Money, Justice & the Media

As a part-time Floridian, I have been watching the most horrendous tragedy unfold in the newspapers there over the past couple of weeks.

Fort Lauderdale, Fl - 2:00am-ish in the morning. A white Porsche endeavors to race another car that revved at it at a stoplight. In 30 seconds and a blurr, it results in the Porsche cracking up, crashing up on to the sidewalk and killing two British tourists who were on their way back to their hotel. Subsequently, the damaged Porsche took off into the night and was abandoned a few miles away. The other car, unidentified, was never seen again.

When the police found the abandoned Porsche, they identified the owner of the car as a rich kid from Chicago who has a record a mile long of drug use, high speed car chases, street racing expensive cars, injuring people (including a cop), and seemingly never having to really answer for any of it. In all the trouble he'd been in, it appears the worst punishment he'd received was probation and a court order to complete a drug treatment program. In fact, he was still on probation from his last 'incident' but the court let him go live in Florida, so he could 'take care' of his parents' oceanfront properties there (like a property management company wasn't already doing that).

Let's see -- one minute you're behind bars in Chicago and being charged with a crime. The next minute you're living oceanfront in Florida and driving your white Porsche around the Ft. Lauderdale nightlife. How does that happen? That's easy -- daddy can afford to hire the best and most expensive lawyers, and he surely did. Oh, and who knows how connected they all are into the Chicago political scene -- it's a quagmire of muck and money. They may own a judge or two there.

But here's the kicker -- the police identified the abandoned car's owner, but when they finally found him, he claimed he wasn't driving the car. Even though he was seen leaving night clubs, driving around in it earlier all by himself, apparently, he's wise enough to the system to just say 'it wasn't me', and now the police have to prove it.

So two innocent people lie dead; two wives have lost a husband; two sets of children (including a new baby) have lost a father. And once again, daddy has hired the best and most expensive lawyers, and the owner of the white Porsche says 'prove it'.

And now, we watch the investigation. I only hope the national media picks this up, as I think it might be the only way some form of justice is going to take root. My fear is that without the media spotlight on it, money and influence will trump truth and justice. Chicago and Florida are two of the most corrupt places in the country, and I can't imagine that excludes the law enforcement there. So I really want someone in the press to take up this story and follow it closely so that all of us can see what's really going on here.

I feel so bad for the innocent families. They are the ultimate victims of money and justice. Had this guy been given the proper jail time previously, he wouldn't even have been in Florida, and two families would still be in tact. What a tragedy for all of us.