A Very Fine Person

Reflecting on Crime and Punishment

There’s a lot going on in our country in these early months of 2025, and it’s hard to keep up with the news of the day. Simply because of the volume, there’s quite a bit of news that falls under the radar. From time to time, I’ll shake my head and say, “that’s odd.” I wonder if anyone else thinks that’s odd?

In the world I grew up in, generally those who broke the rules were punished in some way for their transgressions. Disobey our parents and we’d get spanked or grounded. Get in trouble in school and detention would be in our future. Get caught speeding, and we’d owe a fine. Commit a crime, and we’d probably be looking at jail time, depending on the severity of the act. Law and order. Crime and punishment. As both a religious concept and a moral guideline, the idea of taking responsibility for actions that damage the public trust or hurt another person are accepted as a community value.

Not so much anymore, apparently. In today's news, I read that the Justice Department will no longer pursue charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who had been indicted for bribery. I saw where Steve Bannon has avoided jail time for defrauding donors regarding their contributions towards building “the wall.” I also discovered that former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted in a court of law for attempting to "sell" the senate seat of Barack Obama when he became president, has received favor from the new president. He's now received a full pardon for his crimes, including his conviction for "shaking down a children’s hospital executive for campaign contributions and holding up a bill involving the horse-racing industry in exchange for campaign contributions" (NBC News). Sounds legitimate to me.

This is not the first time that special favor has fallen upon Mr. Blagojevich. Here’s what drew my attention to this story: during the current president's first term, every Republican member of Congress from Illinois asked the president not to commute Blagojevich’s sentence. The 45th president ignored them then, and did it anyway, helping the Illinois Democrat who had appeared as a contestant on - here it comes - "The Apprentice," a well-known reality TV game show in 2010. Part of the president’s explanation when he commuted the sentence in 2019 was, “I watched his wife on television.” Apparently she had gone on Fox News to ask for the president’s help.

This time around, the former host of The Apprentice, now residing in the White House, said of Blagojevich, “I think he’s a very fine person. This shouldn’t have happened to him.”

For Kalief Browder, who was sixteen when he was arrested in 2010 for allegedly stealing a backpack, it truly shouldn’t have happened to him. With bail set at $3000, his family couldn’t afford to pay, and Kalief was remanded to Riker’s Island in New York City. He spent more than 1,100 days incarcerated, “maintaining his innocence throughout.” As the ACLU reports, “eventually prosecutors realized they had no case and dismissed all charges in 2013.” That was after he had been in solitary confinement for nearly 800 days – that’s more than two years.

There are approximately 1.8 million people currently incarcerated in the United States. How many mothers have said of their sons and daughters, “this shouldn’t have happened to them”? And they’re right. Children shouldn’t grow up to commit crimes. They shouldn’t be terrorized by gang members in the neighborhood. People should be able to make a living wage through honest work. Treatment for addictions and mental health concerns should be more accessible. Desperate people should be able to find hope. But when a crime is committed, and a judgment made in accordance with the laws of our community and nation, then yes, punishment should follow if that is the law of the land, even if they are famous, or rich, or “very fine.”

That is, unless you have a friend in the White House.