A Day for A Day

I am a proud Pennsylvanian.  The current Phillies run is great – the team is now being compared to the 1929 Philadelphia A’s as the best ever (an analysis done by Sports Illustrated a couple of years ago had the audacity to say Connie Mack’s A’s were better than Ruth’s ’27 Yankees).

I own a Pottsville Maroons 1925 Championship T-shirt.  I drink Yuengling beer.  I used to be able to name close to 30 Tastykake pies (I thought I was impressing my future wife with that skill).

You take the good with the bad.  I can live with 10,000 Phillies losses or watching Temple get continuously rooked at football, or seeing the Maroons Championship taken away from them by the  NFL (yeah, they were corporate pinheads back then too).  That doesn’t diminish my pride at being from the original Quaker State.

Sometimes I am not as proud to be a member of the Keystone State.  A couple of rouge judges in Wilkes-Barre, in the Northeast part of the state, destroyed the lives of thousands of young people because the judges were on the take.

These “people” (in quotes because I really don’t know what they are) abused their power as judges.  I will not value them as people by using their names.

Here’s a link to Philly.com’s coverage of the PA Supreme Court vacating case after case because these guys set up a scam where the juvenile court system became the feeder system to a bunch of for-profit detention centers. 

These judges rushed kids through the juvenile justice system for truly minor offenses, rewarding them with 3 months at these prison camps.  Many times the kids had no legal representation and were immediately whisked away to do their time.

Now that these clowns are caught, they are trying to weasel their way through the system.  It appears the legal system can’t truly handle their own.  Evidently a deal was cut to allow these guys on the street after doing about 7 years.

If you want cynicism, this is the rawest form.  Sending a kid to jail on unbalanced charges for money and ruining their lives deserves more than any system we have in place can accommodate.  (PA has a death penalty on the books, but we’d never be able to strap them down. ) It is as much an insult to even think seven years can atone for what they have done to either their direct victims or to the rest of us. 

They have broken the system and truly damaged all of us.

How about some sentencing flexibility?  These guys should get to serve one day for each day they sentenced each kid to do.

During the serving of a given kids’ sentence, if the kid wants to stop by and lecture these guys on the how screwed up society is, let them do it.  No weapons, because these losers behind bars will need to be preserved for the next person they rooked over.

And for this type of punishment, I am not just talking about the judges here.  Anybody that had anything to do with this, knew about it and let it slide gets the same deal.  That means the prosecutors, the bailiff, or a cop who thought he saw something and didn't do right by these kids -- they get it too.

We all saw the story about the 15 year-old raped while her classmates looked on after the homecoming dance.  We are all as much horrified at the actions of those who did the deed as we are at those who stood by.

There is a moral equivalence here.  The system has no problem (as do most properly thinking people) in going after the bystanders.  Why are the bystanders in Wilkes-Barre not pursued?

There are enough parts of our society that have no or diminished faith in our system.  I lost a lot of it with Gore v. Bush.  I lost more of it when a Green Party candidate was given an $80,000 fine for just trying to get on the election ballot (my next rant).

If any of us go to court, we don’t need to be looking over our shoulder thinking, “Is this guy on the take?”

It will make me more proud to think we can come up with a better way to flush out this type of garbage.

 

Comments

[SpeakupKathleen]

HuffPost's Pick

I first heard about this 'story' in People magazine; am fascinated by the apparent truth that
"we", as citizens, do not KNOW what our resources are in an instance like this legal-support-
system-gone-awry!! The parents of the first few teens so maltreated, for example---to whom
do they go? which agency/elected official/societal watchdog group?? who (individual(s)) does
a family contact to register their complaint? The police? [guess not] A lawyer? legal aid?
I am honestly appalled that I do not know myself ! And the terror of each of those teen souls!

Like the Emperor's New Clothes, the judges' corruption seemed airtight to them---counting on
the lack of knowledge and unquestioning deference of the families, as well as the community at large.
Who indeed would shout from the disempowered crowd: " The Emperor is naked...there are no
fineries covering his backside!! " Only the innocent, the few unaware of the price to pay for 'doing
the right thing'. How do readers like me, KNOW that there wouldn't have been a price to pay for
those who 'should have spoken out about what they knew'? It is easy for me to think that they should
have well-after the siege.

So, it is most complex, this story. Now I really wonder HOW it began to unravel for the truth to be
exposed at all!

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

thank you for a great response.

that is why punishment needs to be meted out to those who stood by and watched. they are just as guilty of these crimes.

if we are to trust our systems, they sometimes need to earn it.

[oldpol2]

After reading your post and further reading online I am apalled beyond words. I don't know where to start. I guess the first thing I see is not just the attitude of this judge but of our society as a whole. No one wishes to pay taxes so they are willing to privatize everything that should be handled by our government at a state and national level. Because someone once told us that rampant capitalism is the anti communism we have allowed the almighty dollar to decide the means and the end to all our societal ills. Our society has rotted to the core and we have now sacrificed our children on the alter of the dollar. The fault lies not only with these abhorrent judges but with the people who allow everything to be privatized and performed for profit.

Shame on them for allowing this to happen and more importantly shame on all of us for putting no thought into the ramifications of the judgements we make as a society.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

the problem is we don't step up when we need to.

do me a favor and pass the word on this.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

Freesia sent this comment and I deleted by accident when responding - there are limited tools here so I am klunkily reposting what I can...


A day for a day sounds about right to me. Justice.

Mostly though I agree with the idea that the bystanders should be held accountable. I know someone could make arguments against that (they couldn't prove it....they were afraid...etc) but the fact is that we're talking about children. And in a decent society, adults look after children. We're sadly amiss in so many ways (how it that there are homeless children in a country like America? There's a rant I could rant.) but the idea that someone could stand by and watch a terrified kid be hustled, in a courtroom which is intimidating to most adults, is unconscienable.

Oh and if you're referring to the Tastykakes I'm familiar with -I'm partial to the Chocolate Juniors. Butterscotch Krumpettes aren't shabby.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

this is the original reply to Freesia -
I appreciate the comment. just making them stand accountable for the inactions should be enough of a wake-up call to begin to turn the behavior of the bystanders at a larger level.

you are on target w/the tasykakes.