Bust Bankers, Not Protesters

Wall Street occupiers jailed when bankers are the real criminals: Michael Daly
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2011 9:57 AM CDT
Michael Daly: Jail Bankers, Not Occupy Wall Street Protesters
A bank employee peels off a sign left by demonstrators on an ATM as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement protests, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011.   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The big banks’ financial maneuvers brought our economy to the brink of collapse, but you don’t see any bankers behind bars. Instead, it’s the Occupy Wall Street protesters who are getting arrested—for such heinous crimes as stopping traffic, writes Michael Daly in the Daily Beast. Goldman Sachs got away with selling investors bundled mortgages it had to know might sour; Fannie Mae faked earnings in order to dole out big bonuses; Standard & Poor’s gave top ratings to dangerous mortgages in order to keep banks’ business.

“I knew it was wrong at the time,” an S&P director said. “It was either that or skip the business.” Yet none of these groups have done time. “The banks apparently were also too big to jail,” writes Daly. “Instead of being locked up, they were bailed out.” But head to Wall Street to protest all this, make a wrong turn—and you’re apt to be handcuffed. The Financial District has "a penal code that explicitly prohibits such things as blocking traffic but goes fuzzy when it comes to such things as mortgage-based securities." (More Occupy Wall Street stories.)

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