The United States of Double Standards

Two snippets from recent news stories in the U.S.:

From The Huffington Post: A Morgan Stanley wealth manager will not face felony charges for a hit-and-run because Colorado prosecutors don't want him to lose his job.

And:

From ThinkProgress: 5th Circuit Rules That High School Cheerleader Is Required To Cheer For Her Alleged Rapist

One man gets away with hit-and-run because he's got a very good job. The student athlete accused of raping a 16 year old girl should have been suspended from school athletics until an inquiry conducted, but was not in this case because the accused was "a star on the school's football and basketball teams."

It's not that the high school officials had no respect for rules, it's just that they were very selective as to which rules to impose. So as not to dent the concentration of a star athlete, school official chose to enforce the rules pertaining to the cheerleader, whom the the three-judge panel said in a Sept. 16 ruling: "In her capacity as cheerleader, [the victim] served as a mouthpiece through which (the district) could disseminate speech - namely, support for its athletic teams".

Then there is Mr. Martin Joel Erzinger in Colorado, who enjoys such gainful employment with Morgan Stanley, that prosecutors run in fear of leveling felony charges against him because the man is a fund manager with more than $1 billion under his control.

Never mind that he ran down a physcian who was out bicycling and promptly fled the seen leaving his victim for dead.

According to The Huffington Post: "District Attorney Mark Hurlbert says it wouldn't be wise to prosecute Erzinger -- doing so might hurt his source of income. Here's Vail Daily: 'Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession, and that entered into it . . . When you're talking about restitution, you don't want to take away his ability to pay.'"

Tell me that America is not a Club Med for the rich and well-connected.

In what bizarre parallel universe do such cases make any earthly sense?

Maybe all of the pollution from all the factories in the Great 48 have culminated to create a pervasive oxygen-replaced that is two-parts Lysergic acid diethylamide and two-parts Nitrous oxide.

Update

No Charges Against Bill Gates' Dad in Hit-and-Run