Al Capone probably didn’t expect to be arrested and prosecuted for tax evasion. He probably knew that he was committing crimes and that he could be held accountable for them. Al Capone, back then, probably didn’t doubt that if he were ever caught in illegal actions for which there was evidence that could send him to jail that he would be sent to jail. And that’s what happened. He was sent to jail on the evidence against him. Al Capone probably would never have expected that if he were arrested, charged, prosecuted, went to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to prison, that he would walk away from it a free man. And that’s what happened. He went to jail.
Since the arrest and incarceration of Al Capone, white collar criminals have become increasingly more emboldened. Today, the hubris and arrogance of white collar criminals who have been arrested, indicted, and taken to trial, especially from the 1980s on, have accompanied them as these criminals have adopted a very different set of expectations. Unlike Al Capone, for the most part, many of them don’t worry about the possibility that they might be convicted and sent to jail. They have the expectation that the trials against them will not successfully convict them. In fact, many of them expect to be acquitted and walk away as free and unfettered men. They simply hire a team of lawyers who devise clever ways to twist law and on that basis get them acquitted, even when there is sufficient evidence against them. They have come to truly appreciate the tiered justice system that places a much higher bar to convict them and make their convictions stick. This is not true for the more ordinary, less professional and less wealthy defendants in the criminal justice system who can’t afford to hire a small legion of high-priced lawyers to get them off the hook.
In the decades since the 1980s, the ostentation of corporate malfeasance has often gone rewarded rather than punished when prestigious law firms defended cases that to the observing public seemed to be culpable by the evidence that was made public and also by public opinion, especially in many of the most scandalous white collar cases that were litigated not just in court rooms, but also in the media. There have been, of course, some high-profile white collar crime court cases that did in fact convict. But it seems that justice in many other cases seemingly did not prevail when the verdict was an acquittal.
The 1980s in the United States saw the beginning of the contemporary trend of selfishness, hoarding, and ruthlessness that have come to be the aspirations of a new corporate and political culture. Greed is good became a national mantra. Hoarding glorified. Celebrity worship took off and has become one of the most consuming pastimes of America. This has helped to create an atmosphere in which white collar crime has almost developed a cult following. It has somehow become the stuff of the new American myth of power and wealth and privilege. It has become the new patriotism. It has taken on the mantle of the All American. It has dangerously inflated hubris and arrogance almost to a bursting point. It has also occurred with such frequency and predictability that it no longer catches the public off guard or causes consternation at how badly unjust the system seems to have become. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
All of these trends, combined with the Citizens United ruling by the conservative John Roberts Supreme Court have helped to give rise to an expansion of a small economic class of ultra wealthy individuals and families that used to work behind-the-scenes but has overtaken American politics. Conservative think tanks like The Cato Institute and The American Heritage Foundation, families like the Waltons, Mercers, Mellons, Kochs, De Vos, etc., individuals like Musk, Thiel, Buffet, Bezos, Zuckerberg, etc., while not being criminals arrested and taken to trial, may have tangentially benefitted from the media success of white collar criminals who have successfully evaded conviction. As a social class, if any social class has benefited at all from this miscarriage of justice, this is it.
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