I’m confused about this assertion that nobody is above the law in the United States. We have seen some obvious instances of behavior that call this lofty goal into question with our President, but there are complications that make the conversation more complex than we might like. Allow me to try and explain my confusion.
If I am driving my car in a manner that is outside the law and I get in an accident, I will be subject to legal prosecution. If somebody died as a result of my actions, I could be charged with vehicular manslaughter and if my behavior was egregious enough that charge could be a felony charge. So, if someone died as a direct result of my bad behavior, I could find myself sitting in prison. We could all add other behaviors that would qualify as felony manslaughter if we engaged in them and that list of possible behaviors could easily include behaviors that are part of our employment. Maybe I worked in a restaurant and stored rat poison where it could spill into a pot of food that was then served to my customers? I would think that my work behavior would be called incompetent and I would be fired and if my work behavior were serious enough I would be subject to prosecution. Here we are at my point of confusion. If my behavior is incompetent enough, I can be charged with a felony.
Now, what happens if my incompetence was in relation to my work as an elected official? How can we not be hearing about criminal prosecutions as a result of government officials negligence or incompetence at their work? If their incompetence results in the death of someone in their jurisdiction – someone who is a constituent of theirs, shouldn’t that elected official be subject to the same prosecutorial process under our laws?
Maybe one death is hard to prove in terms of a direct cause and effect. What about two deaths; what about a hundred deaths or a thousand deaths? What about tens of thousands of deaths? At what point is incompetence on the part of an elected official sufficiently egregious to warrant prosecution? Or, is the fact of the election immunity from prosecution?
If questions like this give you pause, read my book, A Broken Sausage Grinder; Is Our Government Fundamentally Flawed? and get some answers.
The Sausage Grinder is Broken, will you help to fix it?
Comment here or send an email: abrokensausagegrinder@comcast.net
Like us on Facebook: A Broken Sausage Grinder
Follow us on Twitter: Hank Thomas
Watch on YouTube: A Broken Sausage Grinder