Being Rich is Still the Best Defence - Sometimes!

Just over a year ago MFAS started an interesting new thread titled "Was Your Time in Thailand Better or Worse with Thaksin?" There were a lot of replies, some on the level of corruption in the country. Equally interestingly the front page of today's Bangkok Post deals with two major corruption cases which many thought were, like others, going to slip through the cracks thanks to their involving HiSo individuals and generous amounts of tea money.

As a reminder this is what I wrote at that time -

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fountainhall

Do you think Thais really are happy that the heir to the Red Bull fortune has got away Scot-free with racing his Ferrari along Sukhumvit at 5:00 in the morning with alcohol and drugs in his system, knocking over and dragging a policeman to his death and then hiding in the family compound for around 8 hours before being given up for questioning? Are they happy that second rate Hollywood producers, Gerald and Patricia Green, the partners-in-crime of the former Governor of the Tourist Authority during the Thaksin era, Jutamas Sirawan, were fined and jailed in the USA some years ago for offering substantial bribes to the aforesaid lady for the rights to set up the ill-fated Bangkok Film Festival, bribes that just happened to find their way into the offshore accounts of Jutamas and her daugher? The Greens were jailed in the USA in 2010. To date, no action has been taken here against Jutamas.

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Yesterday justice was finally served in the Film Festival case. Jutamas was jailed for 66 years and her daughter to 44 years. Given that murderers can get away with less, no doubt the sentences will be reduced on appeal. But the two women are now convicted crooks and are in jail - finally!

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1223440/

Unfortunately the murdering Red Bull heir is still free, despite his having been seen at public events and parties around the world, including the British F1 Grand Prix last year. He was supposed to turn up or be legally represented at a hearing this afternoon. He failed to show. And so the decision whether or not to indict "Boss" as he is called has been deferred yet again - for the umpteenth time. As the Post's editorial states, he has been at liberty for "4 years, 6 months and 27 days of excuses." The statute of limitations on the remaining possible charges will come sooner rather than later.

As a columnist in yesterday's Post puts it, "Being rich is still the best defence of all."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/o...defence-of-all

...tell me something I dont know....I'm fabulously rich compared to the MB's I engage to satisfy me....do u think they would submit if there wasnt such a huge gap?? You post this as if its news....even in the west the rich get away with (almost) murder...if u r white and educated and get caught with drugs...u get a warning...now lets rerun the scenario if u r black from the hood..and uneducated

Frankly I don't see the connection! The post concerns Thailand - not the rest of the world and certainly not money boys! But I do agree. The rich can often get away with crimes lesser folk are imprisoned for. On the other hand tell that to the Bernie Madoffs, Phil Spectors and Paris Hiltons (white) and O. J. Simpsons (black) of the rich world.

In democracies like in the West if the rich get away with some crime it is only because they can afford a better lawyer. I don't believe judges and juries let people free because of their income. Our judiciaries can't be bought.

I don't believe race matters also. In the example of the black and white guy the white guy would have gotten the same punishment than then black guy if he was from a white trash background.

I think your social class unconsciously influences judges. Not money. Not race. People from a lower class background tend to talk differently (their own vocabulary), behave differently, dress differently, etc. Judges are of course from upper middle class. If they encounter someone else from middle class I think unconsciously they will be more lenient.

I think the way you talk and behave and dress plays a role. Not race. Not income. The fact that race appears to play a role is because blacks are more often from lower class families. That shows. White trash will be treated the same in court.