The 21st-century version of the witch-hunt
Published:
October 25, 2014 at 12:56pm
How terrible all this is. The safeguards of democracy, human rights and civil liberties used to abuse and undermine all of those things in the targetting of an individual who is considered to be fair game.
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In this case we have a prominent personality accused of serious crimes. The police have a duty to investiagte and the media have also a duty to inform on these serious allegations. These come after famous personalities were accused and found guilty of such crimes in the UK.
It is nevertheless true that the media and society tend to have their pet crimes which change over time. A few years ago, at least in Malta, drug trafficking was the shocking crime. Now child abuse is the fashionable crime.
[Daphne – Marelli, David, your capacity for missing the point is actually fascinating.]
Here in the UK, many people, including some very smart ones, seem to think that these tactics could encourage any potential victims to come out. I don’t get it, but then I don’t really get British people either.
Some decades ago a 15 year old friend of mine was walking home with the shopping. A man sprung out, took out his junk and invited her to do something she did not want to do.
My friend found a can of Elite baked beans in her bag and threw it at his head. She did not wait around to see how much blood she had drawn. We laugh about it to this day.
That was typical of what happened in those days. Nowadays she’d be interviewed by the police, psychologists, a magistrate… They’d also prompt her for more details and when you are 15 and reading Dame Barbara Cartland (at best), you have plenty of details.
But imagine that now, 20 years later, she decides that she wants to ruin this man’s life. He is now a grandfather. Her memory of the event is hazy and I don’t even know how much of it is fiction.
But the system is so set up that she is encouraged to do so by all those people who get their salary from ‘finding’ such cases. And that reminds me of Police Inspector Louise Calleja who found so many such cases and after the election was awarded a brand new post created just for her. Was it a present like that given to so many switchers?
The problem here in the UK is that, in many cases, allegations of sexual abuse involving politicians and high profile personalities are not new and in the past have simply been ignored or concealed.
One can no longer afford to ignore such cases.
The effect is devastating and white collar crime is on the increase.
White collar crime depends on such intangibles going unnoticed, unreported, unwitnessed, delogged.
White collar crime is just as capable of staging such scenarios to frame victims as well as instigating them to different ends.
Very often, in white collar crime, such abuse is a means to an end and not the end in itself.
At least in the UK one can sue the police.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/28/john-worboys-victims-met-police-compensation
Here in Malta one may be dragged to Court on trumped up charges and after a number of years (few months if one is a Member of Parliament) if found completely innocent one can only grin and bear it irrespective of the costs and waste of time incurred.
Apperently the only place to seek redress is the European Court.
Shame on both PN and MLP.
Why didn’t the police go after “Bachelor Boy” after the Elm Guest House scandal?
“The safeguards of democracy, human rights and civil liberties used to…”
This is even worse, Daphne, and whatever is introduced in the US will soon spread around the world and Muscat will be so happy to shut bloggers down when he’s in power:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/10/25/Democrats-Push-for-New-Heavy-Regulations-on-Internet-Postings-Drudge-and-Blogs
>As the media prepared to vacate newsrooms for the weekend, Democrats snuck in a last minute proposal that the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) be allowed to heavily regulate political content on internet sites such as Youtube, blogs, and the Drudge Report.
Obama FEC Vice Chairperson Ann M. Ravel announced late on Friday that the FEC was preparing new regulations to give itself control over videos, Internet-based political campaigns, and other content on the web. She insisted that, “A reexamination of the commission’s approach to the internet and other emerging technologies is long overdue.”
This snap decision came after the FEC deadlocked 3-3 over whether or not an anti-Obama Internet campaign in Ohio had violated FEC campaign disclosure rules. The videos were placed for free on Youtube and were not paid advertising, but they also did not disclose who made them.
Until now, videos and other political content that is not posted for a fee are unregulated by the FEC. Only paid advertising is regulated under election rules. It is this that the Democrats want to change….<
It's a question of 'when' not 'if' this attack on the freedom of the internet arrives here in Malta.