Silver Spoons and Ambition
"I appeal to you for mercy. Jesse Jr. is an example as a teacher and counsellor who will be better served under supervision and probation."A privileged heir of black civil rights aristocracy coasting on the reputation of his father and his father's well-celebrated and bruited-about spiritual proximity to the late, great Martin Luther King Jr. -- whose privileges ushered him into the highest echelons of political achievement next to that of the President himself whose achievement was that of initiative -- still in need at 48 of parental coddling.
Jesse Jackson Sr.
"[I] found my son grossly underweight and in poor health. When I took him to his Capital Hill office to prepare for [a] vote, the office was in total disarray, which was most unusual for my son."
Jacqueline Jackson
To little avail, unfortunately, given the extent of Jesse Jackson Jr.'s obvious contempt for the licit more than adequately conveyed by his succumbing to the irresistible allures of moral and ethical failure. "I misled the American people", said the former Democratic Congressman emotionally to the judge during his sentencing hearing. Pleading guilty to scheming misappropriation of $750,000.
Apologizing, prepared to "take responsibility for my actions", he has grasped the penalty-saving device of bipolar disorder diagnosis to explain the reason why he felt so entirely comfortable while purloining three-quarters of a million dollars in campaign funds for personal accoutrements. Pure and simple greed born of an attitude of entitlement are not traits his loving parents feel represents their innocent offspring.
The court disagreed; prosecutors well prepared to dismiss the very idea that Jesse Jackson Jr.'s fall from grace resulted from his newly-diagnosed mental disorder. Jesse Jr., had the grace to resign from Congress and admit to guilt in the criminal charges. That he and his wife made full use of campaign credit cards to pay for personal items valued at $582,772 from 2005 to 2012.
Fine dining at restaurants, nightclubs and lounges, expenditures at sport clubs and lounges, alcohol, even dry cleaning. No expense too tall, nor too small to be handily dispensed with by the use of campaign expense accounts. Personal items including fur capes and parkas, and a gold-plated men's Rolex watch priced at $43,350. Now that's questionable value for a whole whack of money; not even pure gold.
Husband and wife's combined annual income, pointed out prosecutors, topped $300,000. Clearly insufficient funds to pay for the lifestyle to which they comfortably accustomed themselves. As for the affecting mood swings related to the bi-polar diagnosis, they'll have none of it; no proof of the "3,100 illegal transactions that occurred during the life of the conspiracy" involved his purported medical condition.
In rendering the sentence meted out to Jesse Jr., U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson stated that Jessse Jr., as a public official was expected to "live up to a higher standard of ethics and integrity". Two and a half years in prison would help him to fully understand the disgrace in which society views his corrupting influence on the body politic. Along with three years in supervised release for good measure.
The letters by his parents to the court prior to sentencing, explaining extenuating health circumstances and their opinion that their honourable son would not benefit by incarceration will be incorporated into the greater mass of the paperwork assembled in the pursuit of justice reflecting their son's perfidious infidelities to honour and lack of fealty to the oaths of office he has disgraced.
Labels: Crime, Discrimination, Human Relations, Justice, Political Realities, United States
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 17, 2013
<< Home