I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court • Hacker News Board

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#111

Post by atmosx » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 5:01 AM UTC

All ex-communist countries were poverty is the status quo have a similar way of dealing with things. We call it bribe, but most of us are on the bright side of the planet, financially speaking at least.

If Irlan didn't wanted to be bribed there would no discussion. All the chit-chat was in order to induce the victim to bribe him.

I heard much more salty stories from my father who was a Businessmen in the Balkan area in the 90s and 00s. After 2002 the situation in the Balkan area improved a lot, but it's not uncommon for police officers to get bribed, it's their way to make ends meet and the easier way for a foreigner to get things done.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#112

Post by hueving » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 5:03 AM UTC

elliottcarlson wrote: post #108

grizzles wrote: post #62

This dude just grassed on all the people who bent the rules to be nice to him. With pictures. For a moment of blog fame. Very uncool.

> Irlan (left) wouldn’t let me take pictures when I was in custody, but over eclairs he let me sneak one in.

The article states that they didn't want him to rat them out to their superiors about the nice treatment and the help. Being allowed to take a pic doesn't mean he was meant to sell them out on the Internet. The guy who will particularly be screwed is the one that accepted the bribe.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#113

Post by lostlogin » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 5:03 AM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #50

nathan_f77 wrote: post #48

Ooh, I have a relevant story that I've never shared before. I was living in Kazakhstan for a while and had to take the overnight train to Kyrgyzstan for a visa run. They're very old trains. I woke up around 3am and had to use the restroom. The train had just stopped at a station in the middle of nowhere, and it was the middle of winter. I went to the restroom. I flushed. But when I looked down through the toilet, I s…

> But don't flush any ex-soviet train toilets when you're stopped at a train station. Not just ex-Soviet trains, British ones too. Newer and renovated trains have sewage tanks, but older trains flush directly onto the tracks (and often therefore have a sign in the toilet asking you not to flush when stopped at a station). According to the BBC, as of 2015 this applied to about 10% of the trains in service: http://www.…

The moment people realise the white stuff on the tracks is toilet paper is a special moment of disgust.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#114

Post by 00098345 » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 5:18 AM UTC

TTPrograms wrote: post #107

grizzles wrote: post #62

This dude just grassed on all the people who bent the rules to be nice to him. With pictures. For a moment of blog fame. Very uncool.

So your problem is more with the publication of government corruption and bribery than with government corruption and bribery itself?

It is unclear what exactly happened. And my guess would be that it was deliberately left out because the blogger initiated the convo.

One should try it in the US after having his visa expired there.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#115

Post by umwhat999 » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 5:31 AM UTC

trhway wrote: post #110

umwhat999 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a... selective reading of that police report. The idea that it is right for police to violently enforce their every whim if one does not immediately obey all commands is a serious problem. For one, only a small subset of all possible commands a police officer could make are commands which one is legally obligated to follow. Secondly, I think we want a society where police choose constructive dialog over violen…

>Secondly, I think we want a society where police choose constructive dialog over violence. seeing how deep the police got addicted to violence one can only wonder whether it is possible for them to get sober at all. I mean you can't make that up - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/2... . Just make sure to watch the video. The police tried to shoot the autistic patient even after the therapis…

Wow. I'm speechless.

I get that everyone's on edge, but please, "PUT AWAY THE GUNS".

America has many consensual crimes (drugs, prostitution, etc.), and that makes a very large percentage of the population criminals who must live outside the law.

I'm not sure this can be fixed until it is unusual for a police interaction with a citizen to be a police-criminal interaction. If most of the people you meet as a law enforcement officer are criminals who interact with the world of drugs (a world which currently features privatized violence-based contract enforcement), then I guess a person's prior probability matrix gets fucked up.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#116

Post by Smirnoff » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 5:34 AM UTC

swimnow wrote: post #17

Something similar happened to me. I was a citizen of Uzbekistan at the time. I was about to fly out of Almaty. When the lady at the checkpoint saw my passport, she asked where my exit visa was. I never knew all the Uzbek citizens needed one to leave the post Soviet territory. So, I was denied my seat on the plane. Had to renew my ticket for $50. Come next day, another lady at the checkpoint says the same thing - with…

I must say this is strange. As an Uzbek citizen you don't need an exit visa (OVIR) to go to Kazakhstan or Russia. I guess they were trying to hustle you.

@pavel_lishin: The exit visa costs about $50 -- you pay a fee to the government and possibly a fee to fill out the application. These days it takes anywhere between 2 weeks to 2 months to get it. Depending on the country you want to visit or where you have been previously (based on your application), you might also have to go through a security interview with intelligence officers.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#117

Post by cft » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 5:50 AM UTC

grizzles wrote: post #62

This dude just grassed on all the people who bent the rules to be nice to him. With pictures. For a moment of blog fame. Very uncool.

Is "grassed on" Australian or British? Never heard this before.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#118

Post by sreeni_ananth » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 6:10 AM UTC

zensavona wrote: post #68

wavefunction wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sasha was a responsible scientist with a stable life. McAfee is someone who kept a minor girlfriend, fled Belize after being implicated in the murder of his neighbor and spent most of his time down there booty bumping bath salts. For some perspective.

> spent most of his time down there booty bumping bath salts source? Having lived in Cambodia (nowhere near as dangerous as Belize, but probably just as corrupt), being implicated with a crime you didn't commit isn't the most far fetched thing.

India is exactly the same, for its much hyped democracy, it is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Recently there is a trend for implicating husbands and relatives in criminal cases just because the wife didn't get along. All interested parties including lawyers, judges, police get involved for financial gain.

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#119

Post by nv-vn » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 6:20 AM UTC

swimnow wrote: post #17

Something similar happened to me. I was a citizen of Uzbekistan at the time. I was about to fly out of Almaty. When the lady at the checkpoint saw my passport, she asked where my exit visa was. I never knew all the Uzbek citizens needed one to leave the post Soviet territory. So, I was denied my seat on the plane. Had to renew my ticket for $50. Come next day, another lady at the checkpoint says the same thing - with…

Reminds me of Papers Please

Re: I got arrested in Kazakhstan and represented myself in court

#120

Post by tralgos » Fri, Jul 22, 2016, 6:21 AM UTC

dakics wrote: post #32

Great story! 5 years ago we went on a Mongol Rally. Driving European vehicle through the Stans makes you easy prey for local policeman. My co-driver had a strategy of befriending them and sharing small gifts (pens, lighters etc.). Most expensive were Tajik GBAO guards, they got headlamps. During my shifts I had 2 encounters but played dumb, even though I'm native in similar language and could communicate. No bribes g…

I did it last year, same experience. A few times it seemed they were looking for bribes but gave up when they realised we spoke absolutely no Kazakh.

The only bribe we had to pay in the end was $5 on the Ukraine/Russia border.

Side note, Google translate's OCR feature saved me from eating testicles so many times.