Friday, April 25, 2008
Unsupported Statements of the Day (Which I Still Happen to Believe Quite Strongly), Pt. 1
In no way did Wesley Snipes deserve a three year sentence for misdemeanor charges of failure to file his taxes--and a piss poor way of saying thanks for the $5,000,000 in checks that he handed over before sentencing in an effort to show that not only had he learned his lesson, but that he had a newfound willingness to pony up.
As a bonus, I’m also pretty leery of government agents and agencies when they are looking to prosecute harshly in an effort to send a message to the rest of us. That is, quite baldly, a threat. Honestly, I don’t mind “We think it sends a real message” when it’s in the form of high explosives dropped in the laps of terrorists or long sentences doled out to murderers. This doesn’t quite qualify, though, does it?
It’s extremely rare to see a criminal prosecution like this (and remember that Snipes was acquitted of the harshest of the charges) and the prosecution admits to using Snipes’ celebrity to make a point to the rest of us--essentially delivering a different standard of justice to Snipes than I would have faced if I had made the same exceptionally bad decisions as the actor. It rankles when celebrities are given a free pass for stupid (and occasionally criminal) behavior; it’s no less wrong when celebrities are unfairly made into legal targets because of their social standing.
Comments & Trackbacks
It’s extremely rare to see a criminal prosecution like this...
Sadly not as rare as it should be. As you read this various federal agencies are prosecuting medical marijuana users, online poker providers, and (as Z has noted) adult porn providers.
All to make some point or other.
While I was specifically talking about prosecution for failure to file taxes, you make a very good point. It isn’t really unusual behavior for the government in a larger sense.
I, uh, oh, yannow… I’ve seen so many good people, honest people, taken down by the IRS because they had a business partner that screwed them over. I’ve seen relentless prosecution of a family man who did nothing more than trust a friend, and learned a very hard lesson, while he himself had done nothing more wrong than fail to investigate his partner’s well-hidden duplicity that left him literally hung out to dry. His sentence? 20 years of hard labor, two jobs, just to pay back the two years’ worth of tax evasion by his partner. Financial ruin.
I’ve seen everyday lives so ruined by the IRS that one Wesley Snipes, who portrayed open disdain and willful non-compliance with the IRS (and I half love him for that alone), hardly seems worth my time or thoughts. He’s been sentenced to three years’ of light duty penance, and he will go on with a rich and luxurious existence afterwards. I’m frankly surprised that he couldn’t buy his way out of it.
Saying that, no prosecutor or judge worth their own intelligence should ever think of “making an example” of anyone. That is not justice, that is Sopranos-style bullying.
Sorry, it’s a mixed bag for me. Color me ambivalent.