh, let’s all savor this…
30 years in prison. Of course, that’s less than what the prosecutors were seeking: 385 years, more than twice what Bernie Madoff received.
Besides Farkas and Allen, four others were sentenced to terms ranging from three months to eight years.
Sorry, wasn’t able to find much on Ray Brown or whether he had a record.
Now don’t we all feel a bit better?
One more note: Although the sentence is being appealed, if it stands Farkas will serve 25 years. He’s 58 now, so he might not make it out.
And the citation:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-30/ex-taylor-bean-chairman-farkas-sentenced-to-30-years-in-prison.html
Ahhhh….much better. Good work!
THANK YOU
so you don’t want come to Brazil… Here is even worse.
Humanity Fail or Failed Humanity (Both)
At least he won’t be hungry and homeless for 15 years.
Fraud vs. ARMED ROBBERY
No double-standard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development
I hate it when people are stuck on stage #4 and are not even ashamed of it. Yes, there is a double standard. If you weren’t so young, so immature and/or mentally incompetent, you would see that.
How is it a double standard? Please do explain because I don’t see it..
This is one of the reasons Corporate Personhood is wrong.
This is fake by the way.
…and now he gets to spend the rest of his life in prison. Living in accomodation and eating food paid for by the tax payer.
f***ing online arguments, you guys are a sad pathetic bunch. God i hate the 2000′s
Online insults are way better. Thank you for making the world a little nicer.
We’re in the 2010s.
Utterly ridiculous.
Go America, the land of the free … what a joke
Those of us who do not commit federal felonies are quite free, TYVM.
Don’t think its the 4th of July that’s tempting many Americans here to state they think those two verdicts are somewhat just. Guess it’s more like an automatic defense mode getting activated whenever they sense America or one of it’s standards is being criticized. Even in times of economical troubles you have to have opinions like: “America has the best ….-system in the world, and now we’re going to improve it even more.”
Everything else is considered unamerican. The media is busy reporting on all kinds of “news” but afraid of losing viewers if they tackle the real problems America has to face and solve sooner or later. Because reporting on those issues always implies criticism on the current situation.
But since it’s the 4th…
I’m English and I agree with the sentences given.. There are probably THOUSANDS of examples of miscarriages of justice in the US but this is not one of them.
These articles are edited together to promote an emotive response, with further information about each case it’s clearly a just result! It’s a shame people can’t be bothered to go and find this information for themselves!
No, I bash idiots like you 365 days a year. Go grow up and stop thinking that just because your bigotry is directed at America, that somehow that’s OK.
I do believe this is unfair, very unfair. Even more because the bank robber felt remorseful and turned himself in.
But: I strongly believe that you have to punish ppl harder who threat other ppl, instead of an anonymous illegal bank transfer.
tbh, the judge probably did the homeless dude a favor.
he’ll have a roof over his head, and food. and he’ll be sure about that for the next 15 years. he’ll even get a parole officer when he gets out, to help him get his life on his feet.
if you’re fake-robbing a bank just to buy a sandwich, you say “thank you” to that.
Yeah, prison is such a lovely place! How come not more want to be there?
the guy who stole the hundred should get 5 year sentece. he was poor, only took what he needed and turned him self in.
Being poor is no excuse for committing armed robbery, a federal offence
Thanks alot morons your 5 million crappy comments crashed my phone and all my lolcat tabs
I bet the $100 he tried stealing from was one of the banks the CEO was with and after found out got his lawyers to charge him with extra time because “his money was in jeopardy”
Just a thought.
If you think about all the corporate crime and corporate fraud that has been going on over the past couple of decades. I would have to say that these well dressed scum buckets have had a much more devasting impact on society and peoples lives than all the bank robberies combined. I’m not condoning the actions of the other guy by the way.
I didn’t read anywhere that the economic crash in the US was caused by greedy black guys robbing banks. I didn’t read anywhere that poor people were asking for hundreds of millions of dollars in order to save their arses and, once they had that money then deciding to give themselves their hard earned bonuses.
I’m just trying to make the point that that CEO guy and many like him should be punished properly for their crimes. What do we do instead, punish the poor sod for stealing 100 bucks and then throw the book at him because he had the balls to turn himself and confess his crime.
Unfortunately, I did read lots of crap about blaming the poor for many of America’s problems. It seems to be a relatively common way especially for right-wing Americans to deal with the consequences of their lack of a social system that deserves its name. Poor=lazy=deserved misery=undeserved taxpayer’s money. Along those lines.
And that makes sense if you think about it. How else could people (esp. from the right) who in their overwhelming majority define themselves as good Christians live with the social situation in the USA? Just imagine what if the poor were NOT to blame! Then people would have to do something about that, and that would cost their precious taxdollars. Oh noes.
@Arthur Eld
Very good point.
You could always blame muslims or the the evil terrorists once the poor have outlived their usefulness. Oh wait…
In a couple of centuries I just hope the human race will have out grown it’s childish obsession with wealth, power and greed. Probably won’t of course but one can hope.
I hope that, too. But I’m guessing it’ll take catastrophies way worse than anything we’ve seen before until we fundamentally change our ways. If it’s not too late then.
Yes, I fear you are right.
Hey, why don’t you two idiots get over your obsession with wealth and send it all to me?
That way you get what you want, I get what I want, and you get to whine about it!
Ryan! The only sane and polite person on teh interwebs! Thank god you’re here, or else no-one would know how to make the least sense out of the above comments. Great job, as always.
Say, when you’ve been officially seen as an idiot big enough to be an entry at Art of Trolling, didn’t that make you doubt your self perception? Hahaha, who am I kidding: Of course not!
Keep up the good work, I’m sure that soon you’ll achieve the extraordinary and become an internet meme. Something like “Don’t Ryan Waxx me, bro”.
The difference here is the victim. If it is thousands of persons, then it is not a big deal, the government doesn’t care about you and I, although it still cares enough to not just let him walk free to avoid a protest. If it is a bank, then it is a big deal and he should be severely punished.
true, same everywhere in the world
No, the difference here is he claimed he had a gun, he threatened violence!
BULLF^CKINGSH*T
Guy steals $3 billion? Sentence him to 40 months.
Guy steals $100 bill and surrenders himself? Sentence him to 15 years.
Yet another reason to bag America on the 4th of July. Priceless.
(btw, I see most Western countries doing the same sort of sh!t).
Venite in Italia.Qui non sarebbe andato in galera ne uno ne l’altro.Qui si spaccia, si ruba, si violenta, si uccide e non si va mai dentro.Forza, cosa aspettate.
while only 40 months for 3 billion is ridiculously short in comparison to 15 years for $100, perhaps it’s a good thing. while jail isn’t usually considered positive, it’s free food and shelter. it would be much worse for the guy who stole 3,000,000,000 than for the guy who stole $100.
but I do agree about the injustice in the “justice” system.
He probably wanted toe 15 years, as prison would have most likely been the better alternative to the way he was living as a homeless.
free food, healthcare, gym, place to stay sleep. a society on its own. heaven for a homeless.
I haven’t read all the comments……
are you the fìrst one to think of this possibility?
I agree with you.
Here in the city that I living (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico), a person was sentenced to prison for 3 years because he steal 2lbs of meat, and almost all the people in the politics generate millions of dollars in illicit wealth and they end up clean due to the privileges that they have.
I bet that CEO was white
Racist B*******
Then again he does get a bed and a room in prison so it’s better than the streets, but still 15 YEARS!
not even funny, only rly messed up
Can I get a: “gg”?
A quick Google search results in very few first hand sources on the robbery. And as mentioned above, the exisiting article seems to leave out information like eventual previous sentences. So, you could add Journalism Fail as well.
I, for one, will wait until I have more facts before concluding anything in particular.
Humans fail
this is messed up. a white CEO who steals $3b gets 40 months. a black homeless guy who steals $100 and then turns himself in gets 15 years. this is just purely retarded, corrupt, and racist. happy f*ckin’ fourth of July people.
Quick! There’s a big scary racist under your bed! Don’t wet it, you know what your racist mommy will say about that…
It has absolutely nothing to do with racism. The difference is that the homeless guy committed a violent crime. And another one of the brokers that helped steal the money? White, and given 30 years.
That is the saddest thing…but you have to admit jail might even be better than being homeless. You’d have regualar meals and somewhere to sleep.
You’re right!
Because there’s no such thing as shelters, food banks, food stamps, coat drives, etc, etc, etc ad nauseum.
Being “homeless” does not give you a free pass to commit crime.
f*** that judge. 54 year old man will die there. having a heart fail
f*** that moron. His ACTS put him in front of the judge. Having a brain FAIL.
+1000000
Civil law (in over 80 countries): It uses comprehensive statues and codes as a primary means to form legal judgements. It is less flexible, because judges have the power only to apply the law. Comprehensive statues and codes serve to guide the judges.
Contracts are usually shorter, because many issues are covered in civil law codes.
Common law (all English-speaking countries): is shaped by precedents and traditions from previous judicial decisions. It has more flexibility because judges have to resolve specific disputes based on their interpretation of the law, and such interpretation may give new meaning to the law, which will in turn shape future cases. More confrontational, because lawyers must argue and help judges to favorably interpret the law.
Very detailed contracts.
It says he was convicted of first degree robbery, not armed robbery.
You’re an idiot. It was a first-degree robbery BECAUSE he was armed.
I’m Sorry, this is definitly an America fail… Major, Major, Major fail…
You’re right!
He should totally move to Saudi Arabia and try to rob from a bank and see what happens!
it’s because he threatened her- it says he had his hand in his pocket which was obviously to imply a gun. he would not have done any time had he pick-pocketed it or something. It’s the threatening, not the robbery itself that he’s doing more time for
Yes we know that we place emotions on crime. The subtly of emotions can be interpreted to a degree.
You can’t go rob a bank and expect a small sentence, even though this is a sad case.
But equally so you shouldn’t be able to steal billions and get a small sentence.
They need to fix fraud precedents.
I’m seeing a lot of angst in this thread about the difference in the amount stolen. However, this marks any and everyone who mentioned it as totally ignorant when it comes to the law.
For crimes that are defined as violent, the amount simply doesn’t matter, and this makes perfect sense because the violence is the point, not the profit made thereof. Someone who murders you for a chicken leg is just as culpable as someone who
Armed robbery is defined as violent, and the idiot in question MADE it a violent robbery when he pretended he had a gun.
I personally feel that the judge should have been more lenient, but we don’t know this person’s priors and we don’t know if a mandatory minimum was partially responsible. Mandatory minimums, if you’ll recall, were implemented because liberal judges kept giving free passes to violent people until they killed someone.
Edit: … as someone who murders you for your weekly paycheck.
For all of you out there that are ridiculing the american justice system, I’d rather be tried in the US than any other system in the world. A lot of countries, they just take you out and shoot you. God bless America and go USA.
High-five!
I’d rather be tried in the UK where there’s no death penalty and they are looking to let people out early because of the overcrowding of prisons.. Also the minimum and maximum sentences are lower than the US..
Think of it like this. The judge commended the mans integrity by giving him a place to stay, and 3 meals a day.
Better than being homeless IMO
I see slavery is still rife.
The homeless man scared people into believing he had a weapon, and endangered public safety, gun or not. That is why he received a greater sentence, (although I agree that 15 years was far too harsh of a punishment.) I can understand the fact that the CEO stole a great sum of money, but he did not directly threaten with physical violence.
Plus being poor and black like the homeless man in the article will definitely not benefit you in court if you’re in a state like Louisiana.
So people in the ‘corporate’ world (albeit the most corrupt strata of the economic system we’re stuck with, like it or not) are virtually immune from incarceration. Based on a ratio of $100 = 15 years basis, a $3billion theft would accrue a… 450million year sentence. Conversely, a 40 month sentence for $3billion would equate with a sentence of 3.456 seconds for flogging $100. Hmmmm…seems to be a very broad spectrum of inconsistency here…..I’m not advocating a ‘one hat fits all’ system here, but a modicum of equity would be reasonable.
Hmm.. so lets ignore the violence aspect of the robbery shall we? He got 15 years because he claimed he had a gun! He threatened violence!
He should never have been in the position that he felt he needed to rob a bank but it was still his choice to do it.
Niether person showed any thought in their crimes, rich or poor. They both had a the choice of doing what was right. Now they have to pay for that choice.
I’m from the UK and I do chuckle at the arguments here. Yeah it sucks, but isn’t the black guy getting a slightly better life than he was? He traded his freedom for Food, Shelter, Medical Care, Protection (to a degree I guess). Perhaps the Jury saw the robbery as a attempt to get into prision in the first place? Maybe they decided it was a better place for him than on the street?
I seem to remember seeing an article recently that mentioned black men had a higher life expecancy in jail that out. I tried to find it but couldn’t. Might of been a dream but I swear I saw it.
Oh, where to begin? There was no jury, the article states very plainly he turned himself in. However, self surrender shouldn’t always merit leniency in a crime. This man walked into a bank decided to take things he hadn’t earned because he was a drug addict and probably intended on buying more drugs with it. It doesn’t matter if he took $0.01 or $1,000,000.00, the amount of money doesn’t take away from the severity of the crime. That is one of the innumerable problems with the justice system today. He belongs where he is at, I hope he is at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Unlike the Sandals vacation a lot of facilities provide LSP is an actual punishment that involves heavy labor and unpleasantness.
He wasn’t paying for drugs he was paying for time in a DETOX center. He was trying to get clean, big difference.
Well that’s social stratification for you! This country is founded on the principal of social justice for those who can afford it. The homeless man will be treated far better in prison then he was out on the street. If it came down to it I would go rob a bank and turn myself. If I was dying of cancer I would do it in a heart beat because I would have a better chance of getting decent medical care in prison then I would anywhere else. The prison system is runs more like something out of The Communist Manifesto then anything else. Which is pretty pathetic considering capitalism is suppose to be this grand thing that we are suppose to bow down to as we put are family members in the ground because we cant afford the health care.
I think this homeless guy wanted to go to prison. Robbing less than $100 dollars is a misdemeanor, max sentence is 1 yr. He gave the money back, didn’t even spend it. No trial, no jury, he made a plea bargain. Nobody forced him to take this sentence, it was HIS decision. Now he has a roof over his head and three meals every day, but this is the country we have become. People so desperate they would rather choose to go to jail rather than starve to death on the streets.
disgusting and annoying how people take things for granted!
A guy is robbing the bank, he only took just $100 and returned the rest.
Yet the judge sentenced him to 15years.
proof that America is still racist man, bullsh* like these are what makes America the no 1 enemy of the world.
Worst of all…..HE IS HOMELESS!
3 billion dollars was not stolen by one guy, that was the total amount of the scheme. If you fix prices on 3 billion worth of mortgages, you may come away with far, far less than the total amount of the scheme.
It is simply untrue that he stole 3 billion dollars. Stop making that comparison. The facts do not support it.
The problem here isn’t that violent crimes have a longer sentence than non-violent ones. The problem is that mandatory sentencing guidelines didn’t give the Louisiana judge any leeway for leniency in the bank robbery conviction. Knee jerk reactions to recidivism and “get tough” politics tied the hands of compassionate judges long ago. This poor guy pays the price.
Eric Northman would have handled this better.
http://civilliberty.about.com/b/2011/06/23/two-sentences.htm
Ughhhh none of this is true. Read the comments there…
Lets see, armed robbery vs a fraud charge where he wasn’t the main guy behind it all (according to the defense) and helped with the investigation to put away the guy who was behind it. Hurray for False Dilemmas!
At least the homeless guy gets a roof to sleep under now?
Exactly what I was thinking! Isn’t the homeless man better off in jail than he is on the streets? That’s probably what the jury had in mind. This is probably a blessing for him.
This is probably the best for the homeless man.in canadian prisons u get three meals a day,Tv,gym,a place to sleep,medical services and other stuff. I dont think it can be THAT different in america so its probably better than being homeless
idk why people are saying that america has a messed up judicial system when in alot of other countries they either pay the system off or get killed. also a lot of bums over here go do petty crimes so they can go to prison to get free food, healthcare, and all the other benefits they wont get on the street…
To quote a generic UNSC trooper from Red vs Blue: F^CKING BULL$#!T!!
The goal of justice is to do one or both of 2 things. 1 – Make things “right”, by performing a punishing action equal to the crime committed, whether it’s a fine, prison time, etc. And/or 2 – Keep the criminal detained so that he can no longer committ further crimes or be a threat to society. A homeless man that gives the money back, turns himself in, and apologizes doesn’t seem to need much punishment, as things were already made “right” when he apologized and returned the $100. If they would have let him off with a few months in jail, I’m sure the civilians involved in the robber would not care. And he probably won’t be committing a crime like that again, it just seems like a desperate action of which he’s remorseful. Meanwhile, the CEO SHOULD have been forced to return all the money to make it “right”, AND after he’s out of prison, he will probably do it again, because greedy people with always be greedy. Sounds like they mixed up the sentences.
Hmm. That’s fifteen years of a bed and three squares meals a day for the homeless man, not saying its necessarily morally sound, but maybe that’s what the judge was going for?
I was about to post the same thing. I totally think this is what the judge was going for.
I don’t always post in the comments.
But when I do, I make sure to be radically opinionated.
Welcome to the Stats game. The higher the sentence the better they look for government handouts.
That is a fail. You can put whatever laws that exist and try to justify it that way, that guy does not deserve 15 years. Even if it was a violent crime and he wasn’t remorseful that’s a terrible sentence. And further justifying by saying he gts a ‘free-rde’ in prison is a pretty retarded atttitude to the poverty stricken, isn’t it? If there was any really justice, this guy would NOT be homeless in the first place, and that scam guy would not be there to make sure that this kinda thing happens to others.
Give the poor homeless guy the mandatory MINIMUM and then get him some help! He doesn’t need jail time, he needs help getting his life back on track. For Pete’s sake he can’t even afford to stay at the detox clinic/shelter to get better!
Well, at least he has a roof over his head now…for free. Poor guy.
youre all retarded, and also THE GAME
I really feel for this guy, yes he committed a crime but only for survival, he had so much money in front of him but he only took one bill. He seems like a genuine good guy just in a really bad situation. Fingers crossed he gets what he needs during his sentence to improve his life upon release.
and yeh he gets bed and board for 15 years but American prisons seem pretty scary……
It is a travesty of justice for someone to get 15 years for stealing $100. I couldn’t care less if he pretended to have a gun, he did not put a weapon to anybody. Yes, I live in Canada and the laws are very lax here. If this guy was here he would have most likely gotten a suspended sentence, maybe placed on probation if the judge was having a rough day. Heck, we provide our drug addicts clean needles to shoot up at designated centers to prevent the spread of Aids, so this guy would not have to pay to stay at a detox center.
Yeah, sadly the Canadians are not considered to be a major influence in the world, so you guys can be a little more “lax” with your laws like a bunch of pussies. No wonder your country is full of Frenchies.
YES WE CAN <— LoL
Justice=money. Legal systems all over the world = MAJOR FAIL
This is f*cked up.
“Laws are the spider’s webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape.” Solon (Athenian statesman) said it first.
f¡rst
You American people are really a model for all of us.
Here in France, we’re currently working on a tougher juridic system for fellony. We should take USA for model.
Please continue to make us dream, and more importantly, to make us feel smart.
Peace, I’m out
They dont know you’re being sarcastic, dude ^^
This is sad.
This makes me lose faith in humanity. =|
No no, my beloved US citizens!
In other parts of the world, we do not cut off fingers for stealing anymore! And we do not give a life sentence for stealing 100 lousy bucks.
I know that must be hard for you to understand, because you think your systems actually works (which makes me giggle, I must admit) but in Australia, Europe and other advanced areas, judges have an ACTUAL LEGAL basis they must adhere to.
You should try modern democracy or any form of it that is not 200 years old , it’s sooo fun! And humane, too!
)
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