The Two-Tiered Legal System
Rafael Palmeiro has been suspended for 10 days for steroid use, which is bound to revive claims about the scandal of steroid use in baseball. The problem is not that professional athletes use drugs. The problem is that they have every incentive to do so and no disincentive. Palmeiro makes $3,000,000 a year, in part, thanks to his steroid use. What are the consequences of that use? 10 days suspension, which amounts to less than $300,000 of salary assuming he doesn’t get paid for those days. He will face no charges and serve no jail time (unless he perjured himself in front of Congress and they decide to man up).
Last week we saw a fugitive from justice, Roman Polanski, who is hiding in France to evade sexual assault charges of a 13 year old girl (apparently France grants asylum to child rapists) file a lawsuit in the UK against an American paper. Skipping past the legal oddity of a French resident suing in the UK against an American company, he did not show up to court but was allowed a video feed of the proceedings so he could continue to avoid extradition back to the US to be sentenced for his child rape episode which France continues to protect him from.
The point here is that when you have money, you don’t face the same requirements of justice. If you have money, the court will bend over backwards to accommodate you, even if you are a fugitive from justice. If I got caught smoking pot in Baltimore I could face 1 year in prison. The solution to the drug problem in baseball and other stupidity is to stop giving the rich breaks that aren’t offered to anyone else. If steroids are going to be illegal, they should be illegal to everyone. Rafael Palmeiro would be less likely to use if he faced hard time the next time he was caught.
