Rule of Law: a different standard for government workers? - Granite Grok

Rule of Law: a different standard for government workers?

tipping the scalesRemember, The Rule of Law hold that EVERYONE (no exceptions) is equal before the Law and that everyone is subject to it. Or just another example of answering the question of “public servants or Public Masters”?  From McClatchy (via Overlawyered)

FOIA findings: “Dozens of Justice Department officials, ranging from FBI special agents and prison wardens to high-level federal prosecutors, have escaped prosecution or firing in recent years despite findings of misconduct by the department’s own internal watchdog. … In at least 27 cases, the inspector general identified evidence of possible criminal wrongdoing but no one was prosecuted.” Many cases ended in oral admonishment of errant employees. While various legitimate reasons can underlie a decision not to prosecute, such as a poor prospect of securing conviction, low stakes, or unclear law, the rate at which public integrity cases have been prosecuted has dropped significantly since the previous administration.

So, while you and I must submit to warrantless searches and we’d better have  all that documentation on our disk drives, it seems that Government is all willing to protect its own.  And the article has a whole raft of examples.  However, it seems that they hold themselves to a much lower standard than they do to ourselves – and it is getting lower:

The reports come, however, amid an overall decline in public corruption prosecutions during the Obama administration. So far this year, records obtained by the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University show that 34 percent of investigators’ referrals of public corruption allegations were accepted for prosecution.

It adds that the Bush percentage was 41% for context.  Frankly, why shouldn’t we hold those that we elect and hire to a higher standard?  Isn’t that the crux of the matter – not demanding much but getting even less?

 

The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen

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