Word is that a plea deal for swindler and scam artist Michael Madoff is in the works. While this may be the way our legal system works, I think this is a bad idea. Madoff should be indicted, brought to trial and forced to endure the rigors of the entire episode in public.
Cruel? Perhaps. Isn’t a guilty plea an easier path? Perhaps. But here’s why we need a trial, show or no.
Madoff is a big ugly shinning, pus-filled pimple on the wart that is how we have been operating for far too long in our world of so called business. There is real anger out there about his swindling, criminal ways. There is real anger also continuing to build about all things relating to the collapse of the economy. Too many folks are too pissed off about how things have been going with our supposed bailouts, plans, and stimuli, and we’re reaching a boiling point.
It may sound primeval and it may sound irrationally vengeful, but I think we need some sort of torturous trial that would hopefully lead to some sort of cathartic conclusion.
I don’t think the American public is going to put up with too much more of what is happening in the bigger picture. Sooner or later there are going to be calls for heads on pikes, and Madoff’s head is a good start. Would it really solve anything to do that? In the big picture probably not, but since the collapse of the economy is threatening to toss us all collectively back to the stone age, why not have a little stone age style justice while we’re at it.
If it were up to me, I’d put him stocks for the duration of a trial, and once he’s convicted, I’d give him some sort of public punishment like cleaning out toilets for the rest of his life, after he was tarred and feathered.
