If you want to get Tough on Crime, Arrest Crooked Capitalists

It's time to go after the big fish

When it comes to crime, conservatives love to brag about how tough they are. They often pass laws that tear down civil liberty in an effort to “get the bad guys.”

But curiously—when it comes to the rich, wealthy, and well-connected—conservatives and liberals seem willing to bend over backwards and ignore the ways in which they exploit the working class. If you’re rich, more often than not Crime is Legal.

This is where a new, bold version of the NDP can shine. It’s time to both pass new laws that criminalize currently legal exploitative acts by capitalists, as well as enforce the existing laws already on the books.

To be fair, none of this is a totally new idea, and for many decades workers have often demanded that if a capitalist kills a worker, they should go do jail. Nonetheless, the status quo is mostly that capitalists can defraud and deprive the working class without any legal consequence, and when they DO face consequences, they usually result in fines that are so low that the criminal activity was still profitable.

This is where Avi Lewis—likely set to run for the NDP leadership—is stepping in. Commenting on the long-running bread price fixing scandal in Canada, Lewis made it clear that mere fines will never actually solve the issue, because they amount to pocket change when it comes to the billionaire class:

Lewis is correct that when you make 4.5 billion in ill-gotten profits, and then only have to shell out 500 million in a settlement, that isn’t a punishment in any real sense: that’s just the cost of doing business on the backs of the working class.

And the sickening irony is clear: if a regular Canadian stole bread, they could spend time behind bars. But if you steal BILLIONS in bread profits from the mouths of hungry children and low-income people, you’re a well-respected member of the elite.

And while leftists should continue to question if carceral approaches are even effective in addressing criminality, the fact is that the capitalist elite DOES believe harsh criminal policies work when it comes to disciplining the 99%.

It’s time for them to taste the consequence of their own ideology.