One law for the rich...

"Plate sin with gold, and the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw does pierce it."
-- King Lear, Act 4, scene 6

All the great sayings have been said and Shakespeare has had something to say about most of them. However, when it comes down to the inequity of the rich getting justice at the expense of the poor, nobody has expressed this more eloquently than Shakespeare in King Lear.

In England the law grew out of the need to protect the property of the rich, so justice sometimes seems a bolt-on afterthought. One might expect something better in America which started from a different place, with universal rights and equality before the law being paramount. And yet there still seems to be numerous examples of double standards in the courtroom. The privileged commit illegal acts, and they are forgiven on account of their wealth or power; the people at the bottom of the ladder commit small wrongs, and are punished without fear or favour. Allegedly Mel Gibson, Lindsay Lohan and OJ Simpson might be seen as classical examples.

It is easy to condemn the poor, the illiterate, the people who don’t speak the language. It seems much harder to condemn the celebrities and the powerful. Clearly the latter have access to a better type of justice and that sadly is an economic fact. What brought on this rant? I guess I just feel sad for the poor maid in the recent Dominique Strauss-Kahn case. Something seems not quite right to me. Here endeth my rant.