Text 14559, 43 rader
Skriven 2008-04-23 07:20:26 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
  Kommentar till text 14399 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Thought crime...again
=============================
Replying to a message of Ward Dossche to Jeff Smith:

 JS>> In any recent child sex cases did
 JS>> any US LEA's go to other countries and make arrests? Or did they
 JS>> enforce US laws on US soil? Reality Michiel doesn't support your
 JS>> rather obsessed view of the US.

 WD> When not limiting the view to child sex cases but expanding it to
 WD> copyright matters for example, then it becomes a different story.

 WD> Examples are abundant and have been reported and discussed in Fidonet.

 WD> US Law has been enforced in Sweden, in Canada, in Panama, in Grenada,
 WD> ...

 WD> Plenty examples also from the US shielding its citizens from criminal
 WD> prosecution for acts committed abroad. What else is the The Hague
 WD> Invasion Act about ...

30+ years ago if a GI stationed overseas was accused of a local crime, s/he was
usually on the next plane out of that country.  By the time the local gendarmes
showed
up to arrest him/her, s/he was no longer in their country.  That may not be
true any
longer, as several GIs are now doing time in Japanese (and presumably European)
jails
for crimes they committed against the locals (usually but not always rape).

I think I understand the reason for shipping the people out.  At the time I was
on 
Okinawa (1966-71) the island was a US possession, with a 'high commissioner'
- effectively a governor - overseeing a locally elected government.  It was not
possible for an American to win in court against an Okinawan, no matter what
the
charge or the facts of the case or who was the plaintiff or defendant; and
crimes by Okinawans against Americans were pursued at best lackadaisically by
the local gendarmes.
I suspect that the situation has improved since the island was returned to
Japan in
about 1973, but I haven't been there since so I don't know.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)