141–150 of 152 posts
So how much money do the US+UK spend on propaganda against Assange? Honest question. Are there any estimates on the order of magnitude?
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Assange is only wanted for questioning and has repeatedly offered to answer their questions. They stated that he must be questioned in Sweden and only in Sweden without adequately explaining why.
They don't need to explain why because they already have a legally obtained arrest warrant. But in any case, it's obvious why: the investigation has reached a stage where they will almost certainly want to file charges, but they cannot do that while Assange is in the UK. The Swedish prosecutor explained this very clearly: "Subject to any matters said by him [in the second interview] which undermine my present view th…
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If the original comment refers to me, then that wasn't my intent to insinuate that at all. The published data shows that only a tiny minority of petty crimes end in conviction, however. In my experience (5 times, including family and close friends), the police chose not to send an officer to the scene. I'm sure some petty crimes get solved, and some serious crimes don't. But if you thought I was making either point,…
Fair enough, the investigation rate is obviously at neither extreme, and I'd still argue that "reasonably expect to get away with" is pretty loaded, but if you mean there's a greater > 50% chance then, sure, I can believe that!
So on that basis, the likelihood is > 95% that you'll get away with it.
And note that those statistics are for all burglary, including aggravated burglary. I can't tell from the data, but I'd suggest it is reasonable to assume that petty burglary has a lower conviction rate still.
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Sorry that phrasing was overly terse. In many regions of the UK the police won't come out to petty car or property crime, let alone conduct an investigation. They will issue a crime number by telephone. If the stolen goods are identifiable and turn up in some way, you may get some progress. Or similarly if the pattern of crime suggests it is worth their time trying to catch a prolific offender. Or if the crime is mor…
I was surprised when they started an actual investigation when some idiot slashed my and my neighbors tires. Apparently my neighbor heard the guy shouting "Fucking foreigner" (we both had foreign registration plates at the time) or something similar and reported it. Apparently, that moves the crime into the hate crime category and warrant extra police work. So even though I didn't report the slashing, the police came…
If your low-priority crime (like criminal damage) can somehow be placed in a higher priority category (like hate-crime), the police will find it much easier to allocate resources to it, and you will see a more spirited investigation.
My original point was merely to say that there are such things as low-priorities for which the police don't put much effort, and by doing so they set a precedence for what crimes one could reasonably expect to get away with.
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Any policing priorities set a precendent of expectation. For example, because of the way car and property crime are (not) investigated, a petty car criminal can reasonably expect to get away with their crime. There are plenty of other crimes where a police authority would choose not to take dramatic action and save a £10m cost of policing. The suggestion isn't Assange be allowed to walk. If he were able to be afforda…
Minor car and property crime may not be investigated, but rape and sexual assault are taken seriously.
Rape may be 'taken seriously' incidentally (though actually you probably mean certain stereotypes of rape), but its conviction rate is still so low that, unfortunately, a rapist in the UK has a very high probability of getting away with their crime. The police certainly have improved in the professionalism with which they address rape, but rape prevention and womens charities in the UK still maintain that insufficient resources and effort is put into prosecuting rape cases to a conviction.
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Don't be baffled. There are, at the very least, some very dubious aspects surrounding the original claims: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-... I guess I am suggesting that due process, in this case, should be avoided - but only because this is clearly an exceptional situation, with some profound risks for Assange and other whistle-blowers. The idea that any change to due process should be…
I'm still baffled by your arguments. We live in a modern democratic society. Professionals in the law system examined the Assange case and decided that there was a case to answer. Just because someone on the Internet is "dubious about it" doesn't change that, and I would never want to live in a society where it did.
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They don't need to explain why because they already have a legally obtained arrest warrant. But in any case, it's obvious why: the investigation has reached a stage where they will almost certainly want to file charges, but they cannot do that while Assange is in the UK. The Swedish prosecutor explained this very clearly: "Subject to any matters said by him [in the second interview] which undermine my present view th…
It seems to be this entire argument can be solved by looking into the number of people who have allegedly committed sexual assault in Sweden, are currently residing in the UK, and have been arrested and deported back to Sweden for questioning. If the answer is zero (or near zero), then there's obviously more to this than what the Swedes are admitting.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/c...
"Since 2009 alone, the arrest warrant has been used to extradite from the UK 57 suspects for child sex offences, 86 for rape and 105 for murder."
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I was thinking of NI border. If he can get out of the embassy and London, why not sneak to Scotland, boat across, and sneak over?
Why would you go to Scotland before going to Ireland?
Wouldn't it set an unwanted precedence if the British Government just let this go? There is an arrest warrant against Assange and the British Government has a duty to carry it out. If they do not carry it out then theoretically anyone on the run could seek asylum in a foreign embassy knowing that if successful it was just a matter of time before they could make their escape. I also wonder what would happen when the U…
Are we saying here that having a cap on 10,000,000£ for on-going spending in criminal cases that carries a maximum of 4 years in prison, would result in an unwanted precedence? I would be happy to read a historical list of such cases. It would not surprise me if the case of Julian Assange is the single most expensive criminal case ever conducted where the maximum punishment is 4 years or less. Instead of asking how m…
precedent
> scotch free
scot free
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Don't be baffled. There are, at the very least, some very dubious aspects surrounding the original claims: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-... I guess I am suggesting that due process, in this case, should be avoided - but only because this is clearly an exceptional situation, with some profound risks for Assange and other whistle-blowers. The idea that any change to due process should be…
I'm still baffled by your arguments. We live in a modern democratic society. Professionals in the law system examined the Assange case and decided that there was a case to answer. Just because someone on the Internet is "dubious about it" doesn't change that, and I would never want to live in a society where it did.
I think the argument that they are making -- not that I agree -- is that the UK and Sweden are bad governments, just like when governments protect Chinese journalists and such.