Come, now, Jim: you know you are over-simplifying for political motives. You speak as if there can only be ONE sort of "really serious criminal" involved. Surely the fact that you might regard "incompetent, indifferent and dishonest politicians (of all shades of conservatism) who allowed greedy and predatory bankers and speculators to damage and all-but collapse the economy, leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab" as being of 'criminal' intent {with which not everyone would agree}, doesn't blind you to the fact that a malevolent yobbo who deliberately and with malicious intent throws a heavy object from a high building into a crowd of people below is also a criminal {with which surely no right-thinking person would disagree}. The two views are not incompatible, as you appear to believe; and pointing this out is not "sidetracking the thread".

~M~