The MSM and Liberals claim that Trump is being vindictive by prosecuting assorted felons who are democrats in good standing. I guess the hope is that the reading public will not bother to parse the meaning and put it into context. Here is the definition as provided by the Cambridge dictionary.
vindictiveness
noun [ U ]
disapproving
uk /vɪnˈdɪk.tɪv.nəs/ us /vɪnˈdɪk.tɪv.nəs/
the quality or an act of showing a wish to harm someone because you think they have harmed you:
The refusal to grant him parole is sheer vindictiveness.
She was intensely biased against him and apparently motivated by pure vindictiveness.
Cambridge Dictionary
The first thing I would point out is that in criminal matters the cause for action is brought by the State or the Federal government. In a civil tort the cause is brought by an individual. So if there is any vindictiveness it is on the part of the government.
Secondly, all criminal prosecutions contain elements of vindictiveness. Go back to the definition, DISAPPROVAL. As in the sovereign disapproves when individuals flaunt the law. I have no problem when a prosecutor tries to send a felon to prison for a substantial length of time.
When I worked dope I tried to target organizations. SAPD narcs targeted cases. What’s the difference you ask? SAPD would arrest a drug dealer and then declare victory. I went after the organization. That means I kept coming back to my target until he went to jail and didn’t come out.
Here’s a for instance. SAPD answered a disturbance call, By the time it was over they ended up with eleven kilos of crack cocaine. They put two women in jail one sixty the other in her twenties. Neither one had a drug history. That was it SAPD was done. These two were so unknown in the drug world that I actually had a substantial crack dealer call me to ask WTF? We compared notes and decided nether of us knew.
It tuned out that the older lady was the mother of an up-and-coming crack dealer. The younger woman was his baby’s mama. SAPD didn’t care they had two defendants, they were done. I pulled a DEA on their ass. Stole their dope when they weren’t looking and used it to build a substantial conspiracy case against son and his associates. I ended up with nine defendants. Both females who were looking at decades in prison got rolled into the conspiracy.
All of the defendants debriefed. They all were convinced that I had personal animosity towards them. They accepted that occasionally one got arrested for dealing dope. Came with the territory. What they couldn’t accept was that every time they looked around, there I was. For three months the pressure never let up until they were all in jail. That wasn’t the way the game was supposed to be played.
It was simple. Mama didn’t deserve an aggravated possession case. Junior didn’t deserve to go free while his mama went to prison. Vindictive? To him it was twenty-four years’ worth. Mama got twenty-four months, vindictive or justice?
You want an example of true vindictiveness? Check out the 16th century punishment for treason under English law.
