An excellent portrait of the United States in 2011. Wall Street robs Americans blind of hundreds of billions of dollars, nobody goes to jail. Sellers of single cigarettes on the streets of New York City, which they help keep clear of violent drug dealers, go to Rikers :

Itinerant cigarette vendors have long been a fixture in some parts of the city, like bodegas that sell individual cigarettes in violation of state law. But with cigarette prices up and the number of smoke-friendly places down, the black market for loosies is now thriving on the streets.

“The tax went up, and we started selling 10 times as much,” Mr. Warner said.

“Bloomberg thinks he’s stopping people from smoking. He’s just turning them onto loosies.”

In the four years since he began selling cigarettes, Mr. Warner recalls being arrested 15 times, generally on the charge of selling untaxed tobacco. He has been arrested so often that he can recognize 10 different plainclothes police officers, he claims.

“There are people who are known bad guys, and then there’s him,” said Russell S. Novack, the Legal Aid lawyer who represents many of Midtown’s hustlers, prostitutes, shoplifters and public drunks. “He’s like the goodwill ambassador of Eighth Avenue. And when he comes into court, he says hello to everybody.”

For Mr. Warner, punishment usually means a few days in jail on Rikers Island, or a week of community service, some of it spent sweeping cigarette buts.

The Full Story Is Here