A kid in New York allegedly had a bag of pot. He was unarmed. The NYPD followed him, broke down his door and shot and killed him in front of his six-year old sibling and his grandmother. His grandmother, after witnessing the shooting, says she was brutalized by the NYPD and detained. They lied about what happened until the record was set straight as a result of video.
But what about the banks who regularly laundered drug money and by doing that gave aid and support to drug cartels who murder and maim thousands of people year after year? What happened to them?
Nobody got their door broken in or was chased by the NYPD. Nobody got shot in front of their six-year old sibling and grandmother. Nobody's grandmother was roughed up and hauled down to the police station and detained for hours on end.
So what did happen to these bankers? Something much worse, obviously, right?
They got a fine and a slap on the wrist. They got a deferred prosecution which meant no prosecution. It's amazing that it was even pursued at all, savvy businessmen that they are and if not for a persistent and harassed whistleblower, it might not have been.
Crime: Having a Bag of Pot
On Thursday, officers kicked open the door to the apartment, on the second-floor of a three-story house. The first officer inside was Richard Haste, 30, who has been on the force for three years, according to people with knowledge of the case. He told Mr. Graham to show his hands and then yelled, “Gun! Gun!” before firing, the police have said, citing the account of a second officer who followed him in.
http://www.nytimes.com/...]
NYPD Puts Cop Who Shot And Killed Ramarley Graham On Restricted Duty
The officer fired one shot at close range from his 9mm semiautomatic handgun, police said. The victim was struck in the upper chest and collapsed inside the bathroom. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
A search of the apartment failed to turn up any weapons.
Bronx granny held for 7 hours after unarmed teen grandson is slain by cops
The traumatized grandmother of an unarmed teen killed by cops as she looked on helplessly was reportedly held in police custody for seven hours after the killing.
Patricia Hartley said police threw her to the ground and stuck a gun in her face after Ramarley Graham, 18, was killed inside the bathroom of his family’s Bronx apartment.
The weeping woman was also denied access to her heart medication, said Assemblyman Eric Stevenson (D-Bronx), who helped win her release from the 47th Precinct stationhouse.
Crime: Laundering Drug Money / Aiding and Abetting Murderous Drug Cartels
How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs
As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored
[ ... ]
Criminal proceedings were brought against Wachovia, though not against any individual, but the case never came to court. In March 2010, Wachovia settled the biggest action brought under the US bank secrecy act, through the US district court in Miami. Now that the year's "deferred prosecution" has expired, the bank is in effect in the clear. It paid federal authorities $110m in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50m fine for failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine.
[ Emphasis added. ]
American Banks 'High' On Drug Money: How a Whistleblower Blew the Lid Off Wachovia-Drug Cartel Money Laundering Scheme
June 10, 2011
A fraud investigator helped expose the shocking world of multi-billion dollar drug laundering by American banks and the surprising lack of oversight by the Feds.
"Today, we announce the deferred prosecution of Wachovia, one of the largest banks in the United States, said U.S. Jeffrey Sloman on March 12, 2010. "Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations by laundering drug proceeds."
[ ... ]
Disappointed that the case against Wachovia didn't go to a criminal trial, investigator Woods lamented, "Bankers will continue to take dangerous risks because the deferred prosecution concludes there's no personal consequences for their actions."
[ ... ]
As professor Dale Scott noted in his book, American War Machine: Deep Politics; the CIA Global Drug Connection: "A U.S. Senate staff chaired by the banking committee reportedly estimated that between $500 billion and $1 trillion dollars are laundered each year through banks worldwide, with approximately half of that amount funneled through U.S. Banks."
[ Emphasis added. ]
Check this out (from the same article):
Antoino Maria Costa, former executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said in 2008, "there's evidence to suggest that proceeds from drugs and crimes were the only liquid investment capital for banks in trouble of collapsing [during the financial crisis]."
[ Emphasis added. ]
Read the rest of the article and the other articles cited here. It is astonishing. Well, it should be astonishing. Place it in contrast with what happened to a kid with a bag of pot.
If not for the determined whistleblower, who knows if this would ever have gone to court? And don't forget, in today's America, we prosecute whistleblowers at a rate higher than under any other administration -- a telling sign of the state of the union.
Banks Financing Mexico Gangs Admitted in Wells Fargo Deal
“It’s the banks laundering money for the cartels that finances the tragedy,” says Martin Woods, director of Wachovia’s anti-money-laundering unit in London from 2006 to 2009. Woods says he quit the bank in disgust after executives ignored his documentation that drug dealers were funneling money through Wachovia’s branch network.
“If you don’t see the correlation between the money laundering by banks and the 22,000 people killed in Mexico, you’re missing the point,” Woods says.
[ Emphasis added. ]
But law enforcement agencies have their eyes and their surveillance trained on the small fish dealers and houses, and they use their resources to track down kids who buy a bag of pot. They follow them to their homes, break down their doors and shoot them in front of their little brothers and sisters and their grandmothers.
That is the state of corruption in these United States of America. That is a symbol of what our corrupt government considers to be fair and righteous and how our law enforcement agencies protect and serve us and who they consider to be the bad guys. That is a sign of how much value is placed upon average American citizens versus the 1% corrupt bankers and the wealthy. It's yet another sign of the rampant racism in law enforcement.
Fire Ray Kelley and fire these thugs and prosecute them. There are a lot of decent people who need jobs who can take their place -- people who have their priorities straight and people who understand who the real bad guys are.
h/t to NYFM who reported on this story and whose diary is linked in the first paragraph of this diary.