Equality has never really caught on in America regardless the concept
is ensconced in the nation’s Declaration of Independence and
Constitution. One area that has come under increasing scrutiny over the
past couple of years is the inordinate number of poor and people of
color who are incarcerated at an incredibly higher rate than the rest of
the population. In part, it is due to America’s inherent racism, and in
part because there is big money and serious profit-taking in the
nation’s penal system.
Now though, an unlikely alliance between the Koch brothers, the White
House, Democrats, and the Kochs’ a
gitator network; the latter who have
portrayed themselves as altruistic benefactors of the imprisoned by
promoting major criminal justice reform “
to unshackle millions of poor and people of color from a predatory legal system.”
However, like everything connected with the Kochs, there is an ulterior
motive behind their activism driven by a new and effective means of
skirting environmental regulations with impunity under the guise of “
criminal justice system reform.”
Neither the Koch brothers, ALEC, nor House Republicans are concerned
about reforming the criminal justice system to relieve people of color
or the poor from judicial inequality. They want the system reformed for
corporations, the wealthy, and the Koch brothers. Like every piece of
legislation, or “
reform package” involving Koch-Republicans,
there are hidden provisions to ensure that the Kochs and corporations
get precisely what they demand; impossible “
legal hurdles” to prevent federal prosecutors from pursuing white-collar criminals.
Apparently the Kochs have concluded that since they have been
unsuccessful thus far in their significant attempts to eliminate federal
regulations and laws, especially environmental regulations, they tasked
“their Republican Congress” with passing legislation to neuter the
judicial system’s ability to prosecute violators.
There is nothing whatsoever altruistic about the Koch’s alleged
pursuit of fairness or justice in promoting criminal justice reform. It
is just a “
get out of jail free” card courtesy of Republicans
and no small number of naïve Democrats motivated out of compassion to
put a stop to judicial inequality. Time will tell if Democrats or the
President can eliminate the Koch-corporate amendments hampering
prosecution for serious crimes against the American people.
A House Judiciary Committee’s early
draft
of one proposed package of reforms substantially raises the legal
threshold for prosecutors to prove a person committed a white-collar
offense. The House bill will abandon a very basic precept in American
law that no person can claim they did not know, or understand, that what
they were doing was illegal or dangerous. If the legislation is
enacted, it will require that the government “
proves that the defendant knew, or had reason to believe, the conduct was unlawful;” in other words, prosecutors would be required to prove they could read a defendant’s mind at the time of their crime.
According to the president of Public Citizen, Robert Weissman:
“
The House language violates the basic precept that ‘ignorance of
the law’ is no defense. There is absolutely no reason for the otherwise
laudable criminal justice reform bill to contain any measure to weaken
already feeble standards for corporate criminal prosecution.”
Of course there is no reason in a democracy to create a different set
of legal standards for the rich and corporations than the rest of the
population, but America is hardly an equitable society. But it is
noteworthy that the Kochs directed Republicans to slip “
fine print” protecting corporations into judicial reform heavily touted to protect the poor and people of color.
Some Americans may be aware that the Koch’s state-level legislative
arm, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has spent no small
amount of Koch, NRA, and Chamber of Commerce funds working on “
criminal justice reform” in the states, but this latest push at the federal level is aimed directly at environmental regulations. In fact, nearly all
Koch-funded,
anti-regulation belief tanks have been extremely active issuing
documentation and papers demanding that since Republicans control
Congress and cannot abolish regulations outright, the next best thing is
enacting more robust requirements to even prosecute violations, much
less get a white-collar (corporate) conviction.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, Peter Carr, said if
the Koch criminal justice reform ever becomes law that it will seriously
undermine the DOJ’s ability to prosecute white-collar crime. Mr. Carr
said,
“
It would create confusion and needless litigation, and
significantly weaken countless federal statutes; especially those that
play an important role in protecting the public welfare… protecting
consumers from unsafe food and medicine;” it would also be the next best thing to eradicating federal regulations. It is precisely what the
Heritage Foundation and Charles Koch Institute have
clamored for and Congress is seriously on pace to give the Kochs what they expect for their money; results.
The Koch brothers and their conservative allies claim that federal
prosecutors have far too much power and too readily abuse it; it is what
normal people regard as doing their jobs. This has nothing to do with a
racial justice agenda or anything close to civil rights activists
focused on police and prosecutorial abuses of the criminal justice
system; this is entirely about the Koch-corporate community focusing on
neutering government regulations.
Heritage Foundation’s legal studies director, John Malcolm, wrote that
“
If somebody or some entity unwittingly does something that
results in harm to the environment or public, there is no reason why it
cannot be dealt with through the administrative or civil justice
systems. This would avoid saddling blameless individuals and entities
with a criminal conviction.”
It would also allow the Kochs to pollute, dump toxic chemicals, and
destroy air and water with relative impunity by simply claiming they
were unaware that it was a federal violation to poison the air and
water.
Malcolm even devised a paper for Congress to base its “
regulatory reform laws”
on and laid out some excuses corporations can use to get out of jail
free. Specifically, Malcolm’s provides a range of varying standards of
proof federal prosecutors will be bound by law to get a conviction. At
worst, a perpetrator can be prosecuted if they are accused of “
negligence, recklessly, knowingly, intentionally, and willfully violate regulations or the law;”
or they can plead that they just did not think it was illegal to dump
toxic waste and poison into the air and water and force the Department
of Justice to prove they were not ignorant of the law. It is something a
person of color caught with a reefer in their pocket could never get
away with. Obviously, the only point of the “
reformation” is to protect corporations and give them free rein to violate federal regulations by making it impossible to prosecute them.
The principle behind criminal justice reform is admirable, and
changing the system to treat the poor and people of color equitably is
desperately needed. It is likely that the majority of Democrats,
including President Obama, will push hard to see some kind of reform
package passed sooner than later. However, no American should delude
themselves for one second that the Kochs, who are praising themselves
for acting on behalf of the poor or minorities, are spending one cent of
their substantial fortune for any other reason than to protect
themselves from prosecution for violating environmental regulations they
have failed to eradicate.
