At the end of the film “The Untouchables”, after two out of four members of the team have been murdered, when the trial (for tax evasion….SIGH!) against Al Capone is almost over and the verdict is being prepared, Eliot Ness (played by Kevin Costner) asks to speak to the judge, hands him the “ledger”, which contains all the names of the corrupt, and tells him a line that changes the outcome of the trial.
The conviction comes, so unexpected that Al Capone flies into a rage and beats up his defense lawyer.
Eliot Ness, right after the verdict, justifies himself by saying: "I told him that his name is in the ledger too", maybe it isn’t true, but the insinuation that the trial is “rigged”, since the judge himself is corrupt, produces the desired effect, and apparently completely UNEXPECTED, OF A CONVICTION!
I am not a law-enforcement investigator, I am not a journalist, I am not an “industry insider”, I did not stay very long in the criminal world, and I don’t even have legal training that would allow me to understand what is “normal” and what isn’t in criminal proceedings or in a ruling.
My background is technical-scientific, I spent years working in international research centers and in high and very-high technology companies; I “know” about “coincidences”, about “statistical inferences”, about events that may be “strange” yet recurring, and I was trained to recognize “patterns”, “(not yet) written laws” to rein in with formulas and algorithms.
I have seen and heard very “strange” things about the court with territorial jurisdiction over my area:
1) People plainly guilty and clearly dangerous left free, while other people end up wrongly convicted and maybe in jail, in a CPR, or sent back.
2) Gang/mafia bosses left free to cruise around by car without a license and without even a residence permit, and meanwhile people completely deprived of documents and waiting for over a year for a residence permit.
3) Known local criminals left free.
4) Known pushers/wholesalers left free.
5) People sent back to their country of origin for 9 g of hashish (I know people who, when they go on holiday, take much more than that with them as a “stash”).
6) “Raids” on ex-gang-bosses-now-without-power-or-money while the real bosses live calm and undisturbed, maybe despite having no residence permit!
7) And finally THE MONEY … RIVERS OF MONEY ENOUGH TO MAKE EVEN THE LUXURY AL CAPONE LIVED IN DURING PROHIBITION LOOK PALE!