Here Ye, here Ye: This is the case of The People vs. the Councilmen Who Beat the System.

We stand before you today, not with rumor, not with idle talk, but with the plain truth of a long-running scheme. The defendants sit at that table, smug in the belief that the system is theirs to work, twist, and own.

This is not a case about bad luck or tough times. This is a case about choice, deliberate choice, made by men elected to serve, who instead chose to serve themselves.

For years, these councilmen have worn the cloak of public service while pulling the levers of a private game. They have learned how to keep their wards just broken enough to win the grants that only brokenness brings.

They apply, they collect, and yet the neighborhoods remain untouched, the same potholes, the same boarded windows, the same despair.

And here is the engine that keeps their machine running: Grant eligibility depends on bad numbers, high poverty, low employment, poor housing conditions.

The worse the statistics, the better the odds of winning funding. So they do the unthinkable, they let the decline stand. They let the problems fester. They make sure the stats never improve enough to lose the next round of grant money.

The crime? It is the calculated maintenance of misery. Year after year, the same cycle. Year after year, the same faces in power.

(Stepheny pauses, looks toward the camera)
I have to tell you, it feels good to stand here in this role, attorney for the people, having taken on this case for the neighborhoods of Happy Hill and beyond.
(Turns back to the jury)

And make no mistake, this was no accident. This was a strategy. Poverty became their currency. Decline became their power. And the people they swore to represent became pawns in a game that never ends, because ending it would cut off the supply.

So I ask you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury: How long do we reward those who profit from failure? How long do we let leaders use public suffering as a ladder to their own security? Today is the day to say enough. To see this for what it is. To break the cycle. To find them guilty, not just in this courtroom, but in the court of public trust.

I rest my case.