That's farking disgusting.

slide into? as in, "this never happened 200 years ago, or even 2,000, but is starting to happen now?"

i don't know if we live in a plutocracy, but we're no closer now than we've ever been.

cues up dylan's "the lonesome death of hattie carroll."

jwa007: Ah, yes, now I'm reminded why you have to take justice in your own hands from time to time.

There's no justice like swift vigilante justice.

/Which brings up an interesting point: suppose this guy got hit by a bus tomorrow, what would Morgan Stanley do? Do they have a backup plan or would a billion dollars go down the drain overnight?

"Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession, and that entered into it," Hurlbert said. "When you're talking about restitution, you don't want to take away his ability to pay."

Right. And he'll never be able to afford a cadre of lawyers so he won't have to pay the victim a cent.

Additionally, what if Mr. Erzinger (god willing) gets hit by a train? Would Morgan Stanley collapse? No one should ever be that singularly important in a business.

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: /Which brings up an interesting point: suppose this guy got hit by a bus tomorrow, what would Morgan Stanley do? Do they have a backup plan or would a billion dollars go down the drain overnight?

Even Randy Moss is replaceable, but wouldn't it be nice if Randy Moss wasn't an asshole and you could actually use his talents?

Angry Drunk Bureaucrat: suppose this guy got hit by a bus tomorrow, what would Morgan Stanley do? Do they have a backup plan or would a billion dollars go down the drain overnight?

I think the "problem" here is that he would have to notify his customers that he was being tried for a felony, which would sour their opinions of him, make them go elsewhere.

Notification that says "the old dude got hit with a bus, so here's his replacement" probably isn't going to piss anybody off...

shiat like this makes me stabby

4chan Ambassador: WaltzingMathilda: but we're no closer now than we've ever been.

...from 1950 through 1980, the share of all income in America going to everyone but the rich increased from 64 percent to 65 percent. Because the nation's economy was growing handsomely, the average income for 9 out of l0 Americans was growing, too - from $17,719 to $30,941. That's a 75 percent increase in income in constant 2008 dollars.

But then it stopped. Since 1980 the economy has also continued to grow handsomely, but only a fraction at the top have benefitted. The line flattens for the bottom 90% of Americans. Average income went from that $30,941 in 1980 to $31,244 in 2008. Think about that: the average income of Americans increased just $303 dollars in 28 years.

Link (new window)

sure, but the wealthy have always been powerful. just because the middle class had healthier incomes back then didn't mean the wealthy didn't rule.

Yeah, felony convictions can seriously impact your employment.

So can being hit by a car and left for dead.

serial_crusher: Notification that says "the old dude got hit with a bus, so here's his replacement" probably isn't going to piss anybody off...

How about, "The old dude got fired for conduct unbecoming, so here's his replacement in the name of good corporate governance."

lennavan: The problem here reads more to me, he'd be fired if convicted as a felon and therefore would not draw a salary and be able to pay out in the civil suit sure to follow.

There's good money to be made in license plate manufacturing.

I guess that "Plutocrat" will soon be the buzzword for Republican here on Fark.

kapaso: WaltzingMathilda: slide into? as in, "this never happened 200 years ago, or even 2,000, but is starting to happen now?"

i don't know if we live in a plutocracy, but we're no closer now than we've ever been.

Translation: "I haven't noticed, so everyone else is reactionary"

what? i'm saying i have noticed, that for thousands of years the wealthy have had all the power. since when has that not been the case in america?

reading comprehension, it's not for everyone.

lennavan: The problem here reads more to me, he'd be fired if convicted as a felon and therefore would not draw a salary and be able to pay out in the civil suit sure to follow.

I could buy that if we were talking about a McDonald's manager (it still wouldn't be right, but I could at least see where they were coming from). I'm pretty sure that if this guy is in charge of a billion dollars he's got enough scratch on his own to pay up.

"Into", huh? As in, from somewhere you aren't already?

8Draw: Treygreen13: I guess that "Plutocrat" will soon be the buzzword for Republican here on Fark.

Keep f*cking that chicken.

How do you think they keep making eggs? I'm all up in those chickens, all day long.

jwa007: Treygreen13: I guess that "Plutocrat" will soon be the buzzword for Republicanelitist assholes here on Fark.

I find it interesting that you would automatically associate this behavior with Republicans though.

I just know how the Fark Politics tab works.

Yeah, the guy should be in jail. But this occurred in Vail, the playground of the rich, and this type of thing is expected. The bad guy buys his way out of jail and the victim sets himself up for a huge financial settlement. Everybody ends up happy in a monetary sense which is what's important in Vail.

This is what America wants. This is why we voted Republican on Tuesday.

It's an inherent fact in society that some people are worth more to the common good than others. As long as your net value to society is positive, there's no reason for you to be in prison.

CygnusDarius: Styro Foam: Can we revolt and shoot all the bankers now? Pretty please?

I have a better solution:



/Televise it and make a profit

this.

According to CNBC, the police targeted the fund manager because he is rich.

Did Cops Target Hit-And-Run Driver Because He Was A Rich Private Wealth Manager? (new window)

Vodka Zombie: If he didn't want to be charged with a felony, he shouldn't have fled the scene.

There's an evil way of looking at it.

Fecacacophany: To big to fail just got personal.

lennavan: serial_crusher: I think the "problem" here is that he would have to notify his customers that he was being tried for a felony, which would sour their opinions of him, make them go elsewhere.

The problem here reads more to me, he'd be fired if convicted as a felon and therefore would not draw a salary and be able to pay out in the civil suit sure to follow.

Well then boy won't this DA be surprised when after years of dragging this guy through courts defending the personal injury suit, Mr. Hedge Fund declares bankruptcy to avoid paying a penny of any judgment the victim is lucky enough to get.

Mnemia: Pretty much, yeah. I'm wondering if there is some sort of under-the-table corruption going on in this case.

District Attorneys are elected in Colorado. Does that answer your question?

New term: To rich to jail

This guy has donated a ton of money to Republican candidates. max donations to all of them. Look him up on any donor search site.

I'm sure that had nothing to do with this at all.

My wife's B.I.L. is an Okla. City Police officer. In 20 years he has never, not once, arrested a lawyer or a doctor for DUI. He's pulled many over but he says he knows arresting them could screw up their career. He just calls a family member to come drive them home.

Aidan: Not evil at all, imo. He hit a man with his car. Whether or not you want to argue the particulars of that act, HE THEN DROVE AWAY. That is absolutely deserving of a felony conviction in my mind

I mean evil in the "funny because he/she is turning the tables on the people that use that argument in 'rights' cases" kind of way.

SinFest and no I won't hotlink SFW (new window)

Mnemia: NightOwl2255: My wife's B.I.L. is an Okla. City Police officer. In 20 years he has never, not once, arrested a lawyer or a doctor for DUI. He's pulled many over but he says he knows arresting them could screw up their career. He just calls a family member to come drive them home.

Your wife's BIL sounds like a scumbag. I wonder how the families of victims of DUI would feel about his double standards?

probably the same way the rest of us feel about the rest of the double standards the cops abide by.

What if Morgan Stanley fires him for the misdemeanor charges?

Hurlbert didn't get Kobe so he decided to quit trying.

lennavan: gilgigamesh: Well then boy won't this DA be surprised when after years of dragging this guy through courts defending the personal injury suit, Mr. Hedge Fund declares bankruptcy to avoid paying a penny of any judgment the victim is lucky enough to get.

Or Mr. Hedge Fund continues to make bank at his current job, pays out the restitution and continues to live his lavish lifestyle, slightly impaired by a cut of his check going to his victim's medical bills.

As stated before in this thread, I just don't believe this guy doesn't already have enough in assets to make a nice significant contribution to the victim's medical bills.

You are assuming he is a human being and not a greedy piece of trash who will weigh the relative costs of dragging the guy through court and hoping he dies in the meantime versus paying a lifetime of medical expenses and lost wages and pick whatever's cheaper.

And you may be right, we don't know the guy. We just know he's a hedge fund manager, and that he couldn't be bothered to stop after he drove his car over another person.

So... yeah. Maybe we can hazard a guess.

Treygreen13: I guess that "Plutocrat" will soon be the buzzword for Republican here on Fark.

Probably but we should also keep in mind the Democrats who deserve the title as well: Pelosi, Gore etc

/maybe we've found a political demographic we can all hate?

lennavan: serial_crusher: I think the "problem" here is that he would have to notify his customers that he was being tried for a felony, which would sour their opinions of him, make them go elsewhere.

The problem here reads more to me, he'd be fired if convicted as a felon and therefore would not draw a salary and be able to pay out in the civil suit sure to follow.

well yes, but I was replying to the question of what Morgan Stanley would do if the guy got hit by a bus, not what the victim would do.

The latter is obviously a more important question, but judging by the article it seems like the victim would be happy to see it.

8Draw: Treygreen13: I just know how the Fark Politics tab works.

You mean rampant trolling? Or injecting partisan douchebaggery into a conversation that was previously pretty amicable?

Oh, so you HAVE been to the Politics tab.

The answer is "C: All of the Above".

You see, I just cut this off at the pass.

Look below my comment: there's already a "Plutocracy Reborn" graph that illustrates the rise of "Plutocracy" from 1994 to today and blames it on Reagan and Bush, when Reagan left office in 1989 and the first spike is during - get this - the Clinton Administration.

I'm just pointing out how it will go. And it did go exactly that way.

AcneVulgaris: Diogenes:
Additionally, what if Mr. Erzinger (god willing) gets hit by a train stray .270 round? Would Morgan Stanley collapse? No one should ever be that singularly important in a business.

There is a solution here, involving the 2nd amendment.

You see here is why there's laws against murders and a commandment to boot. It's not because it's unethical, it's because the wealthy wants to cover their 4$$ so they shovel it deep and hard about not using murder as a solution. The fact is, that's probably the only way to make the wealthy behave.

Voiceofreason01: Treygreen13: I guess that "Plutocrat" will soon be the buzzword for Republican here on Fark.

Probably but we should also keep in mind the Democrats who deserve the title as well: Pelosi, Gore etc

/maybe we've found a political demographic we can all hate?

I think if we're going to go with the "Wealthiest 1%" or whatever the buzzphrase is, we should use "plutarchy" instead of "plutocracy".

LeafyGreens: clevershark: We already knew that LEOs were in a class above us in the hoi polloi, . . .

/grammar macht frei!

"Greek for the herd. However, be warned that when you say 'the hoi polloi' you are actually saying 'the the herd.' Indicating that you too are 'hoi polloi'."

1derful: Say your the victim of a hit and run. Would you rather the guy that hit you do a month in jail, or would you rather him do no time at all so you could sue him and become filthy farking rich?

FTFA: Here's Milo, from the Vail Daily:

"Mr. Erzinger struck me, fled and left me for dead on the highway," Milo wrote. "Neither his financial prominence nor my financial situation should be factors in your prosecution of this case."

I'd sure as hell want it both ways, but I'd be a lot more comfortable knowing the assclown was in PMITA prison and incapable of hurting anybody else, if I had to choose one or the other.

Forbes (new window) says they dropped the charge because he's willing to pay restitution.. that's still a load of shiat.

Too big to fail, too rich to jail...

Kazan: Forbes (new window) says they dropped the charge because he's willing to pay restitution.. that's still a load of shiat.

I wonder if "restitution" means actually paying a lifetime of the guys medical expenses and lost wages (which as a liver transplant surgeon could easily run into the millions), or whether it means cutting a check to the court out of which the victim will get a small cut.

Again, I'd be willing to hazard a guess.

ne2d: The only conceivable positive spin I can think of here is that the DA wants the victim to get as much money as possible in a civil suit, and that putting this guy in prison would interfere with that.

However, like I wrote in one of the umpteen redlit threads, I think this is more a matter of "Nice docket you've got there. Be a shame if it got tied up for three years because of my legal maneuvering"

I hate to say it, but my professional opinion is that Somebody really needs to keep a very close eye on the DA's bank account in the next few years, parituclarly if he decides to leave public service at the end of this term and just happens to land a partner level job at a white shoe firm with connections to Morgan Stanley.

This really does stink to high heaven on so many levels.

#1 if this were a negligent accident caused by Douchebag McStocktrader checking his Blackberry when he should have been driving, or even drinking too much, AND he had stopped to help the guy and done everything he could for him, then yes I could see cutting him a minor break and going misdemeanor rather than the felony route which WOULD make him unemployable in his field. But that's not what happened here. This douchebag left a man for dead on the side of the road after HE caused the accident which injured the guy. That should rate a "deparved indifference to human life " charge at the very least

#2 The DA is already presuming, in a criminal case involving significant bodily injury that the Defendant is going to serve zero jail time. Otherwise, the argument about hte guy keepin his job wouldn't even be relevant, as very few firms are goign to wait 18 months for ANY employee.

#3 The state's concern about this guy being able to make restitution is equally bogus. Not only does the guy likely already have sufficent personal assets to pay any judgment but I'm sure, in addition to the likely $1million in liability his auto insurance includes, aman in his position almost certainly has an insurance package from his work that includes a multi-million dollar "personal Liability" policy-meaning that He personally will likely never have to pay a single out of pocket dime to his victim

silent sunday: Wonder what other crimes this guy has gotten away with.

I hear he raped and murdered and raped a young girl in 1990.

Christ, dude looks like Frankenstein's Monster in that picture.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a simple unfrozen caveman investment banker. Your modern world frightens and confuses me! When I see a man on a bicycle, I mistake him for deer, an animal I almost totally relied on for food and warmth. It was only natural that I would try to kill him: it was instinct!