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Atlanta Arsehole-Policeman Arrests And Molests A Brilliant Brit ...
Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
A dear American friend of ours whose abode's in Atlanta has always admired his city's 'finest'. Not.
Now we can understand why.
Apparently, increasingly authoritarian BushAmerica's attempts to try winning friends and influencing people from overseas are about as abysmal in Georgia as they are at the current maladministration's temporary camp in the capital.
Today the UK's Daily Mail told we Brits of this terrible tale.
The Mail told us this too.I was grabbed and thrown in U.S. jail for crossing road'
A distinguished British historian claims he was knocked to the ground by an American policeman before being arrested and spending eight hours in jail — all because he crossed the road in the wrong place.
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, 56, said he had been the victim of “terrible, terrible violence” after he inadvertently committed the offence of “jaywalking” in Atlanta ...Then went on thus.
Professor Fernandez-Armesto, once described as “the archetypal superdon”, is an expert in various fields, including global environmental history, comparative colonial history, maritime history and the history of cartography.The Prof doesn't seem to have posed any proper problem or appeared to be any kind of terrorist, threat, tough guy or thug. Does he?
He is the author of 19 books, which have been translated into 22 languages and he has won numerous awards.
Nonetheless, this internationally recognized & respected, mild mannered, middle aged, acclaimed academic alleges ...
Home of the brave? Land of the free?“This young [police] man kicked my legs from under me, wrenched me round in what I think is a sort of a judo move, pinned me to the ground, wrenched my arms behind my back, handcuffed me.
I had five burly policemen pinioning me to the ground, pressing my neck with really very severe pain.”
Oh, yeah. Sure. Certainly seems so, eh?
Still, things could have been worse we suppose.
After all, the learned professor could have gone to languish in Gitmo. Alongside some other 'swarthy suspects'.
Read more of The Mail's report.
*
posted by Richard at Wednesday, January 10, 2007
19 Comments:
The only things missing from these guys' uniforms are SS flashes and skulls and crossbones. I wouldn't set foot in the US now if they payed me to. Talk about a totalitarian state.
He probably does look too swarthy to some. Too mid-eastern or too hispanic or maybe even too jewish.
Anyone know if he can sue?
Hey man - welcome to good ole USA - no discrimination here - everyone gets treated the same - like shit!
I wonder if he crossed someone, and I don't mean a street. Differed, that is, with someone.
There was a famous mathematician who visited Caltech during the latter years of the Soviet Union. He was rather long in the tooth, and certainly no naif. His early academic years corresponded with the Stalin era. What he asked an astonished bunch of professors and grad students in the new field of computer science was this: "Do any of you ever have your colleagues arrested?"
People were just dumbfounded at being asked such a question c. 1975.
Combine this mindset (was it his mindset or was this his way, as an elite member of Soviet society, of conveying the conditions under which he worked?) with a police force with Tasers who are hearing about how they have to practice Homeland Security in the War on Terror, and you might have trouble. Add to this the Bush doctrine that foreigners have no rights under the Constitution and the only foreigners we want are those who will be our allies in the War on Terror (Britain seems to be skulking away from Iraq - naughty Britain - weren't those subway bombings enough for you?) and you might get a nasty reaction to your jaywalking offense...even more so if it was set-up by a rival.
One speculates, one speculates. I am sure these things have happened at other times in our history, but one tends to attribute causes nowadays to the political atmosphere, which is bound to get worse as the Bush administration will not tolerate opposition.
Canadians aren't so keen on traveling south ever since the Bush-Cheney gang got all terrorist on everybody's ass. America must be losing a lot of tourism business. I want to go to a sanctuary in May and I'm afraid, to tell you the truth, of having to deal with their fascist border guards.
Same here, just like XXX said. I'm maybe 50 clicks North from the US border, but I rather visit the Antarctic in winter, than them.
I heard, their tourist statistics are down the toilet, even though the dollar is like the Mexican peso was a few years ago.
To tell you the truth, no one likes an inconsiderate, harsh bully.
so stay at home assholes
You've just convinced me, Ar.. errr....Anonymous.
anonimouse, You are so wrong, you could hardly be more so.
There are plenty of countries to choose from as a holiday destination. The whole of Europe, and even once exotic vacations such as Turkey, Morocco, Tunis, Iran and China and part of Africa and South America are all more worthy destinations than the US.
So sulk alone will you, that's part of the Sorrow of Empire.
I am so sorry for this , so so awful, fucking wrong ...I read about this...awful...if he wants help researching good lawfirms- be happy to assist or help in any way, enigma4ever@earthlink.net. ( my speciality is research-medical and legal).
It does not matter what you look like- or who you are - it sucks here in the states....
Massive protests are planned here against the Surge today....sucks to be this old and live in a Police State...Had to sit and explain to my son that when you protest- you always have to carry a first aid kit and plan an escape route...what chapter was that in 1984 he asked and we both laughed....but not so funny eh?
The Brit was jaywalking. The Brit broke the Law. The cop enforced the law. The Brit is the asshole.
One more thing anon, if you decide to ignore your own advice, and instead you take the big leap to visit the World, out of uniform and without the aid to have an automatic rifle at the ready, please consider the practical and necessary holiday kit for international travellers of US origin, on sale by a Nevada mailorder company.
The kit contains a handy cover which disguises your US passport as a Canadian one, a small Maple Leaf flag and plenty of stickers and pin-up badges with the same design for all your luggages and occasions.
The kit comes complete with a handy booklet which contains a short essay on the major points of Canadian history and geography, (You know the lessons, which you should've learnt as a good neighbour, but you didn't) and it also talks Canadian trivia, like hockey teams plus behavioural and pronounciation differences between our two great nations, in order to better disguise yourself as a Canadian.
(Example: No empty boasting and superlatives. Force yourself to be modest, polite and considerate to others, no matter how alien that concept feels to you.)
In light of the present International political situation, this can be the best purchase in your life!
That's amazing Tom V, thanks a bunch. So amazing that it's worth a second reading.
(Example: No empty boasting and superlatives. Force yourself to be modest, polite and considerate to others, no matter how alien that concept feels to you.)
The guy should get over it. All you lefties should.
usa#2:
Did you mean leftists?
I'm sorry to say, but all these pigeon-holing such as:
Left-wing »« right-wing, left-hand »« right-hand, black-hat »« white-hat dichotomy testifies for an indoctrinated and simplified mind in you.
Let me assure you, that when I'm debating Zionist Jews, I'm called from right-wing extremist, to outright Nazi, without missing a heartbeat.
Too bad, that the typical American mindset, which is the sumtotal of an indoctrinating and conformist Soviet style Public Education, and a brainwashing masspropaganda, doesn't adhere to any intellectual realities or subtleties in existence, but instead it lives in its own enchanted Magical Kingdom, complete with heros and villains, hell and heaven etc. ad nauseam.
"sly said...
Hey man - welcome to good ole USA - no discrimination here - everyone gets treated the same - like shit!"
Hey, now that's just not true! If you're rich and white, you get treated wonderfully!
The anons and usasaid's on this post demonstrate what the United States has become. A land filled with uneducated half wits. I wonder how many times either of these clowns jay walked. Everybody jay walks. Jay walking is an extremely minor offense. Hey I was stopped by two idiotic cops in Vancouver for jaywalking once and all they did was wag their finger and tell me not to do it again or I'd get a fine. They certainly didn't wrestle me to the ground and slap me around. If they had, I would have sued and won.
It's time the rest of the industrialized west stood up to the United States and told it to go take a flying leap.
For a look at the professor on the ground, and surrounded by SIX police officers and a plain-clothes Goering look-alike, see the photo at
this link
Thanks for the link Mark.
The real punch for me is at the end.
The officer, who kicked the professor's legs under him, wrestled him on the ground with 5 other peace officers, who acted like gorillas. (My apology to all the wonderful and peaceful gorillas out there.) Throwing his lecture material and eyeglasses into the gutter and incarcerated him for basically nothing, has the audacity, to characterize his actions, that quote: "I used excessive ammount of discretion."
This sort of blinding arrogance, is a slap on the face of all us in the remaining Western Democracies.
I don't know about the Americans, but I personally feel ashamed, if for nothing more, because I share the continent with these benighted people. (With some reluctance, I might add.)
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