Perp-Walk the Ruling Class? L’Horreur!
“Brutal.” “Cruel.” “Chilling.”
These are some of the terms French officials have applied to the Strauss-Kahn case — but not to the alleged crime itself. Rather, they are reacting to photos and videos of Stauss-Kahn being subjected to that American ritual known as the perp walk, being handcuffed and escorted by a phalanx of New York police detectives in response to charges that the IMF head sexually assaulted a hotel maid.
Even French journalists have been stunned at the sight:
“Last night, the chilling image of DSK handcuffed nailed our mouths shut,” wrote Stéphane Jourdain, a French reporter for Agence France-Presse, using Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s initials, his familiar French moniker. “Not one journalist asked him for a reaction when he came out.”
This shock on the part of the French may be a pose, of course, but it is far more likely to be real. In this country we’ve become accustomed to such sights, but not so in France, especially when the high and mighty are involved:
“The heart can only contract before these humiliating and poignant images that they’re giving of him,” Jean-Pierre Chevènement, a leftist senator and former minister, wrote on his blog. “A horrible global lynching! And what if it were all a monstrous injustice?”
That latter concern — that the person undergoing the perp walk is, after all, only an alleged perpetrator, and that he or she may actually be innocent — is certainly a valid one. Even in this country, the suitability and possibly prejudicial nature of the perp walk has long been a matter of debate, although courts for the most part have generally upheld the legality of the practice.
In the Strauss-Kahn case, the French are reeling not only from the unaccustomed sight of a perp walk itself, but from the fact that so august and powerful a figure has been subjected to it. French society exhibits more consciousness of class, status, and rank than ours, and its legal system reflects this.
One example is French defamation law, which makes it especially difficult to write anything negative about a public figure without being vulnerable to a libel suit in which the defendant must prove that he or she launched a “thorough investigation” before making the allegedly defamatory statements about the famous person. Contrast this to the American legal system, which requires that the plaintiff in a libel case involving defamation of public figures prove actual malice on the defendant’s part in order to win a judgment.
The French do not appear to relish seeing the mighty brought low. As Con Coughlin, executive foreign editor of the British Telegraph, observes:
Any attempt by a French policeman to handcuff a prominent politician would be tantamount to committing an act of treason. In America it doesn’t matter whether you are OJ Simpson or an international statesman of the stature of Mr. Strauss Kahn: if the cops believe you’ve broken the law, you’ll soon find yourself paraded in public in handcuffs before being thrown in the slammer.
Actually, it does matter who the perp is in America, but not quite in the way Coughlin meant it. The fact is that the perp walk is more likely, not less, to be foisted on the rich and famous, and particularly on white collar criminals.
It was popularized in the ’80s in New York City by Rudy Giuliani during his tenure as U.S. attorney, when he used it as a favorite tool to humiliate former executives charged with insider trading and to boost his own media visibility.
In Strauss-Kahn’s case, the handcuffs and the police guard were theater, but they were not solely for show. Strauss-Kahn may be a white-collar type, but the offense with which he has been charged is most definitely not a white-collar crime. As described, it was an act of violence. What’s more, his conduct afterward made it clear that a good argument could be made that he is a substantial flight risk — literally, because the police apprehended him on an Air France plane that was only moments from taking off.
The flight risk is not only obvious in Strauss-Kahn’s case, but it is not a small matter, and was the main reason he was denied bail. If the police had been just a little slower in getting to the airport, and Strauss-Kahn had been able to depart for France, he would most likely have been beyond the reach of American law because France would almost certainly have refused to extradite him.
Precedent is the well-known Roman Polanski case, in which another celebrity accused of sex crimes in the U.S. fled to France and remained free thereafter for over 30 years. When Polanski was finally arrested in Switzerland in 2009, the reaction of a large part of France and Europe was horror at those vindictive boors, the Americans:
“To see him thrown to the lions and put in prison because of ancient history — and as he was traveling to an event honoring him — is absolutely horrifying,” French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand said after Polanski was arrested upon arrival in Switzerland to attend the Zurich Film Festival, where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award. “There’s an America we love and an America that scares us, and it’s that latter America that has just shown us its face.”
However, not everyone dislikes this particular side of the American visage. Richard Fernandez points out that some non-European observers seem to take satisfaction in how Strauss-Kahn was treated:
If you go down to the Times of India you will read comment after comment that says “only in America could such a powerful man be taken off an airplane and made to parade in a police lineup”; “this is true democracy” and “my faith in the world has been restored.” For a world that is accustomed to watching the powerful stamp on the faces of the common man, this … arrest is … almost unbelievable.
If Strauss-Kahn is ultimately found not guilty, the perp walk naysayers will feel even more vindicated in their anger at those barbaric and declasse Americans who handled a distinguished man with such disrespect. They can’t complain that he’s being treated entirely like a “common criminal,” though, because Strauss-Kahn will be getting some special treatment during his stay on Riker’s Island:
Strauss-Khan will be held in protective custody … because of his high profile, said city Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello. Unlike most prisoners, who share 50-bed barracks, Strauss-Kahn will have a single-bed cell and eat all his meals alone there. Also, when he is outside his cell, he will have a prison-guard escort.
It’s not quite the $3,000-a-day suite at the Sofitel, but it will have to do for now.
This is an excellent example for requiring wealthy criminals to pay for their incarceration; especially, if they require private rooms and extra guards, why should this special care be provided without charge?
Keeping prisoners is extremely expensive. If they have the funds to pay $50,000 a year for their room and board, let them pay. After all, the $3,000 night hotel room was his typical night in the city, of what consequence is $50,000 year.
well Skookum the American Taxpayers were more than likely paying for that hotel room thanks to our guttless politicians who just love to blow the tax payers money,
The “Private Room” Is 99% likely to be an isolation cell near the floor sargeant’s desk, not a hotel suite. State law requires that they be no smaller that 10X6 feet and would be included in a bank of cells that house other high risk inmates either for the threat of self-harm or a security risk. If anything he will be allowed additional access to his attorney and more creature comforts. Rmember, he is only there as a flight risk, not a presumption of guilt. That is the beauty of our justice system.
“Don’t be shy or wiggle so much mon cherie, I am coming to you…
Voila!”
Hey DSK… Whatever you do, don’t drop the soap in the shower!
Sorry. I just couldn’t resist.
The perp walk that I can’t wait to see is the one that includes: barry, pelosi and reid. That’s one YouTube clip that I’d watch over and over and be just as delighted the 1,000th time as the first.
Me too Jonnet with the greatest pleasure I have ever known. problem is. it will never happen,
And yet, I think of that poor housekeeper on the bed being raped by the “rutting chimpanzee”/head of the IMF and I find that a chilling image.
Les Americains! So puritanical!
Wasn’t it the French UN forces who were raping the little girls in Cote d’Ivoire some years back?
Les Americains! Object to everything fun.
I wonder if Roman Polanski has called monkey man to give him moral support? Na, they probably don’t take phone calls at Rikers Island.
Any moment I expect Roman Polanski to announce he is going to make a movie of the “injustice”, perhaps Hollywood already has an Oscar engraved for the effort. Who are they going to get to play Dominique? Oh wait, perhaps Roman will cast himself.
Vanessa Redgraved.
If they were in the same cell, who would end up being the b!tch?
you seem really obsessed by famous raptors !
you should rather clean your proxy stalls , in case
Marie Claude where have you been while your valiant errant knight (that is me) defended France for several days?
No bail, because he is a flight risk. No special treatment, because he is accused of a crime. How egalitarian of us.
The French are complaining about our prisons. This would be the same French who tortured (and nobody will dispute the use of the word here) the Algerians? We haven’t even waterboarded the man yet. Patience.
The French practiced torture in a WAR context against unlawful FLN
http://mauvaisegraine.rmc.fr/r5779/Terrorisme-FLN/2/
but Americans don’t of course !
then why all these CIA bases around the world ?
Monsieur honchbacked la belle de jour.
Nei, Geitmer did !
OK so we’ve got the comments from the horrified ruling class in England and France – how about some comments from the common man/woman from those countries? Something tells me they might well sing a different tune.
What this highlights for me is the attitude our own leaders have (alas – this attitude is changing) vs the English and French ruling class. A man of ‘culture’ in Europe can get into rut and take on the first lass he runs into without consent on her part with little or no fear of reprisal – not so in this country although I fear this attitude is changing bit by bit. Just look at the laundry list of Democrats who’ve had ‘problems’ figuring out & paying their taxes. More and more we are being persuaded to look the other way. This only encourages abuse by the so-called ruling class to cheat. What the hell – as long as you are getting away with it and it pays to boot – why stop there? Next thing you know they’ll be getting away with murder/manslaughter – but didn’t a Kennedy get a pass on that?
Attitudes in our ‘ruling class’ (politicians) are changing in this country – reflecting more and more those of Europe – the very same attitudes that caused our founding fathers to bring forth a new nation based on individual rights – and the idea that no man was above the law.
Seems like things will come full circle if we let it.
11 score and 4 years ago, “our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
And far too long ago, we denied that and started in on Orwell’s Animal Farm. “Some animals are more equal than others.” That’s always been the way in Europe – perhaps even the ideal. It’s too often been the way here, but it’s not (yet) anything like the ideal. Let’s keep it that way-and if we can-push that attitude back even further from those terribly ‘sensitive’ Euro-sensibilites.
How about the comments from our own ruling class, let’s say Ben Stein over at the American Spectator:
“I don’t know Mr. Strauss-Kahn. I have never laid eyes on him in person. He may well, in the future, be found guilty of atrocious conduct towards the complainant and maybe towards others. But, so far, he’s innocent, and he’s being treated shamefully. If he’s found guilty, there will be plenty of time to criticize him and imprison him. But nothing has been proved yet except that the way this case has been handled so far is an embarrassment to this country.”
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/05/17/presumed-innocent-anyone
This is his conclusion to a nausea inducing column.
Look Ben, a shark – care for a jump you moron.
Looks like the circle is closing…
The doctrine of presumption of innocence only applies inside the courtroom and it is a rebuttable presumption.
Those who would extend the doctrine out to the street are either ignorant of the law or simply criminal sympathizers.
DavidMac: You are absolutely, 100% correct. The biggest legal myth is that you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Only the jurors or the judge in a bench trial have to presume the defendant is innocent unless the prosecutor proves each and every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Everyone else can presume whatever they want about the defendant. It is about time that hoary myth is debunked. Thank you for starting the process.
and I USED to have a lot of respect for ben stein,
I am led to believe that in France one is presumed guilty until proved innocent, as opposed to the US’ innocent until proved guilty.
are you kidding, the show was demonstrating the contrary
We are ignoring the important questions here. What will his prison tattoos look like? Which gang will he join? Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, Skinheads?
I was once in an elevator going from street level down to the light-rail. The thing reeked of urine, bleach and pigeon crap (on the top of the car). The other guy in the car announced loudly “Man, it smells like jail in here!” He looked like he spoke from experience.
When I imagine a smug, effete euro-crat rotting in a Rikers cell, with all the stink, noise and gang bangers it warms my dark little heart. Don’t do the crime, ect, ect.
i’m guessing some kind of white supremacist or maybe even the “GBG’s”
whichever has the best benefits and welfare system
there is another criminal that should be doing the prep walk. he is in the white house.
Is THAT ever the truth!
Ubama is a traitor many times over, as was Bill Clinton. Both have repeatedly sold out US interests to our enemies.
If it’s so bad, the French are just going to have to do their raping in Europe, then.
What a horrible inconvenience.
All I can say is: “Vive l’horreur!”
Here in the US, a rapist stands a risk of getting shot dead by his intended victim. Long live the Second Amendment! No perp walk needed…
The pervert believes himself untouchable. I surmise similar incidents were arranged by his sarcophants to give him thrills, except this time, by mistake or by design, someone sent a woman who’s not in the game.
1) He’s a dirty old man, and one with a penchant for violence, at that.
2) Like all socialists, he has a sense of entitlement, and believes that the normal rules of civil society do not apply to him.
3) He’s French, looks down on us Americans, and fails to understand that US law applies to him as long as he in the US.
Given the Constitutional principle of innocent until proven guilty, I should have waited until more information is available and the trial has taken place before expressing any opinion on DSK’s guilt or innocence. Indeed, there may be much more to the story.
I remember from the last two decades about the many crimes that individual Serbs, as well as the Serbian people as a whole, were accused of without any proof – crimes that either were committed by someone else, or never took place at all.
In this instance, I am especially suspicious because I’ve heard that the hotel maid is a Muslimah and DSK is of Jewish ethnicity. It could possibly be entrapment or a setup of some kind. Yes, it is entirely possible that DSK is a dirty old man who makes crude sexual advances to any female in his presence. While this is gross and repulsive, along with being a valid a reason not to have him be in any position of public trust, just being an obnoxious creep is not a crime in and of itself. Someone may have taken advantage of that proclivity to entrap him. Here again, I don’t have the facts, so I don’t want to say much else at this time.
All that having been said, in NO WAY do I defend the IMF. That organization causes nothing but trouble. It is bankrupting not only the US, but also the whole world. It’s time to disband it, or, at the very least, stop participating in it.
Ah, the privileges of the aristocracy! It takes a truly revolutionary nation, such as the US, to interfere with them, and hopefully to keep interfering, because who else is going to do it? The UN? Would a woman feel less violated if she happens to reside in a country where the “noble man” gets away with anything by “pulling rank”? Let’s not turn off the lights of the shining city on the hill!
By the way, if we can accommodate the monkeys, why not indulging the advocates of Sharia?
Yes. At it’s heart, France is still a feudal society. Hence their love affair with socialism. They worship a ruling elite.
Actually perp walks and all the other types of pre-trial publicity are pretty revolting. It’s just that there isn’t much of a way to prevent them. That pesky Bill of Rights you know.
If this is how they react to a mere arrest….seeing how they will react to a trial is gonna be fun.
I mean, mon Dieu, isn’t sexually abusing the help part of the perks of power?
(I’ll have extra butter on my popcorn, please, and a large diet Coke.)
that’s a change from your antisemit labelling !
But I do expect that it’s coming soon on board !
We’re all raped Ghanian housekeepers now. F
about the difference of apprehending a suspect in the american Justice system and in the french one:
(in french)
http://www.francesoir.fr/actualite/justice/dsk-il-aurait-mieux-valu-qu-il-soit-arrete-en-france-101996.html
(Bing translation into english)
http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.francesoir.fr%2Factualite%2Fjustice%2Fdsk-il-aurait-mieux-valu-qu-il-soit-arrete-en-france-101996.html
I know the guy has a rotten reputation,but for heavens sake!!Lets see how things play out.A lot of rape charges are nothing but lies.
and alot are not.
He has the right to presume innocence in court,. but public opinion is another matter. I didn’t even see the Perp walk, so it has no effect on my opinion. However, his past lousey behavior, and his ultra rich lifestyle speak volumes of a super priviledged rich guy who doesn’t understand, he cannot have everything he wants on demand.
It’s not like we all haven’t seen the contemptable actions of so many of the ultra rich. They aren’t any less prone to ignorant acts than any other group.
French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand said after Polanski was arrested upon arrival in Switzerland to attend the Zurich Film Festival, where he was to receive a lifetime achievement award. “There’s an America we love and an America that scares us, and it’s that latter America that has just shown us its face.”
It’s called justice, you cheese-eating surrender monkey. Your fear of it reveals more about you than us. As said elsewhere, the French aren’t all that big on égalité. Why am I not surprised?
it’s called american connerie in your mouth
Stopped in the plane which was to lead to Paris, DSK was placed in custody at the Special Victims Unit, attached to sexual abuse cases, located in Harlem. ” It would have been better that he is arrested in France ,” notes Dominique Inchauspé, criminal lawyer at the bar of Paris, author of a book in which he compares files of Anglo-Saxon and French judicial errors (*). ” In the US, it is primarily the guilty race, it does not always search the truth “, note the criminal lawyer foreshadowing the long legal battle ahead of the policy.
At the end of thirty hours of custody, the French appeared, Monday, in a Manhattan Court for a preliminary hearing. Slow disorder the criminal lawyer: ” if they had of important evidence, it would have been referred earlier. “.
In France, DSK was brought to an investigating judge who would have put him in review. If the judge for a remand, it would have before a judge of freedoms and detention which would have held on this request in a debate in principle secret.
There, after this first passage to American justice, the Prosecutor decides education suite. It can be the result of a single judge or a grand jury composed of citizens. In the case of Strauss-Kahn, the criminal lawyer imagines that it is the hypothesis of a grand jury would be chosen. The process is secret, and litigants appearing without counsel.
” Competition “.
This Court has a ” great power “, but it is also often perceived as a ‘ Chamber of registration charges by the Attorney “, observes, puzzled, Dominique Inchauspé. Furthermore, the Attorney ” is not required to disclose all discharge.” He is the arbiter of what it will pass or not the defence. “Judicial errors in the Anglo-Saxon countries almost come because the Attorney and the police did had not communicated elements discharge that we discover that aftermath “. It is therefore the defence to provide the elements that may exonerate the accused.
Finally if the grand jury decides to return Dominique Strauss-Kahn, he will be tried by a court. Dominique Inchauspé warns: ” the anglo-saxon criminal trial, it is a competition, the stronger WINS. The truth is after. The Americans say Justice before truth (“justice before truth”). An any program. »
(*) Dominique Inchauspé, the error judicial, ed. Presses Universitaires de France, 2010.
from the link (translated with Bing) that I posted above, still not edited
“The truth is after. The Americans say Justice before truth (“justice before truth”). An any program.”
Get a new translater, I have never heard of that saying,. we Americans appearently say,… and I defy you to find anyone who claims to have used it as a common phrase.
Your annoyence with America not granting your upper class the freedom to sexually assualt the help, is noted.. and found contemptable. You aren’t concerned about wether he even did it, but that (horrors) we treat him like a street criminal.. when actually he is getting selective treatment. He’s not in the general population.
Worry less about his feelings, and more about the woman he violated. Show some concern for her, then maybe we’ll talk. It’s telling that the French reaction was all about his regal status being besmirched, and ours was about the woman he abused.
It’s not hard to see which is the nobler choice.
Cherchez la femme – le poosy cat does not like eetz furs rubbed the wrong wayz, n’est-ce pas?
La belle Franz eez le poup de ville of zee ceeveelizatzion.
L’audace, l’audace, toujours l’audace an zee panteez come off like theez – voila!
prout prout
cherchez chez vos petits copains les mafiosi de la finance !
It is called Equal Justice Under Law, Marie. He will receive due process like any other accused. Social standing doesn’t matter one bit, which seems to be the problem European commentators are having. We Americans, though, like it a whole lot, and try to apply it as best we can.
La secuencia de fotos de Strauss-Khan con grilletes en USA,no son comunes en Francia,cuando un sospechoso es arrestado.Las ofensas sexuales y delitos asociados deben ser investigados a pesar de la persona y el Poder que encarnan.
La Justicia tiene el debate “In Dubio pro Reo”,y el resumen de la evidencia.
Caramba!
Who cares what they do in France? Give me the perp walk with film at 11.
No country tailors it’s criminal justice system to adher to the laws of the defendants home country,.. that’s an absurd idea that any nation would laugh at.. yet the French expect special treatment. Stunned we didn’t do it like they would,…
no, it just shows to the world that your still a gangsta society
then yours is a rapist society, you generalizing fool
The perp walk does not make me proud to be American. These things are so murky at the IMF that I will only be proud when they close it down. For now I just want to know what he did that they did a public perpwalk.That is our age’s equivalent of being paraded through the streets while pesents throw rotted food at you.
But the corrupt president of a Corrupt institution is going to jail. Why now? This worries me greatly. This is a guy who never had to worry about getting caught with a hooker. He can order a hooker online and afford to do it.
What is the IMF being asked to do that he said no to?
“For now I just want to know what he did that they did a public perpwalk.”
He is accused of sexual assault. Didn’t you read the article?
I have no use for DSK, and little use for anything French or elitist, but perp walks are a form of punishment before conviction. Everyone before the criminal justice system – accusers to accused- should be treated with dignity and respect. Police officers are not Judge and Jury.
…. Roman Polanski (was) accused of sex crimes in America and then fled to France, where he remains free ….
Not merely “accused:” Roman Polanski perpetrated the aggravated rape of a thirteen-year-old child and after plea bargaining was convicted of her rape. That the dead, decadent, degenerate and doomed Euro-peons shield him? Defines them.
prescription after more than 3 decades! besides he had done some jail times before
and his victim was indemnised and removed her plaint ! Just that a vindicted californian judge wanted to get some media attention for local personal promotion in re-attacking a show-business star !
Marie: “indemnised” and “plaint”? Not to mention “vindicted” . . . pu-leeeese!!
so, you aren’t ignorant, aren’t you ?
It wasn’t “30 years ago” when France first welcomed him. And no, one does not get to decide for himself that justice has been served because “it was so long ago” and “I did some jail time before”. The fact remains that he has been convicted (proven) guilty of drugging, raping, and sodomizing a child, and that he ran away from punishment. Justice is still in his future, either in this life or the next.
so what, for us it’s case closed ! and we don’t empech Polanski to join California if he wants to
Zee maid deed eet.
Polanski deed eet.
Zee birds an zee beez deed eet.
Klouzeau
Si les cons volaient, tu serais Chef d’Escadrille
Lafayette or Mod?
pee wee
Barry Rubin have recently wrote the article about the difference between PajamasMedia and Mass Media.In the case of the IMF chief I don`t see any difference.
Hi I am French. Don’t relate to this Marie-Claude. She is obviously crazy and a shame on the French Nation, I see her also on other forums like “The Economist”.
Casses toi pauvre conne, comme dirait Sarko.
THANK YOU,….
I knew there had to be someone left in France who was still sane. Still remembered we’re supposed to be friends. God knows our history would indicate that, if not the ramblings of the snobbish left.
Ben
like if you were relevant too !
Dreyfus
“Yesterday when we broke the news that DSK was housed in Rikers Island “West Facility” reserved for inmates with infectious diseases, we speculated, jokingly we hoped, that this may be due to his affliction with a certain sexually transmitted disease. Alas, if what the the NY Post reports this morning ends up being true, the situation may be substantially more serious: “Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have more to worry about than a possible prison sentence. The IMF chief’s alleged sex-assault victim lives in a Bronx apartment rented exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS, The Post has learned. The hotel maid, a West African immigrant, has occupied the fourth-floor High Bridge pad with her 15-year-old daughter since January — and before that, lived in another Bronx apartment set aside by Harlem Community AIDS United strictly for adults with the virus and their families”
(zerohedge)
Laissez les bons temps rouler mon velveeta fromage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWk62WlpT1c
Boop boop bee doo
(translation: Boop boop bee doo)
Nice to see the quote from Frederic Mitterrand defending DSK. He is the French Minister of Culture who wrote the autobiographical tell-all about boinking underage boys, isn’t he? A FINE character witness!
Thanks, it’s good to see not all French are as stuck up and intolerant of cultural differences. Apreciate your coming here.
are you a parrot? thanks to the void beniouioui ! n’importe quoi !
“Sorry, you can’t come in.”
“Do you know who I am?!”
“I do. You’re lucky the bar’s open to you.”
– Casablanca
@ ben,
no problem mon ami, i have a word for marie claude, a very common french word beginning with “m”. the problem here is that “whatizname” shares an attitude that goes back to the bourbon aristocracy of the restoration, “they have learned nothing, and forgotten nothing.” and “she’s only a peasant girl, it doesn’t matter”. while some of our own soi disant “aristocracy” would like to think they too are above the law an honest woman, working to support her child and herself, has the right to respect and dignity, and not be molested by anyone.
ok, you like the lêche-cul benioui-oui Ben, but what does he has to say on the case?
Nuts like you !
et, l’aristocrate paysanne te dit MERDE aussi, comme ça le mot n’est pas perdu
Oh come on now you ol’ fille de joie, you don’t really mean that.
Remember what Machiavelli said in “The Prince”: “J’AI MAL À ASS”
Boff, you really need that advertizing for your poor blog that none wants to read ?
Here’s something Europeans have never understood about Americans and never will understand – it is why they are mystified as to our success even though to this day they condescendingly think of us as barbarians in cultural shortpants.
It is this: good stuff is where you find it; that is our religion.
We do not need neon signs to point to where quality resides and this is why rock and roll, the great democracy and equalizer of the music world took the world by storm. We listen, we see, we read. We make our own judgments.
It is why you wear baseball caps with no baseball stadiums in sight and why I’m not wearing a beret. It’s why you actually think wine is sophisticated and Coca-cola not – they are drinks – nothing more. A good essay is a good essay, whether one person reads it or 10 million. This perception is how we have bested you in every way that matters and there is no essential idea that is more American than Horatio Alger because we delight in finding things for ourselves instead of being told where we SHOULD find it.
It’s how your stupid oom-pah-pah bands were replaced with John Coltrane.
Gee, If I go to France and commit a heinous crime, can I rely on my American rights and privileges? I didn’t think so.
We have our own problems with privelege, look at the OJ Fiasco. At least it looks like its not happening, here.
He has not yet been tried and found guilty. Why presume he is guilty? In Europe we assume someone is innocent until proved guilty.
Why is he in a prison with convicted criminals and not in a remand center where accused persons without bail are held before trial?
Why is there so much forcible sodomy in American prisons?
It is a lie that notables are treated the same by the American courts as ordinary folk. I need mention only one name – the killer Edward Kennedy.
Given that the American criminal justice system is so flawed, he will probanly not get a fair trial.He will either be convicted on false testimony as many Americans are in sex cases in states with feminist trial rules. Or he will get off on a technicality because he has the money to hire a crooked lawyer.
No, in Europe you assume that important men of high political rank must be innocent, especially if their accusers are merely colored chambermaids.
especially if you paid t’em !
but you like t’em of course !
You know what the funniest part is? On the way to the airport, after he realized his cell phone was missing, DSK called the hotel. Someone there who should get a million dollars for his quickness said, “Yes, we have it. How can we get it to you?” And DSK was dumb enough to tell them.
A lawyer said she’d get 6 mil if she kept her mouth shut. I think she should take the dough and go live a nice rest of her life.
After all, she has AIDS and the Frenchie will be a Pariah.
The ideal of “nobody above the law” will be fulfilled when we have perp walks for Maxine Waters and other wholly corrupt politicians.
President Bill Clinton survived his sexual escapades, because he was a servant to the system, not a threat. But Strauss-Kahn, like former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, was a threat to the system, and, like Eliot Spitzer, Strass-Kahn has been deleted from the power ranks.
Strauss-Kahn was the first IMF director in my lifetime, if memory serves, who disavowed the traditional IMF policy of imposing on the poor and ordinary people the cost of bailing out Wall Street and the Western banks. Strauss-Kahn said that regulation had to be reimposed on the greed-driven, fraud-prone financial sector, which, unregulated, destroyed the lives of ordinary people. Strauss-Kahn listened to Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, one of a handful of economists who has a social conscience.
Perhaps the most dangerous black mark in Strauss-Kahn’s book is that he was far ahead of America’s French puppet, President Sarkozy, in the upcoming French elections. Strauss-Kahn simply had to be eliminated.
It is possible that Strauss-Kahn eliminated himself and saved Washington the trouble. However, as a well-travelled person who has often stayed in New York hotels and in hotels in cities around the world, I have never experienced a maid entering unannounced into my room, much less when I was in the shower.
In the spun story, Strauss-Kahn is portrayed as so deprived of sex that he attempted to rape a hotel maid. Anyone who ever served on the staff of a powerful public figure knows that this is unlikely. On a senator’s staff on which I served, there were two aides whose job was to make certain that no woman, with the exception of his wife, was ever alone with the senator. This was done to protect the senator both from female power groupies, who lust after celebrities and powerful men, and from women sent by a rival on missions to compromise an opponent. A powerful man such as Strauss-Kahn would not have been starved for women, and as a multi-millionaire he could certainly afford to make his own discreet arrangements.
As Henry Kissinger said, “power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” In politics, sex is handed out as favors and payoffs, and it is used as a honey trap. Some Americans will remember that Senator Packwood’s long career (1969-1995) was destroyed by a female lobbyist, suspected, according to rumors, of sexual conquests of Senators, who charged that Packwood propositioned her in his office. Perhaps what inspired the charge was that Packwood was in the way of her employer’s legislative agenda.
Even those who exercise care can be framed by allegations of an event to which there are no witnesses. On May 16 the British Daily Mail reported that prior to Strauss-Kahn’s fateful departure for New York, the French newspaper, Liberation, published comments he made while discussing his plans to challenge Sarkozy for the presidency of France. Strauss-Kahn said that as he was the clear favorite to beat Sarkozy, he would be subjected to a smear campaign by Sarkozy and his interior minister, Glaude Gueant. Strauss-Kahn predicted that a woman would be offered between 500,000 and 1,000,000 euros (more than $1,000,000) to make up a story that he raped her. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387625/IMF-chief-Dominique-Strauss-Kahn-feared-political-enemy-pay-woman-allege-rape.html
The Daily Mail reports that Strauss-Kahn’s suspicions are supported by the fact that the first person to break the news of Strauss-Kahn’s arrest was an activist in Mr Sarkozy’s UMP party – who apparently knew about the scandal before it happened. Jonathan Pinet, a politics student, tweeted the news just before the New York Police Department made it public, although he said that he simply had a ‘friend’ working at the Sofitel where the attack was said to have happened. The first person to re-tweet Mr Pinet was Arnaud Dassier, a spin doctor who had previously publicised details of multi-millionaire Strauss-Kahn’s luxurious lifestyle in a bid to dent his left wing credentials.
Strauss-Kahn could just as easily been set up by rivals inside the IMF, as well as by rivals within the French political establishment.
Michelle Sabban, a senior councillor for the greater Paris region and a Strauss-Kahn loyalist said: ‘I am convinced it is an international conspiracy.’
She added: ‘It’s the IMF they wanted to decapitate, not so much the Socialist primary candidate.
‘It’s not like him. Everyone knows that his weakness is seduction, women. That’s how they got him.’
Even some of Strauss-Kahn’s rivals said they could not believe the news. ‘It is totally hallucinatory,’ said centrist Dominique Paille.
‘If it is true, this would be a historic moment, but in the negative sense, for French political life. I hope that everyone respects the presumption of innocence. I cannot manage to believe this affair.’
And Henri de Raincourt, minister for overseas co-operation in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government, added: ‘We cannot rule out the thought of a trap.’
Michelle Sabban is on to something when she says the IMF was the target. Strauss-Kahn is the first IMF director who is not lined up on the side of the rich against the poor. Strauss-Kahn’s suspicions were of Sarkozy, but Wall Street and the US government also had strong reasons to eliminate him. Wall Street is terrified by the prospect of regulation, and Washington was embarrassed by the recent IMF report that China’s economy would surpass the US economy within five years. An international conspiracy is not out of the question.
Indeed, the plot is unfolding as a conspiracy. Authorities have produced a French woman who claims she was a near rape victim of Strauss-Kahn a decade ago. It would be interesting to know whether this allegation is the result of a threat or a bribe. As in the case of Julian Assange, there are now two women to accuse Strauss-Kahn. Once the prosecutors get the odds of two females against one male, they win in the media.
It has not been revealed how the authorities knew Strauss-Kahn was on a flight to France. However, by arresting him aboard his scheduled flight just as it was to depart, the authorities created the image of a man fleeing from a crime.
The way Amerikan justice (sic) works is that prosecutors in about 96 percent of the cases get a plea bargain. US prosecutors are permitted by judges and the public to pay for testimony against the defendant and to put sufficient pressure on innocent defendants to coerce them into making a guilty plea in exchange for lesser charges and a lighter sentence. Unless the hotel maid has a spell of bad conscience and admits she was paid to lie, or gets cold feet about perjuring herself, Strauss-Kahn is likely to find that Amerikan criminal justice (sic) is organized to produce conviction regardless of innocence or guilt.
On May 16, the day following Strauss-Kahn’s arrest, the US Supreme Court threw its weight behind the Amerikan police state by destroying the remains of the Fourth Amendment with an 8-1 ruling that, the U.S. Constitution notwithstanding, Amerika’s police do not need warrants to invade homes and search persons.
What happened to your faux French accent?
I smell a rat
La justice américaine instruit uniquement à charge, d’après un avocat français.
Interpellé dans l’avion qui devait le conduire à Paris, DSK a été placé en garde à vue à la Special Victims Unit, attachée aux affaires d’atteintes sexuelles, située à Harlem. « Il aurait mieux valu qu’il soit arrêté en France », observe Dominique Inchauspé, avocat pénaliste au barreau de Paris, auteur d’un ouvrage dans lequel il compare des dossiers d’erreurs judiciaires anglo-saxons et français (*). « Aux Etats-Unis, c’est d’abord la course au coupable, on ne recherche pas toujours la vérité », note le pénaliste laissant présager la longue bataille judiciaire qui attend le politique.
A charge
Au terme de trente heures de garde à vue, le Français a comparu, lundi, devant un tribunal de Manhattan pour une audience préliminaire publique. Une lenteur qui trouble le pénaliste : « S’ils avaient des preuves importantes, il aurait été déféré plus tôt. »
En France, DSK aurait été présenté à un juge d’instruction qui l’aurait mis en examen. Si ce juge optait pour une détention provisoire, il aurait saisi un juge des libertés et de la détention qui aurait statué sur cette demande lors d’un débat en principe secret.
Là, après ce premier passage devant la justice américaine, le procureur décide de la suite de l’instruction. Elle peut être le fait d’un seul juge ou d’un grand jury composé de citoyens. Dans le cas Strauss-Kahn, le pénaliste imagine que c’est l’hypothèse d’un grand jury qui serait choisie. La procédure y est secrète, et le justiciable comparaît sans avocat.
« Une compétition »
Cette cour a un « pouvoir considérable », mais elle est aussi souvent perçue comme une « chambre d’enregistrement des charges retenues par le procureur », observe, perplexe, Dominique Inchauspé. Par ailleurs, le procureur « n’est pas tenu de communiquer tous les éléments à décharge. Il est l’arbitre de ce qu’il va transmettre ou pas à la défense. La quasi-totalité des erreurs judiciaires dans les pays anglo-saxons viennent du fait que le procureur et la police n’avaient pas communiqué des éléments à décharge qu’on ne découvre qu’après-coup ». C’est donc à la défense de fournir les éléments pouvant innocenter l’accusé.
Enfin si le grand jury décide de renvoyer Dominique Strauss-Kahn, il sera jugé par un tribunal. Dominique Inchauspé avertit : « Le procès pénal anglo-saxon, c’est une compétition, le plus fort gagne. La vérité vient après. Les Américains disent Justice before truth (“la justice avant la vérité”). Tout un programme. »
(*) Dominique Inchauspé, L’Erreur judiciaire, éd. Presses Universitaires de France, 2010.
He was set up by a Ghanain hooker with powerful friends like maybe Oprah Winfrey.
no pee wee
Les États-Unis à moins de trois mois de la faillite
Ce lundi, la dette américaine dépassera son plafond de 14.294 milliards de dollars, à partir duquel l’État fédéral ne peut plus emprunter. Sans compromis entre le Congrès et la Maison-Blanche avant le 2 août, les États-Unis seront en défaut de paiement.
Depuis plusieurs mois, le G20 et le FMI, mais aussi l’Europe, le Brésil, la Chine, et les agences de notations pressent les États-Unis d’assainir leurs déficit et dette publics démentiels. Aujourd’hui, l’État fédéral américain a le couteau sous la gorge: lundi, la dette américaine devrait toucher son plafond – déjà relevé en janvier dernier -, fixé à 14.294 milliards de dollars, et à partir duquel les États-Unis ne pourront plus emprunter.
Autrement dit, les États-Unis sont au bord de la faillite. Devant l’urgence de la situation, le secrétaire au Trésor, Tim Geithner, a donné un sursis de 30 jours supplémentaires pour permettre au Congrès de trouver un accord avec la Maison-Blanche. Ils ont donc jusqu’au 2 août prochain pour négocier un compromis : les républicains du Congrès n’accepteront pas de voter le relèvement du plafond de la dette tant que le gouvernement n’aura pas mis en place un plan de rigueur budgétaire. Les États-Unis enchaînent en effet trois années de déficit public supérieur à 10% et aucun programme concret et crédible de réduction des dépenses n’est envisagé. Pour Olivier Blanchard, chef économiste du FMI, le plan d’économies de 39 milliards de dollars accouché le 8 avril dernier est «insuffisant».
Barack Obama s’est fixé pour objectif de diminuer le déficit du budget américain de 4000 milliards de dollars au cours des douze prochaines années. Il fixe la réduction du déficit budgétaire à 2,5% du PIB en 2015, et veut qu’elle soit atteinte aux trois quart par des baisses de dépenses. Des objectifs, mais pas de moyen clairs pour les atteindre : lors d’une visite chez Facebook, le président a parlé réforme de la fiscalité.Sans donner trop de détails, il compte d’attaquer aux cadeaux fiscaux destinés aux Américains les plus riches, envisage de limiter les dépenses militaires et les aides à l’agriculture, et de tailler dans le programme de santé, pourtant très populaire, Medicare.
«L’équivalent financier d’un bombe nucléaire»
Que se passerait-il si les États-Unis ne pouvaient plus honorer leur dette, comme cela a été le cas pour la Grèce, l’Irlande, ou le Portugal ? Ce serait «l’équivalent financier d’une bombe nucléaire», s’alarme Aaron Kohli, spécialiste des bons du Trésor chez Nomura Securities. Le cataclysme mondial serait tel que les gens n’y croient pas. «Ils doivent trouver une solution, ils ne peuvent pas laisser la planète finance exploser», se rassure un analyste, qui note que les marchés financiers ne montrent pas de signes d’inquiétudes sur la capacité des autorités américaines à s’entendre.
Pour David Wyss, économiste en chef de l’agence de notation Standard and Poor’s qui a récemment menacé le triple A américain, non seulement le Trésor «peut continuer à fonctionner jusqu’en août (via des manipulations comptables, NDLR)», laissant le temps au Congrès de s’entendre, mais de plus, en cas de situation critique, le gouvernement «fera passer le service de la dette en priorité».
oh la surprise !
rather than eliminate DSK ala cowboy, shot, it was rather quite cleverer to camouflage his elimination with a trial, trapped with his sin ! but is it the truth ? bizarrely he was isolated, and Geitmer is pressing aggressively over the last two days for his resignation and wants DSK’s deputy to take the IMF reins
A bet if DSK resigns until friday, he ‘ll be release from the famous NY jail !
gotta love french
it’s intoxicating
i can “hear” the french accent in the english paragraphs; it’s beautiful
So, for Halloween you might hire a “french Maid” outfit !
“33. Marie Claude
President Bill Clinton survived his sexual escapades, because he was a servant to the system, not a threat. But Strauss-Kahn, like former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, was a threat to the system, and, like Eliot Spitzer, Strass-Kahn has been deleted from the power ranks.”
LOL Bill Clinton had a consensual affair, DSK not. That’s the main and only difference and not your annoying connerie, you fool
boff, Clinton hasn’t only Lewinski on his back, besides she got lot of money to STFU !
and your euphemism within the american exemples is pathetic !
The Kenedys anyone? Lyndon Johnson anyone?… all their reprehensible sex misbehaviours passed under the bus !
Although I have no sympathy here for either Pepe La Pew or the IMF, I suggest that we all first recall the Duke lacrosse team case. The jump to judgement here seems a bit early, does it not?
I actually agree with the French law. Walking the accused before the cameras handcuffed and surrounded by police sends a very biased message that the person is guilty, no matter how flimsy the prosecution’s case. It’s done to humiliate the perp, and make them look guilty. You always see more of this around election time. This is one practice that should end.