Bill Black: New York City: Aggressive “Broken Windows” Policing but Carte Blanche for Banksters

[marmar]

New York City: Aggressive “Broken Windows” Policing but Carte Blanche for Banksters
Posted on December 6, 2014 by William Black

By William K. Black
Kansas City, MO: December 6, 2014


New York City exemplifies two perverse criminal justice policies that drive many criminologists to distraction. It is the home of the most destructive epidemics of elite financial frauds in history. Those fraud epidemics hyper-inflated the housing bubble and drove the financial crisis and the Great Recession. The best estimate is that the U.S. GDP loss will be $21 trillion and that 10 million Americans lost their jobs. Both numbers are far larger in Europe. The elite “C Suite” leaders of these fraud epidemics were made wealthy by those frauds through bonuses that measured in the billions of dollars annually.

The most extraordinary facts about the catastrophic fraud epidemics, however, is New York City’s reaction to the fraud epidemics. Not a single Wall Street bankster who led the fraud epidemics has been prosecuted or had their fraud proceeds “clawed back.” Not a single Wall Street bankster who led the fraud epidemics is treated as a pariah by his peers or New York City elites. New York City’s elected leaders have made occasional criticisms of the banksters, but Mayor Bloomberg was famous for his sycophancy for the Wall Street banksters that made him wealthy. In 2011, Mayor Bloomberg attacked the “Occupy Wall Street” movement for daring to protest the banksters.

“‘I don’t appreciate the bashing of all the hard working people who live and work here and pay the taxes that support our city,’ said Bloomberg, during a press conference in a Bronx library.

‘The city depends on Wall Street.’

‘Jamie Dimon is one of the great bankers,’ said Bloomberg. ‘He’s brought more business to this city than any banker in (the) modern day. To go and picket him, I don’t know what that achieves. Jamie Dimon is an honorable person, working very hard, paying his taxes.’

Bloomberg also questioned why the protestors were picking on wealthy bankers and other corporate titans.

It is, of course, depraved to claim that because banksters are made wealthy through fraud and pays a small portion of that wealth in taxes they should not be held accountable for those frauds because they are important to local finances. The claim becomes all the more risible when we take into account that under Dimon’s leadership JPMorgan became infamous for engaging in and facilitating billions of dollars in tax evasion that cost many governments, including NYC, enormous amounts of tax revenues. As a final indignity, most of the purported amounts that JPMorgan paid in settlements with DOJ are actually paid by the U.S. Treasury because DOJ allowed JPMorgan to treat large amounts of those payments as tax deductible. DOJ’s senior leadership used this as one of their cynical means of making the settlements paid by the banks appear far larger than they actually were. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/12/new-york-city-aggressive-broken-windows-policing-carte-blanche-banksters.html

[devils chaplain]

1. "Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you king." n/t

[99Forever]

2. Apparently President Obama holds Dimon in the same high regard as Bloomberg does.

That tell you (the generic you, not the personal) anything?

Thanks for the very informative post.

[PeoViejo]

3. "Jamie Dimon is an honorable person, working very hard, paying his taxes.’ "

He can afford to pay his taxes and still have more money than he will ever need or have time to spend.

Cry me a fuckin' River....

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Remember that 3 lower echelon bankers had charges dismissed because....

the judge felt they had "suffered enough" by the "embarrassment" of being arrested.

In times like this, it is instructive to remember how the French handled their problem all those years ago...........