Saturday, January 12, 2013

This morning's Drudgeposition and related news

Less Godwin than earlier in the week, but on point (h/t Professor Reynolds):

Me, not thee

Meanwhile, we learn this morning that the law is open to interpretation if you have enough juice:

NBC’s David Gregory is off the hook for showing a high-capacity gun magazine on “Meet the Press” and will not be prosecuted, D.C.’s attorney general announced on Friday.

D.C. attorney general Irvin Nathan on Friday said he would decline to prosecute in the case involving the Sunday show host and any NBC staffers. In a letter to NBC’s attorney Lee Levine, Nathan wrote that after reviewing the matter, his office “has determined to exercise its prosecutorial discretion to decline to bring criminal charges against Mr. Gregory, who has no criminal record, or any other NBC employee based on the events associated” with the broadcast.

This development got Ann Althouse's attention:
Why is the law important? If Gregory clearly violated the law, but there is no interest to be served in prosecuting him, doesn't that prove that the law is not important? If the precise thing that he did — which is clearly what is defined as a crime — raises no interest in prosecution, how can we be satisfied by letting this one nice famous man go? Rewrite the law so that it only covers the activity that the government believes deserves prosecution, so there is equal justice under the law.
Emphasis in original. I don't have a problem with prosecutorial discretion per se, but there's a pattern here and it's unsavory. And Althouse's question is the right one -- for laws to have respect, they need have a rational basis and ought to have universal application. That's clearly not the case in Washington, D.C.

5 comments:

Night Writer said...

I know, why don't they make this big, round, manhole-cover-sized coin out of osmium with a patina of iridium and call it "The Law"? You'd have to respect that, right? Especially if it was dropped on you! Of course, as long as you've got "the coin" you've got nothing to worry about.

Gino said...

david gregory acquired that magazine from somebody, and then passed it to another after the broadcast.
no less than two instances of his involvement in trafficking, also against the law.
what we have here are three dangerous violations that placed society and our children in grave danger... and they let him walk?

who's to say that magazine wont end up in the next movie theater shooting?

i bet if it was wayne la pierre who brought that item to a press conference, there would be charges.

Night Writer said...

No worries, Gino - the magazine was taken into protective custody by ATF, which sent it across the border to Mexico so that no U.S. children could be murdered with it.

CousinDan 54915 said...

The Law does not apply to the Dictator Barack Obama.

Mr. D said...

i bet if it was wayne la pierre who brought that item to a press conference, there would be charges.

Yep, which is precisely why he would never do that.