Category: Crime

You would need to be very disconnected with society to not notice how the rich (or simply being white in some countries) equates to lesser punishment for the same crimes.

Often the general narrative is that a rich person made a mistake and will learn their lesson, whereas a poor person has started down an unstoppable path of crime. Also, of course, the rich can afford better lawyers (as opposed to many poor folk not even having a lawyer), and awesome character references.

But it is rare to see these contrasts so blatantly extreme as this:

An American hedge-fund billionaire has surrendered 180 looted and illegally smuggled antiquities valued at $70m… The DA’s office said its inquiry found “compelling evidence” that the antiquities were stolen from 11 countries, and that at least 171 passed through traffickers before being bought by Steinhardt.

…“His pursuit of ‘new’ additions to showcase and sell knew no geographic or moral boundaries, as reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, money launderers and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection.”

…treasures include the Ercolano Fresco, which depicts an infant Hercules strangling a snake sent by Hera to slay him, which had been purchased from convicted antiquities traffickers for $650,000 in 1995, the year it had been looted from a Roman villa in the ruins of Herculaneum, near modern Naples. Today, it has been valued at $1m.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/07/us-billionaire-michael-steinhardt-surrenders-70m-dollars-stolen-art

Keep in mind that hedge fund billionaires don’t really work for their money, and are the biggest tax-dodgers around.

And the result? No charges, no conviction.

Whereas a poor person who received a stolen toaster would be convicted, and even jailed if they had priors.

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You know that when its people are rebelling against law and authority, empires are vulnerable.

This week a group of around 80 people planned a large-scale robbery of a Nordstrom store in Walnut Creek, California. Police arrested three, and one was armed with a gun.

They used 25 stolen cars to block access for police, and used pepper spray, physical violence and a knife on Nordstrom staff, getting away with $100K in loot.

This is also recently happened in pharmacies, cannabis dispensaries and jewelry stores.

Desperate, impoverished people committing crime is not unusual anywhere in the world. But when people mass organise to participate in violent crime, for a gain of only $1000 each, that is next level. That is in the direction of a rebellion.

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