Comments on: What Equal Justice Looks Like in Reading, Pennsylvania

By: mrclay.org » Archive » Yet Another Sexting Prosecution Attempt

mrclay.org » Archive » Yet Another Sexting Prosecution Attempt — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:37:27 +0000

[...] Radley Balko: “What Equal Justice Looks Like in Reading, Pennsylvania“ [...]

By: Alas, a blog » Blog Archive » Link Farm and Open Thread, Brain Scanning Dead Fish Edition

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:45:25 +0000

[...] Reading, Pennsylvania: Where you get three years in prison for taking consensual nude pictures of your girlfriend, but cops who expose their penises in the office aren’t penalized at all. [...]

By: JOR

JOR — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:29:22 +0000

“Sorry “Cynical in CA” but you are an obvious neo-commie. How do I know? Because your class system only has appeal to a “typical” bourgeois American.”

This conjunction makes me think Pigpen is trying to be funny. Obviously someone whose ideas are rooted in bourgeois class consciousness is a Communist.

“Where is the CELEBRITY in your class system?”

Maybe celebrities are accounted for and divided among the listed classes?

By: tired dog

tired dog — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:37:43 +0000

yep, when in doubt WHIP IT OUT

By: justinslot

justinslot — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:53:05 +0000

Obviously amateur pornographers need a better union.

By: Cynical In CA

Cynical In CA — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:14:44 +0000

Thanks Max for pointing out my conflation of class and power. While I believe in most cases they run together, your examples do ring true, though I think if Bill Gates made it through his fictitious encounter with said customs agent alive, he’d make life f’en miserable for the agent through his contacts in high office.

Yeah, once you get down to sex offenders, ex-cons and slaves your really just splitting hairs. Lump them together in an underclass.

By: Pigpen

Pigpen — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:07:39 +0000

Sorry “Cynical in CA” but you are an obvious neo-commie. How do I know? Because your class system only has appeal to a “typical” bourgeois American. Where is the CELEBRITY in your class system? You conveniently left out the Übermenschen of American society, the Hollywood celebrity. But they don’t often disagree with you worn out, apparatchik dribble, now do they? So we won’t include them in our little list of overprivileged person like police officers who make a lousy hourly wage and are hated by EVERYBODY in America, now will we?

By: perlhaqr

perlhaqr — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:27:36 +0000

SusanK: This is the problem with the internet. Somebody-Or-Other’s Law, (I can’t remember who right now) “There is no viewpoint so outrageous that when expressed as sarcasm will not be taken seriously by someone–Because that person has seen it expressed before seriously.”

*sigh*

You were speaking sarcastically, I accept, but I’m sure you and I both know it wouldn’t take long to find someone who really felt that way.

By: Yizmo Gizmo

Yizmo Gizmo — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:00:13 +0000

“The first guy took naked pictures of a CHILD and moved all over the state, not telling anyone where he was. That puts all of the children at risk.
The second guy just waved his penis at other cops. That only puts cops at risk. And cops aren’t kids.
See, when we do it for the children, it doesn’t apply to police. Totally proportional.”

The best satire is not super blatant. Makes you stop and think.
Way to go Suzy-Q! Nice post.

By: USAA_SUCKS

USAA_SUCKS — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:22:56 +0000

pam,

Very good observation. It’s something I’ve thought about myself. The poor “children” aren’t children anymore when doesn’t suit some prosecutors purpose or next re-election campaign.

By: Lloyd Flack

Lloyd Flack — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:46:14 +0000

What a vicious evil creep the prosecutor is. She appealed to maximize the harm that she did. Why? I don’t know but it certainly wasn’t for the benefit of the supposed victim. Was it to make a public demonstration about how concerned she was about sex abuse of minors? Hand her over to the wife of her victim to do with as she pleases. I say this because any claim that it is for the benfit of Mrs. Madeira is a presumptous insult to her.

By: max

max — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:57:21 +0000

Cynical, you’re chart is off because it confuses the two factors of class in the US, rights & privileges. Your highest class may have the most privileges (no need to quibble over details) but the rights they hold are far below those of an ordinary bureaucrat. Bill Gates may be able to bypass customs and that jazz, but if he gets into a fight with a customs agent where they are equally culpable, the bureaucrat will not be the one taking a perp walk. Power is a separate issue from class in the US (some of the most powerful people are in the lowest classes). As a quibble, you should put somewhere in the class list ex-cons, and sex offenders who would rank below slaves (at least if a slave were to buy a house he would be allowed to live in it).

By: DaveG

DaveG — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:51:18 +0000

I think everyone needs to see the pictures of the young woman, before we can make informed comments.
Also I think the arbitrators are of the rock out with your cock out philosophy, popular in many high ancient cultures.

By: Pinandpuller

Pinandpuller — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:22:38 +0000

In the future the supervisor should keep in mind the possible ramifications of kicking that dipshit in the nuts. And by ramifications I mean reinstatement and back pay.

By: Cynical in CA

Cynical in CA — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:32:04 +0000

I agree with the boycott. Force must be met with force and a boycott is peaceful, merely the assertion of the natural right of association.

I hope all of those businesses go under, the town loses its tax base and ceases to exist, putting the thug cops out of work temporarily until the tax-feeders can find another victim’s blood to suck.

As Metallica wanted to call their first album — Fuck ‘Em All.

By: PW

PW — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:28:52 +0000

Full back pay indeed. And probably a full pension.

Can anyone point me to any other profession besides policing where you have (1) guaranteed perpetual job security, (2) complete impunity from any wrongdoing on the job, (3) retirement with full salaried lifetime pension as early as your mid 40′s, and (4) all of it completely and 100% subsidized by the taxpayers?

Not even the lazy bureaucrat at the DMV desk gets it that easy, as they at least have to stick around till a more realistic retirement age.

Cops literally spend their ENTIRE adult life on the public dime (including half of it as retired pensioners) and it’s impossible to forcibly remove them from it. There simply isn’t anything else out there that’s comparable…unless you go to the line at the welfare office.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:23:42 +0000

Oh, and on the subject of police misconduct:

http://troylaplante.blogspot.com/

“Those tea baggers, they got what was coming.”

By: Cynical in CA

Cynical in CA — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:18:49 +0000

#36 | Windy — “Today is also Constitution Day. And obviously ignored by even libertarians.”

IHO Constitution Day, I give you this gem from Lysander Spooner:

“But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain – that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”

If I had a million dollars, I would offer it as a prize to anyone who could logically disprove the soundness and validity of that statement.

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:17:37 +0000

#36 Is there any reason to celebrate something that politicians print on rolls of toilet paper so they can wipe their ass with it?

By: Cynical in CA

Cynical in CA — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:16:29 +0000

Agreed about the military enlisted, JOR. Another group I neglected to include is union labor, which has a class status around upper middle class, especially if it is a public union.

There will always be exceptions to the rule. Elected officials will face prosecution, but only for challenging the order. LEOs will only face prosecution if acting for personal gain, out of official capacity and with clear malice. But the very highest classes are de facto immune from prosecution, at least as the proles understand it. There may be some kind of shadow justice system amongst themselves, kind of like omerta in the Mafia.