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    crittabeeRebecca "Burt" Rose
    6/30/14 12:26am

    I don't get why Diplomatic Immunity exists, or at least not for major crimes. I can see the need to protect diplomats, certainly, but wouldn't you expect there to be a law-abiding code of conduct for diplomats in other countries, so they don't get in trouble for breaking some of the stranger laws in foreign countries?

    Either way, rapists, murderers, child molesters, etc., being able to claim "Diplomatic Immunity" is absolute bullshit.

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      WaeGookcrittabee
      6/30/14 1:14am

      Diplomatic Immunity can get fairly tricky. It's hundreds of countries sending their diplomats to hundreds of other countries with vast differences in laws. Someone that is gay in one country is considered a rapist, sodomite, child molester in another. So the immunity covers a broad scope. This is also why countries have the ability to ask for immunity to be waived based on the nature of the crime, as in this case, which was denied. There are also very specific conditions of whom exactly is covered under immunity and where they are covered. Say a diplomat is stationed at a consulate instead of an embassy, they might not have immunity working at the consulate.

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      Navcrittabee
      6/30/14 2:04am

      Diplomatic immunity exists for the sake of reciprocity and due to the fact that no government anywhere fully trusts any other government.

      Diplomats are handy pawns in geopolitical chess, and nobody would sign up for the job if doing their work meant that they could get harassed any time their host government got miffed. Plus, not every country has particularly scrupulous legal practices—or, at the very least, trusts in the scrupulousness of anybody else's legal practices—so rather than hash that out and cut diplomatic ties with every country that's not an ironclad ally, we just say all diplomats everywhere are immune from detention by the local government.

      The other side of the coin is that host governments have the absolute right to expel any diplomat (or anyone else, for that matter) for any reason or no reason at all, hence the expression persona non grata—unwelcome person. Accrediting governments, if they have any self-respect and want otherwise positive relations with the host country, will generally prosecute offenders under their own laws, or disaccredit the (now former) diplomat and leave him/her to the tender mercies of their new home.

      Perfectly reasonable governments might assert immunity in heinous cases for very good reasons—for instance, if an American diplomat were accused of theft in a country where maiming is still on the books as a punishment and juries don't exist, do you think we'd let that go through? France might (hypothetically) have a diplomat accused of capital murder and assert immunity because the potential for a death sentence violates their constitution. And so on. It's not crazy, and it's nothing like Lethal Weapon 2.

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    IFindYourLackOfPantsDisturbingRebecca "Burt" Rose
    6/29/14 11:39pm

    Jeeze, where's Sgt. Murtaugh when you need him?

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      ItsnotthebeerIFindYourLackOfPantsDisturbing
      6/29/14 11:41pm

      Well, listen. I have some extra points I'd like to give you, now....Meet me by the Slurpee machine.

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      IFindYourLackOfPantsDisturbingItsnotthebeer
      6/29/14 11:42pm

      Yesss!

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    thesilente3Rebecca "Burt" Rose
    6/29/14 11:31pm

    Uhhh...what is with all the anti-Semitic/White Power comments on the Yahoo article? Weird. It says they won't release his home country because of the victim's privacy, but it would be important to know which country allowed this.

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      Itsnotthebeerthesilente3
      6/29/14 11:35pm

      Isn't that just par for the course on Yahoo articles? Regardless of the story?

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      lobomobilejrthesilente3
      6/29/14 11:36pm

      It's kinda like that in comment section of every major site. It's pretty weird.

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    ItsnotthebeerRebecca "Burt" Rose
    6/29/14 11:34pm

    The victim has to live with knowing there will be no justice for her.

    It's really awful when this happens for no specific reason.

    But knowing that there's a specific law that protects your rapist really has to be one of the cruelest things someone can deal with in regards to trying to heal after a rape.

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      killsnthrillsItsnotthebeer
      6/29/14 11:43pm

      It's ridiculous. I'll admit I know jack shit about the law, but diplomatic immunity shouldn't cover violent crimes .

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      Itsnotthebeerkillsnthrills
      6/29/14 11:47pm

      I agree. I don't know much either, but I remember learning a bit about it in college and one of the things that stuck with me was how much alimony and child support avoidance there was as a result of the immunity.

      I'm sure there's EVERY kind of crime committed, from fraud to murder. It's really arcane.

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    Cannikin_MK3Rebecca "Burt" Rose
    6/29/14 11:44pm

    It's sad, excruciatingly fucking sad, that my first thought was, "at least the police we're being supportive."

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      gruffbenjaminRebecca "Burt" Rose
      6/29/14 11:38pm

      So when does Danny Glover shoot this guy?

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        HerBluEyzRebecca "Burt" Rose
        6/29/14 11:34pm

        Diplomatic immunity....what a crock of shit

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          GELLA - LLAPRebecca "Burt" Rose
          6/29/14 11:44pm

          ohhh crap diplomatic immunity can cover it all, not fair

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            LasEstrellasRebecca "Burt" Rose
            6/30/14 12:56am

            I bet we'll be hearing about more incidents with the same suspect.

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