Readers sound off on corporate fraud, balloon response and hit-and-runs

Manhattan: So the maker of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky is being sued in a class-action lawsuit for misleading consumers with a second version that looks nearly identical to the popular original flavor but has less booze? The real scandal here is that these cases are in civil court instead of criminal court. This is why these scams never stop happening and our quality of life gets worse and worse.

Every case in civil court should’ve been in criminal court, but police and prosecutors cash the paycheck and don’t do the work. Either someone broke the law and you have sufficient evidence or they didn’t. The victims shouldn’t have to hire attorneys and file paperwork! If our government wasn’t corrupt, consumers would’ve dialed 911, then shown detectives the two different versions. The cops would clearly see the different products are meant to look the same, and that’s the only legal standard for felony fraud. They would find where the headquarters is and call the local police to arrest the CEO, CFO and others responsible since there is sufficient probable cause. The CEOs would get to explain to a jury how deception was not the goal.

Fine print by its mere existence is fraud. It’s small so consumers miss it! But good luck getting anyone in law enforcement to protect us. If dishonest businessmen were cuffed for major crimes like poor Americans are cuffed for petty offenses, they would stop ripping off consumers every day.

We live in a police state without any of the good things about police states! Where’s Bernie Sanders and AOC? Hiding with Waldo? Roger Stoneham

Bronx: Voicer Susannah Bianchi begs officers to “be gentle” with a thief they’re attempting to detain and arrest. She actively interferes with the arrest process, then crows that the officer is “lucky” she didn’t get his badge number. Lady, you can call the precinct and get the badge number — and even file a complaint there — which is what you should have done instead. The precinct will also tell you not to interfere with a lawful arrest. Nothing you saw was excessive by your own description. Eric Cavaballo Callvado

Staten Island: To Voicer Brandon M. Stickney: As a retired NYC correction officer, I agree 100%. In 20 years of service, we never had that many suicides on Rikers, and the jail population was double what it is now. Dominic DeFilippis

Beechhurst: The launching of the spy balloon over America’s sovereign skies clearly indicates that the Chinese Communist Party has taken its measure of that America-last oaf sitting in the Oval Office and sees that it has nothing at all to fear (“The red balloon over America,” editorial, Feb. 4). It’s beyond disquieting that the land of the free and the home of the brave is saddled with a Manchurian president who mindlessly perceives those pesky MAGA Republicans as the real enemy of this country. If this Republic is to endure, corrupt old Uncle Joe needs to be put out to pasture. James Hyland

Brooklyn: The current presidential administration failed to take action against a Chinese spy balloon that was spotted flying over Montana. They failed to shoot it down at first because it could cause ground damage. With today’s technology, a precision strike could have been plotted where it was shot down in an isolated area. Of course, it could have spotted nuclear facilities or launching areas. It could be used to map major cities, factories and military sites. This balloon could also have been a test by China to probe the U.S.A.’s defenses once the airspace is breached, which seems quite weak right now. Joseph Comperchio

Staten Island: The Daily News should have published the predicted path of the balloon and gondola as it passed over the United States. Identify every place it would have been at noon each day hovering above us. Everyone should have gone outdoors and given Chinese President Xi the finger when it was overhead. This was something that could have finally united Americans. Tony Rose

Fort Worth, Texas: I was shocked to see several Republican members of Congress wearing AR-15 rifle lapel pins. Knowing that gun violence is now the leading cause of death in children, and that since Jan. 1, there have been more mass shootings in this country than days of the year so far, I find their behavior unconscionable. It’s simply beyond my comprehension why any congressperson would proudly wear such a pin knowing that a military-style assault rifle is capable of shooting 46 bullets per minute and was designed to kill as many people in as short a time as possible. I’m afraid the only hope the Democrats have of ever passing legislation banning assault rifles with extra capacity magazines is if they’d start wearing angel lapel pins with the sweet faces of all of those children massacred by those “weapons of war.” Maybe then Republicans can finally be shamed into passing gun safety legislation. Sharon Austry

Brooklyn: I found Rep. Ilhan Omar’s comments on Israel ignorant and despicable. However, she has at least apologized for them and is a duly elected public official. Therefore, her removal from the committee is clearly a political act. Kevin McCarthy has appointed Marjorie Taylor Greene to committees even though she has accused Jewish space lasers of causing California’s wildfires. Greene has also threatened members of Congress with physical harm. She has defended the Jan. 6 rioters. She is not the only one, and they were given important committee assignments. Alan Podhaizer

North Bergen, N.J.: It’s time to remind Kevin McCarthy that while he was elected speaker of the House without a single Democratic vote, he was nonetheless elected speaker of the entire House. By refusing to assign prominent Democrats to positions on important committees, he demeans his position as speaker. It’s time for the Democrats to stop playing nice. According to the rules that McCarthy himself approved, it would take but a single member of Congress to enter a motion calling for a recall of the speaker. Whether or not the motion succeeds, it would call to question his misunderstanding of the office he worked so hard to obtain. Irving A. Gelb

Suffern, N.Y.: Re “Follow the facts” (editorial, Jan. 13): Attorney General Merrick Garland would have made a good Supreme Court justice? Is this the same Garland who was ready to label parents who protested teaching transgenderism to their grammar school-age children as being terrorists? Garland has already shown his judgment by ending an investigation into Chinese Communist infiltration of the University of Pennsylvania, where President Biden had his phony no-show job, where he earned $900,000 over the years. Wallington Simpson

Brooklyn: Good news! President Biden has entrusted the keeping of his Corvette garage to the “smartest person he ever met,” his son Hunter. I’m sure I share a feeling of great relief with my fellow Americans that our top-secret documents are now in safe hands. Frank Congiusta

Hartsdale, N.Y.: It seems that people have forgotten that movies are fantasies. Do they really believe that the bombs, explosions, floods, fires, blood and dead bodies they see in movies are real? Actors work with props and no one, especially not an actor, expects bombs, bullets, guns or explosions to be real. It’s tragic that a life was lost but Alec Baldwin thought he was using a prop just like hundreds of other props he’s used during his career. Lydia Ruth-Gaines

Fall River, Mass.: Mimi Silver Liebenberg, a bright 37-year-old woman, a North Carolina native who loved her job as an architect while living in Brooklyn, is now permanently incapacitated with severe brain damage after being run down last summer while walking in a crosswalk (“ ‘Robbed of her life,’ “ Feb. 4). How much jail time, if any, do you think the courts will hand down to the driver, who is only charged with assault, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident with an injury? Until New York metes out severe prison time to drivers who have no compunction to stop after mowing down innocent pedestrians, the carnage will continue to occur. Charles Winokoor