I had zero idea of what or where a 'KIRYAS JOEL' is so I went to Google Maps. After I zoomed out to see it was in 'upstate' NY, I then clicked on some photos of the Buildings and Houses this "disadvantaged minority" work and live in. And all I can say is if that they're "disadvantaged", then I must be living in a mud hut in Darfur.
In my county here in IL their houses would be worth about $750,000 easily. And they could have been up to $1,000,000 during the 'boom'. So call me crazy but that ain't "disadvantaged".
(I wonder how many of their kids are down in NYC protesting against 'the greedy rich'?)
LOL. What’re you complaining about? You can’t live there even if you wanted to-—you don’t got the right religious credentials. ROTFL.
Can’t believe you never heard of this place——some of the most infamous international financial crimes of the century are datelined there......as per L/E.
Professor Ralph Stein [Pace]: (Clinton's pardon of four New Square, NY Hasidic individuals for looting the federal govt who then almost unaninmously voted Hillry to the US Senate) is a particularly disgraceful situation that has to be understood in a broader context.
The Hasids (there are different groups each under the autocratic control of a "rebbe") vote as a block. In New York City and two upstate counties, Rockland and Orange, there are large Hasidic communities whose votes can determine local elections and influence statewide contests.
One center of Hasidic territory is the Village of Kiryas Joel which I'm sure all Constitutional Law professors know well. While the First Amendment's protections must be afforded to all, the political reality is that members of the Hasidic community have demonstrated, for a minority within a minority, a startling and discommensurate degree of political muscle.
That muscle is exercised in ways that are legal but disturbing. What has also happened, however, is that some demands by the group to which the four pardoned criminals belong have resulted in government acquiescence at the local level leading to a number of lawsuits, mostly 1983 actions, that have been either decided in favor of the plaintiffs or settled with remedies for the complaining litigants.
I have consulted on several of the cases, one of which is currently pending. Issues of accommodation of this branch of Judaism have been both serious and non-controversial.
For example, police in Orange County have been instructed not to take either offense or action if a female member of that county's Hasidic community will not accept a traffic summons from the hands of a male officer. The police are now instructed to simply put the summons under the windshield wiper.
Obviously, Mr. Clinton will never state that his pardon of the Hasids was in exchange for their support or, more accurately and importantly, that of the community to which they belong. That is exactly what happened here.
Even assuming one can prove that, I know of no statutory violation. The issue with the Hasidim goes beyond seeking the support of the pardoned persons who, in fact, are nobodies beyond being White Collar criminals. It is using the pardoning power to obtain the directed, indeed commanded, support of a bloc that can and does influence elections. In that sense the political process is truly corrupted. --SNIP--