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Originally Posted by Wallaroo
Gort about the U.S prisons issue, I think you should take a look at this documentary "Americas brutal prisons" from BBC´s Channel 4: http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle8451.htm (it runs automatically in the media player) I bet it has never been shown on U.S television! It is the result of four months intense investigation in various of the closed state prison systems in the U.S. It was made by British journalist Deborah Davies and she wrote a article about it as well, which I think you should read (not that I expect you to!)
I didn't say that I was against death penalty did I? I think its okay for serial killers like Richard Kuklinski and Henry Lee Lucas etc.
The article I found about police brutality in the U.S also comes from the HRW site (I thought that was obvious!) The part you bolded says that abusive cops (those that have been discovered) usually don't continue to abuse citizens. Off course they don't, since they would be kicked out of the force next time. The real problem with the Law enforcement agencies in the U.S is quoted below from the same article.
The law enforcement supervisors in Europe and Canada don't cover up for the corrupted and abusive officers, I just want you to know that! |
To begin with I do not believe I ever indicated that the prisons in the US were a nice place to be did I? But these things don't happen in Europe? Perhaps you should go to this site and see for yourself.
http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.ns...R?OpenDocument
I will talk about the tape in a minute, some of it I am very familiar with since some of the prisoners abused in Texas were from Missouri and it made the local news pretty heavy when it happened. WHich does seem to contradict your implication that guards simply cover this type of thing up. But more on that later. First lets finish our look into the wonderful prison systems of Europe shall we?
Here are some from Germany
http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/eur/germany!Open
And Spain
http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/eur/spain!Open
How about Belgium
http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/eur/belgium!Open
Or Switzerland
http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/eur/switzerland!Open
Or even Sweden
http://web.amnesty.org/web/ar2002.nsf/eur/switzerland!Open
Note I did not use any of the former Yugoslav countries, nor the former USSR Republics of client states. Had I done so the resulting reports would make being in a US jail look like a walk in the park by compariason. Yet when even a fellow Europen tries to tell you that you are wrong with respect to the eastern European countries you blissfully ignore him and contiinue on by seeming to think that a British journalist has it right. More on that in a minute.
Lets not forget Canada
http://www.prisonjustice.ca/starkrav...1701103_4.html
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/arc...p/t-81927.html
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/arc...p/t-94038.html
Now lets look a the Danish example shall we?
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english...ent_411214.htm
Perhaps you have issues like this
http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/t...enmark-FBB.pdf
because you do not have more of an interest in putting people who commit crimes where they belong.Should I now assume that Denmark is rife with child molesters? After all this is what you have been doing. Taking a single or even a couple of news shows or articles in a paper and then making a case that the entire US must be like that. So using your tactics I should be within my right to assume Denmark is nothing but a haven for child moletsers who then gt light prison sentances so they can do it again. Of course I would be wrong, but you have never let that stop you in simular circumstances have you. Anyway you get my point. If one looks hard enough (although I will grant you, bailey take note, Canadian prisons do seem to be remarkably devoid of serious issues I had to look hard for what I did find) one can find articles like these about almost any nations prisons or police services. See I actually do want to find out about other societies, not simply look for articles or shows in my local media that will reinforce my preconcieved notions of a particular society. Too bad you don't feel the same.
Now on to the tape from Channel 4. The issue of the prison in Texas is frankly an old one. It related to sme Missouri inmates that were sent to a texas prison. In fact the State of Missouri is suing the Texas Prison system over this. Read up
http://www.cnn.com/US/9708/25/briefs...use/index.html
Also what Cannel 4 did not tell you was this jail was not being managed by the Texas correctional system. Itr was being managed by Capital Correctional Resources a private company. Now that in and of itself does not excuse the situation, but I just thought you should get all the information before you damn a whole country. The Sherriff outside of Pheonix is well known to the country. The fact that his correctional facilities are harsh is also well known to the country. And when he oges over the line that too is wellknown to the country since people keep an eye on him because of his openess about his methods. In fact while the Cannel 4 piece went out of its way to claim that the guards clam up about this type of thing the fact that they, and just about any American news outlet worth its salt, have these tapes at all seems to contradict that assertion. The Texas case for example came out because the tapes were smuggled to a news reporter I believe, and I believe it was done by a guard.