"In his new book, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, Matt Taibbi takes a look at the growing problem of inequality in the justice system. Taibbi shows, through many examples, that the way justice works in the United States is divided pretty starkly between the wealthy and successful (and mostly white) and the rest of the country. The system assumes that wealthy Americans are innocent, even when they commit crimes, and their punishments are either nonexistent or minor. Poorer Americans, on the other hand, are assumed to be guilty and face harassment and punishment well beyond their crimes, particularly when coupled with the treatment the rich get."

"3. Bank of America: The bank teamed up with Countrywide to sell more than $1 billion in questionable loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through a program called “Hustle.” This program removed underwriters and compliance officers from the loan process in order to make sure that loans “moved forward, never backward.” No criminal charges were brought against anyone. Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo paid $67.5 million in civil fines and was banned from serving as an officer in a public company."

4. Andrew Brown: While Brown had previously had troubles with drugs and the law, he was trying to straighten his life out. One night, on his way home from work, he was dressed in work clothes and wearing a name badge and was talking to a neighbor in front of his own apartment building at about 1 a.m. Police told him he was blocking pedestrian traffic, and when he tried to explain that he was coming home from work, he was arrested, handcuffed, put in a van, taken to the precinct, strip searched and charged. After numerous run-ins with law enforcement in the past, he decided to fight back against the ticket, since he had only been standing in front of his own building and since it was 1 a.m., there was no pedestrian traffic for him to block. Multiple lawyers who were assigned to him advised him to plead guilty and take a fine, which would add a misdemeanor to his record, even after he told them he wanted to fight it. Eventually a judge dismissed the case, but only after also advising Brown to take the charge and pay the fine.



6. Ann Marie Selby: Selby was a 36-year-old writing teacher in Portland, Ore., who was coming back from a spa, missed her bus and decided to walk home. Police stopped her on suspicion of prostitution. Officers said she was looking into the windows of passing vehicles. When she tried to show them the receipt from the spa, officers took it from her. She was afraid that the only physical evidence that supported her case would be gone, so she tried to take it back, knocking a police notebook to the ground. That got her a charge of harassment to go along with the prostitution accusation. She eventually beat both cases in court.

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Economy/9-Terrifying-Stories-of-Injustice-from-Matt-Taibbi-s-New-Book-The-Divide

Rahm Emanuel—just another of the corrupt insiders.