With Liberty and Justice for Some
Greenwald's latest book, an pretty quick and easy read at only 274 pages, is written in a simple straightforward style.
In the book, Greenwald postulates (and proves, in my opinion) that the US criminal and civil justice system has seriously devolved from the original constitutional intention of creating "a nation of laws, not men."
Greenwald gives plenty of examples of how US gov't officials and financial elites have gotten away with flagrant illegality while at the same time average citizens without a great deal of resources or influence are increasingly being incarcerated with longer and longer sentences for relatively petty offenses. It also shows how the US ranks in relation to other Western countries regarding incarceration rates. Shockingly, the numbers of Americans in prison has skyrocketed in the last few decades, even as people who are wealthy and/or 'well-connected' in some way (particularly high-ranking gov't officials) often receive very light sentences or outright pardons for their crimes, assuming they're prosecuted at all.
Additionally, politicians in both parties embrace a law and order platform which, while popular with the electorate as a whole, seems to make a mockery of justice by also tying the hands of judges who are forced by statute to mete out mandatory sentences.
I recommend it for anyone who wants to get a clearer look at our current system of justice compared to the way it used to work decades ago.
In the book, both President G W Bush and President Obama are taken to task for their respective roles of illegality and perpetuating an increasingly unjust system.
If you want to know what's really going on in this country regarding our criminal justice system, you should read Greenwald's book.
Greenwald's latest book, an pretty quick and easy read at only 274 pages, is written in a simple straightforward style.
In the book, Greenwald postulates (and proves, in my opinion) that the US criminal and civil justice system has seriously devolved from the original constitutional intention of creating "a nation of laws, not men."
Greenwald gives plenty of examples of how US gov't officials and financial elites have gotten away with flagrant illegality while at the same time average citizens without a great deal of resources or influence are increasingly being incarcerated with longer and longer sentences for relatively petty offenses. It also shows how the US ranks in relation to other Western countries regarding incarceration rates. Shockingly, the numbers of Americans in prison has skyrocketed in the last few decades, even as people who are wealthy and/or 'well-connected' in some way (particularly high-ranking gov't officials) often receive very light sentences or outright pardons for their crimes, assuming they're prosecuted at all.
Additionally, politicians in both parties embrace a law and order platform which, while popular with the electorate as a whole, seems to make a mockery of justice by also tying the hands of judges who are forced by statute to mete out mandatory sentences.
I recommend it for anyone who wants to get a clearer look at our current system of justice compared to the way it used to work decades ago.
In the book, both President G W Bush and President Obama are taken to task for their respective roles of illegality and perpetuating an increasingly unjust system.
If you want to know what's really going on in this country regarding our criminal justice system, you should read Greenwald's book.
