Have Charles Rangel Do the Perp Walk

Readers are well familiar with the prosecutor tactic of having a prominent person accused of a crime do the so-called "perp walk". This is where the person accused of a crime is paraded off to police headquarters in full view of swarms of photographers, and is intended to not just embarrass the accused, but also to subtly sway public opinion about the person's guilt.

Given the economic harm that Charles Rangel (and his tax-and-spend cronies) has inflicted on the American public over the years, as well as his disregard for the very same tax laws that he was in charge of overseeing, he would make an ideal candidate for a "perp walk" based on some recent, and some old, allegations being made against him in the context of a "Congressional ethics" investigation (now there's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one).

"A House investigative committee last week approved multiple alleged violations against Rangel. People familiar with charges, who were not authorized to be quoted, said they related in part, to:

- Rangel's use of official stationery to raise money for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York.

- His use of four rent-subsidized apartment units in New York City.

- Rangel's failure to report income as required on his annual financial disclosure forms. The committee had investigated his failure to report income from the lawmaker's rental unit at the Punta Cana Yacht Club in the Dominican Republic. Rangel also belatedly disclosed between $239,000 and $831,000 in investment assets.

- His failure to pay taxes on all his income from the resort unit.

- A possible role in preserving a tax shelter for an oil drilling company, Nabors Industries, whose chief executive donated money to the Rangel Center while Ways and Means considered the loophole legislation."

Any other prominent person charged with the crimes that Rangel is accused of would be hauled off to jail and be awaiting trial. There's no reason he shouldn't be treated the same.

Rangel is a cancer, a danger to freedom-loving Americans (consider his proposal to require young Americans to complete 2 years of "public service") and should be tried and convicted of the tax evasion he currently stands accused of.

It would send a tremendous message to other legislators that they are not above the law, and that ordinary Americans now stand ready to hold them accountable for their deeds.