General Crimes Thread

Apparently some of the kids in question have received police attention in the past, so maybe it's not a first occurrence.

The ages were what caught my eye. Sure, in this part of Europe (Germany and Italy for example) a 14 year old would be (legally) considered old enough to make a decision regarding sexual consent by themself, but sexual assault by a kid is fairly unexpected even so. Normally one would expect the opposite age pattern.

(One wonders how such a legal case would be handled in Switzerland)

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Something I heard on The Last Podcast on the Left's latest Side Stories episode and thought might be of interest here:

Cindy Hendy, girlfriend and widely suspected accomplice of David Parker Ray, a serial killer known as "The Toybox Killer" that Last Podcast covered in an early episode, is to be released from prison after serving 20 years of a 36 year sentence. According to LPOTL, it could've been more, but she was sentenced mere months before a law went into effect requiring violent offenders to serve 85% of their sentence.

https://www.krqe.com/news/investigations/suspected-killer-david-parker-rays-girlfriend-to-be-released-without-parole/

Just heard that Kevin Spacey has been cleared

https://nbcpalmsprings.com/2019/07/17/prosecutors-drop-groping-case-against-kevin-spacey/

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian

By the sound of it the mum has admitted to deleted bad stuff off the victims phone before handing it to the police, the destruction of evidence obviously thus compromised the phone and things were further compromised when the victims invoked his right against self incrimination when asked about the deletion of messages.

"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran

Hrm. If memory serves the Spacey affair began in California after a complaint by a former child actor who said he was 14 years old when Spacey inappropriately touched him. This is a different case, what happened with the former?

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=669cr82xs68ss1tdah3s2srf&page=257#comment-6403

Gonna post this.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

For context, here's the post being linked to;

---

Apropos of nothing, but I thought might be of interest, a podcast I listen to The Last Podcast on the Left, is doing an episode on one of the first mass shooters in U.S. history, Howard Unruh, who predates even the better known Charles Whitman of the 70s(?).

The timing of the episode is actually coincidental, decided weeks before as a one shot to build time so they could research their next big series, but then the the Garlic Festival, Dayton, El Paso, and others that didn't make the news all happened and they decided if they waited until there were no mass shootings before releasing an episode on a mass shooter, they were never going to release an episode on a mass shooter.

To paraphrase one of the reasons they went ahead regardless: "these assholes are as deserving of the same scorn and derision we give the serial killers we cover."

Their whole schtick is to "defang the monster" by mocking them as the losers they are. So there might be some catharsis there (I've only just started listening myself so I can't say too specifically)

Edited by sgamer82 on Aug 10th 2019 at 12:20:54 PM

Is it on-topic to ask about how certain elements of a court trial work? I've been wondering about the roles of the jury and the judge with respect to sentencing.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

It varies between country to country (and jurisdiction to jurisdiction to some countries), so you'd have to be specific. But I think this thread is alright for those question, given that it is not that active.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.

For the U.S., my general understanding is that the jury, following conviction, has the ability to recommend a sentence (In death penalty cases, for instance, I believe it's common for the jury to determine if it's suitable.) but it is up to the judge to actually impose it. They can go softer or harder of they deem it appropriate.

However that's off the cuff and from memory, so if I'm wrong I'm sure I'll be corrected.

Wait, so who actually decides whether or not the defendant is guilty (and thus convict them of the charges levelled at them)?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

The jury does.

Disgusted, but not surprised

Either the judge or the jury, depending on the kind of case and what the defense wants to do. You can opt for a “bench trial” with no jury.

Edited by archonspeaks on Aug 23rd 2019 at 5:09:06 AM

They should have sent a poet.

Does the jury have to be unanimous in their decision? I vaguely remember reading something about some trials suffering from their juries being unable to reach a consensus — I believe such a thing gets called a "mistrial"?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Federal courts always require a unanimous jury decision. State courts vary, usually depending on whether it’s a civil or criminal trial.

Mistrial is just a general term for a trial cancelled without a verdict. It can happen because of a hung jury or for other reasons.

They should have sent a poet.

Another shooting incident, this time in West Texas.

Caucasian make in 30s is the suspect. Police shot him dead.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

At what point did society decide that sex crimes are more despicable than murder, even when the latter gets you more time in jail?

Now that you mention it, I'd like to know that too. It always irks me that the biggest ruckuses over "objectionable content" in a movie, video game or the like are always made over sexuality-related matters, far more than mass murder, extreme violence and torture unless the victims of the latter are a non-acceptable target group (e.g. Jews; when was the last time you saw a movie or game glorify mass murdering of innocent Jews^note I do not count indie games like a couple of Arab-made "first person shooters" that I've seen during the oughties where you play as a Palestinian youth in occupied Palestine fighting against heavily armed Israeli soldiers with nothing but throwing stones as your default weapon, forcing you to scavenge firearms from the aforementioned Israeli soldiers (it was Harder Than Hard, for the curious; they were obviously made on low budgets and with little actual experience in FPS-style video game design).?).

Edited by MarqFJA on Sep 4th 2019 at 6:28:54 PM

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Edited by Iaculus on Sep 28th 2019 at 1:12:21 PM

What's precedent ever done for us?

So, this is a building story by the New York Times: The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong? Imma not quote the whole article as it is fairly long but the gist is that videos and images depicting child abuse are becoming way more common on the Internet than they used to be and that law enforcement is struggling to contain their spread.

Apparently the root problems are technological advances which make it easier for creeps to spread their stuff, the lack of money and technology for law enforcement to contain them and a perception by the public (?) that "child pornography" is much more innocuous (e.g children sending photos of themselves) than this stuff.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Saw this AJ vid on African-Australian gangs.

And the fallout on legitimate African Australian immigrants living normal lives.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

The FBI has declassified information on the McMartin preschool case. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it was one of the scandals at the heart of the Satanic panic of the 80s, suggesting that a pre-school was actually the headquarters of a cult called the 'Finders' who abused children in underground tunnels. No evidence was officially found, and the accusers were dismissed as being mentally disturbed.

These documents, however, show that the tunnels did exist, and provide a detailed archaeological report on page 49, mentioning that they contained a Disney backpack, a dish with pentagrams 'hand-drawn by an adult', 'over 100 animal bones', and a couple of thousand other unspecified 'artefacts'. The fire alarm system within the school was also not connected to the fire station as was normal practice, but served only as an internal alert within the school.

The documents also detail evidence being discovered of a 'Satanic/cult ritual' in a nearby farm (page 52), and how the police department's intelligence service was told to classify information on the case as 'secret' and not to share it with the FBI. 67-69 reveal that the people who leaned on them were the CIA, who believed the investigation was 'treading on their toes', and that one of the cult leaders had once been on their payroll. The head of the local police investigation expresses his belief that the cult was fostered by the CIA as a disinformation agent to turn potential political radicals to more harmless purposes. It just goes on from there, and keeps getting wilder.

What's precedent ever done for us?

The lorry driver in the Essex human smuggling case is charged by police for being a part of it via manslaughter.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-50204294

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

I'm not one to gloat, but this article, and the VIDEO in particular is just purely delicious

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alex-jones-court-cases-sandy-hook-parents_n_5dc43b0be4b0055138845e0a

So good to see this pretentious blowhard getting knocked down a few notches

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian

Uh...I hope you fully read that paper, because while they found evidence of cult activity they did not find any evidence of criminal activity.

Basically all of the allegations of child abuse and secret CIA manipulation were from witnesses who couldn’t recall actually seeing any of that and didn’t have any hard proof but swore it was definitely happening. Can’t base a legal case, or any case, on “this totally went down I promise”.

Edited by archonspeaks on Nov 20th 2019 at 5:54:21 AM

They should have sent a poet.