Ourview

By:

Shandra Jordan

Kyle Endres

Colleen Buhrer

Patrick Crossland

Crime is crime. Whether someone robs a bank, kills someone in

cold blood, accidentally hits someone with a car or engages in

insider trading, it’s all crime.

Between Enron, Martha Stewart and now Tyco officials Mark H.

Swartz and L. Dennis Kozlowski, it seems like new examples of

“white-collar” crime appears in the news more often than they used

to.

Unfortunate as this is, as long as it is happening it should be

in the news and these people should be tried for their crimes. Even

though these people didn’t commit crimes of a physical nature

(murder, rape, assault,) they still stole or allegedly stole

millions of dollars. Swartz and Kozlowski are accused of stealing

$170 million and illegally making $430 million by lying about the

value of Tyco’s stock.

This kind of crime is still devastating to innocent people, just

less clearly so. The people who lost their pensions from Enron and

the honest people who invested their money in Tyco stock have all

had crimes committed against them. These are not victimless

crimes.

Legislatures make laws about business for a reason; they don’t

do it for fun, but because they see a public good. If the justice

system doesn’t work to catch and stop these people, the

legislature’s work is pointless.