Text 19260, 91 rader
Skriven 2011-05-22 13:35:23 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
     Kommentar till en text av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Uncontrolled furriners
==============================
Hello Robert,

On Saturday May 21 2011 09:48, you wrote to me:

 MV>> That's the American way of reasoning: he is a womaniser so he must
 MV>> be a rapist too. I don't buy that.

 RB> That's the human way of reasoning.

Only for part of the human race. I know lots of humans who reason differently.

 RB> Someone who is rather famous for his womanizing, and has been caught
 RB> at it in the past, is not someone you automatically believe when a
 RB> similar case crops up.

But that is just the thing. Only for some is it a "similar case". Most people
in Western Europe of my generation and younger - the ones from after the sexual
revolution - take the position that what consenting adults do with regard to
sex is their business and no one else. Only a few Bible Belt fanatics get
excited about extramarital affairs. We laughed our arse off when the US tax
payer spent millions to expose the affair between Bill Clinton and Monica
Lewinsky.

People have affairs. Especially the high and mighty. Seems to come with the
territory. Almost nobody cares. rape, OTOH, is a totally different thing. Rape
is a criminal offence, a big no-no.

I knew many people here who reason just the other way. Rapist are more than
often people who for some reason or another are unable to fulfill their sexual
desires in a normal way. Rapists are seldom succesfull womanizers. Succesfull
womanizers can get plenty of what they want. That SDK is a succesfull womanizer
does not speak against him in a rape case, it speaks in favour of him.

 MV>> We will see, but I do not give him much of a chance. Unless some
 MV>> pretty strong forensic evidence turns up that speaks in his
 MV>> favour, I think he will be convicted.

 RB> I don't, unless the forensic evidence is against him. Then it's just
 RB> his word against her word, and the jury has to decide who to believe.

The other night we had a well known Dutch lawyer, well versed in US law in late
night talk show. He has worked in New York with the lawyer no defending DSK. He
explained to us that the most important thing in a US legal case is the power
to convince the jury. The truth is secundary. Convince the jury, that is what
matters. DSK lwayer seem to be pretty good at convincing juries. But in this
case if the members of the jury all think like Roy Witt and Ross Cassell, that
will be a tough cookie to crumble.

 MV>> Not that it matters much. He is toast anyway, his life is over.
 MV>> Even if he is aquited.

 RB> His life, no. His career, yes.

For people like him, his career IS his life.

 RB> That's the price you pay for being famous.

That's too easy. I do not usually come to the defence of the high and mighty,
they can take care o themselves and ever so often thet get what they deserve.
But I will make an exception this time.

When Joe the Plummer goes astray he can do his time and then when he gets out,
he can move to another part of the country and start a new life and if he is
any good in his trade, he can be a plumber again if he wants to.

No such thing for DSK. Everybody knows him and if they didn't before, now after
this barbaric show of the "perp walk", everybody knows him. Here is Western
Europe we have abolished the medieval practise of parading end executing
convicts in public ages ago. In the US they have extended it to suspects and
amplified it a millionfold by television.

So contrary, to Joe the Plumber, DSK will never be able to pick up his old
trade. Even if he is aquited. This is unduly harsh.

 RB> serious and whatever comes, he'll probably have to retire to his
 RB> luxury villa and cry over champagne and Beluga caviar. My heard bleeds
 RB> for him.

Do I detect a note of envy there?

Anyway, that assumes any of the champagne and caviar will be left after he is
"free" again. He has to pay for his own security and lawyers don't come cheap.
Accoding to the New York Times, his monthly expenses may run up to $200,000.
And he has no job. Even for a millionaire the well will eventually run dry with
a drain like that. He may end up not only without a job, but broke as well.


Cheers, Michiel

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