Want to learn the ideas in The Divide better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of The Divide by Matt Taibbi here.

Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.

Video Summaries of The Divide

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on The Divide, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Matt Taibbi.

1-Page Summary of The Divide

Overview

The Divide by Matt Taibbi approaches the complicated topic of unequal treatment in the US criminal justice system based on wealth. The author uses individual stories and cases to show how wealthy people are not held accountable for their actions, while small actors or companies that have been fined for their illegal activities face dire consequences. One reason is a memorandum written by Attorney General Eric Holder which states that prosecutors should consider whether prosecution would cause too many lost jobs or too much financial harm to the company.

In major US cities, a lot of arrests are made for minor offenses. This is because the police department relies on stop-and-frisk and broken windows theory to fight crime. The former means that prosecuting minor offenders will catch more serious criminals. The latter says that preventing small crimes can lead to prevention of larger ones. However, these policies make life difficult for residents in high-crime areas as they’re often arrested on inflated charges just because they live there.

Undocumented immigrants are vulnerable to deportation if they are discovered, and politicians often focus on welfare fraud when looking for cases. However, the poor individuals who commit these errors receive harsh punishments while bank officials involved in large-scale fraud do not face any punishment at all.

Key Takeaways

After the financial crisis of 2008, prosecutors opted for settlements and fines instead of jail time to punish major banks whose risky behavior caused the recession. The reason was a memo from Attorney General Eric Holder that said those consequences (jail time) would have an impact on innocent people as well.

In New York City, there was an aggressive policing policy that resulted in many arrests. This often happened because people who were arrested couldn’t pay bail and had to stay in jail longer than they should have. Furthermore, poor people are sometimes motivated to plead guilty even if they’re factually innocent.

Some investors and companies break the law by not following federal regulations. However, these cases often go unpunished because people don’t understand how those laws are being broken or they lack enough evidence to support their claims.

Undocumented immigrants are being forced to leave the country, even though they have not committed crimes. Meanwhile, foreign executives and corporations are not punished for their unethical investment behavior.

It’s not surprising that wealthy people commit crimes because they can afford to pay lawyers and are less likely to be punished. They also have the means of committing frauds in the stock market, which is why there should be stiffer penalties for such crimes.

People who apply for public assistance are often mistreated in the process because of the general public’s expectations that they should sacrifice their rights to help prevent fraud. Wealthy defendants, on the other hand, receive lots of benefits and are given the benefit of every doubt when accused of committing a crime.

The treatment of those who are guilty in court matters to everyone, because it’s the consistent application of the law that gives validity to our judicial system.

Key Takeaway 1: Following the financial crisis of 2008, prosecutors opted for settlements and fines to punish the major banks whose dangerous behavior caused the recession. Bankers did not generally face jail time, as a result of US Attorney General Eric Holder’s collateral consequences memorandum.

Analyse

Politicians like to blame Wall Street for the financial crisis. However, they can’t do anything about it because prosecutors and grand juries have that power. The only way to hold them accountable is if an elected official appoints a good attorney general who shares the same goal of bringing those people to justice. President Obama has expressed his desire to bring them to justice, so we should expect him to choose a good attorney general.