"Call it the ‘Les Misérables Doctrine’; Italian court overturns conviction of homeless man who stole food" by Gaia Pianigiani and Sewell Chan New York Times May 03, 2016
ROME — Stealing food from a supermarket may not be a crime in Italy if you are homeless and hungry, the nation’s highest appeals court has ruled.
In a case that has drawn comparisons to “Les Misérables,” the Supreme Court of Cassation threw out the conviction of a homeless man from Ukraine, Roman Ostriakov, who was caught trying to take 4.07 euros (about $4.70) worth of cheese and sausage from a store in Genoa without paying for it. A trial court sentenced him in February 2015 to six months in jail and a fine of 100 euros.
“The condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the merchandise theft took place prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of need,” and therefore the theft “does not constitute a crime,” the appellate court wrote in its decision, which was reported on Monday by the Italian news agency ANSA.
The court’s decision went far beyond what the appeal in the case had sought. Valeria Fazio, the prosecutor at the Genoa court where the trial was held, said in a telephone interview that her office understood that Ostriakov had stolen only out of need, and had appealed in hopes that the court might set a more lenient sentence. But the court decided that he “doesn’t have to be punished at all,” Fazio said.
The court has yet to release its full reasoning in the case, but Gherardo Colombo, a former member of the Supreme Court of Cassation, said it seemed to rely on an Italian legal doctrine: “Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur.” The term is Latin for “No one is expected to do the impossible.”
Except maybe Amanda Knox.
Maurizio Bellacosa, a professor of criminal law at Luiss University in Italy who has often argued cases before the Court of Cassation, said that the application of that doctrine in a shoplifting case “has a certain novelty.”
“They rarely apply the ‘state of necessity,’” Bellacosa said, and when they do, it is generally in cases “like a castaway who fights with another shipwreck victim for the last raft he has to save his life.”
When examining thefts by poor people, he said, “usually the court classifies these cases as smaller crimes, but crimes, as poverty is considered avoidable through the social support system.”
The big crimes are left to bankers and governments.
In contrast with the U.S. legal system, the decisions of the Court of Cassation do not necessarily create binding precedents for lower courts to follow. But Bellacosa said the decision in the Ostriakov case “is a new principle, and it might lead to a more frequent application of the state of necessity linked to poverty situations.”
The ruling quickly generated a heated response in Italy.
“For the supreme judges, the right to survival has prevailed over the right to property,” Massimo Gramellini, an editor at La Stampa, a newspaper based in Turin, wrote in an opinion column. “In America that would be blasphemy. And here as well, some conformists will talk about a legitimation of proletarian expropriation.”
That sure sounds socialist, although the other thing has come to resemble true fa$ci$m in it's pure$t form.
In the 1970s, when Italy was rocked by violent leftist groups like the Red Brigades, radicalized youths “plundered supermarkets with impunity in the name of the working class,” but they stole “caviar and Champagne,” Gramellini added. “Now, people don’t steal to pursue an ideal, but to fill up their stomach.”
All part of what was called Operation Gladio. Do some research on that secretive state organization for false flag and mind manipulation purposes in furtherance of perception management for the public involving searing generational events.
Another commentator, Goffredo Buccini, writing approvingly of the decision in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, likened the current situation to the period right after World War II, when the Italian economy was in ruins.
“As the law is nothing else but the box where our living together takes shape, it was unthinkable that jurisprudence did not take reality into account,” Buccini wrote. He cited statistics from Confcommercio, a trade association, showing that thefts resulting from hunger have been on the rise in recent years.
Do they nostalgically pine for the days of Mussolini like the Soviets for Stalin?
Italy has managed only a fitful recovery from the financial crisis that began in 2008.
I doubt there was one at all save for the 1% of Italian society.
According to the World Bank, gross domestic product per capita is about where it was in 2010, and the International Monetary Fund projects that the economy will grow by a sluggish 1.3 percent this year. In some Italian cities, homelessness has become more prevalent.
Question answered.
Colombo, the former member of the appeals court, said he believed that the decision in the Ostriakov case was correct.
“Under the Italian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has a legal right to dignity,” he said in a telephone interview, emphasizing that he was offering only his own opinion. “If you can’t eat because you have absolutely no money, and cannot sustain yourself without taking something you don’t own, in this case, the Italian criminal law justifies this theft.”
The last part is a slippery slope; however, Gandhi did say poverty is the greatest form of violence. And he is right.
Ostriakov, 30, was spotted by another customer when he tried to leave the supermarket with cheese and sausage in his pocket after having only paid for some breadsticks. Colombo said it was important legally that the theft was nonviolent.
“It would have been different if he had committed a robbery,” he said. “They wouldn’t have acquitted him.”
If you were a banker you would never even see the inside of a courtroom.
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I suppose I should retrace the footsteps:
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"King Felipe VI of Spain signed a decree on Tuesday to dissolve Parliament and hold a rerun of national elections for the first time since the country’s return to democracy in the late 1970s. The step followed months of political paralysis and discord over who should form a government, after inconclusive elections in December. That election resulted in a fracturing of Spain’s political landscape with the emergence of insurgent parties that challenged the establishment, marking a sea change in the nation’s politics. The repeat election is now scheduled for June 26, but polls suggest that the outcome of a new vote could look much like the first, which split ballots among four main parties....."
Looks like Spain will be stuck in stone for a while.
*********
"The incumbent pro-EU populists swept Serbia’s parliamentary election on Sunday, leaving pro-Russia nationalists far behind, according to preliminary results. The apparent triumph by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s Progressive Party means Serbia will continue on its path toward European Union membership despite opposition from right-wing parties, which sought close ties with Russia."
Time to get out of the Balkans.
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"Obama, Merkel jointly push for trade accord" by Alison Smale and Michael D. Shear New York Times April 24, 2016
HANOVER, Germany — President Obama said Sunday that he is confident the United States and the European Union would succeed in negotiating a new trans-Atlantic trade deal by the end of the year, saying the benefits of such an agreement were “indisputable.”
Obama said images of plants moving overseas and jobs lost created a narrative about trade agreements that “drives, understandably, a lot of suspicion” in places like the United States and Germany. But, he added, well-designed trade deals can have greater benefits.
So says Trump.
“It is indisputable that it has made our economy stronger,” he said. “It has made sure that our businesses are the most competitive in the world.”
He is such a whore for the corporations and the globalization crowd, a betrayal of all he campaigned on.
Obama’s comments came as he stood next to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany during a news conference in Hanover as they prepared to preside over the opening here of the world’s largest industrial trade fair.
The president’s visit to Germany was intended to bolster negotiators seeking to wrap up a trans-Atlantic trade agreement between the United States and the EU, an accord that Merkel supports but that is highly unpopular in her country.
Another globalist monstrosity, and I'll bet we can't see this one either.
Merkel is among Obama’s closest and most trusted counterparts, and the president is eager to support her during difficult political times. Merkel has struggled in recent months to confront a surge of migrants and a weakening economy.
And that can lead to, you know -- especially there.
The chancellor greeted the president at the Schloss Herrenhausen, the former summer residence of the Royal House of Hanover. They stood in front of a line of German troops in gray overcoats and green berets as the national anthems for the two nations played before returning inside for a private meeting.
Obama said he hoped the trade negotiations could be completed before he leaves office.
“I don’t anticipate that we will be able to complete ratification of a deal by the end of this year, but I do anticipate that we will have completed the agreement,” he said. Once negotiations are finished, he said, “people will be able to see exactly why this will be good for our two countries.”
That doesn't mean the Senate will take it up, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them lame-duck it.
Earlier, his commerce secretary, Penny Pritzker, told an audience of 350 business leaders that “we have a rapidly closing window to make progress.”
“We must ask ourselves: What is the cost of delay?” she said. “Now is the time for US-German leadership.”
That's ominous. When they preach urgency it's always something that is bad for you, folks. Needs to be quickly shoved up your ass -- probably when some error event is diverting your attention!
She also noted that Europe and the United States need to keep working hard to preserve digital freedom while also heeding privacy concerns. “If done wrong,” she warned, “we put at risk the thriving multibillion-dollar trans-Atlantic manufacturing economy.”
What she means is people are starting to not buy AmeriKan.
This as the Five Eyes spying and cross-sharing continues.
Obama kindled goodwill with an unusually glowing appraisal of Merkel, telling Germany’s best-selling newspaper, Bild, that he was proud to call her a friend. In particular, he praised Merkel’s “real political and moral leadership” in welcoming more than a million migrants last year.
Merkel timed her invitation to the US president with the opening of the Hanover Messe, the world’s largest industrial technology trade fair. Obama led a delegation of business leaders to the trade show and later joined chief executives for a dinner.
This fawning public relations release is upsetting my stomach.
None of his praise for Merkel impressed the tens of thousands of protesters who gathered in Hanover’s Opera Square on Saturday. Their goal, as proclaimed in hundreds of banners and chants, was to topple the trade deal, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
Excuse me?
Germany depends on exports for its wealth and on the United States for its security. Yet many Germans do not see the free trade agreement as a good thing.
Because it isn't for the average German, and maybe Trump has a point.
Monica Orth, 54, a therapist for teenagers who lives in Bonn, is one of many here who see the trade pact as a plot by big businesses — often US ones — to lower consumer standards, bypass national justice systems and undermine Europe’s way of life.
“I don’t want Monsanto and Bayer to determine which seeds I eat,” Orth said. As two friends nodded in agreement, she added, “Democracy is a really valuable thing, and I don’t want big business to take that from me.”
Over here, it's already gone.
At least a dozen other protesters who were interviewed echoed her words. All accused corporations like Monsanto — the US biotechnology corporation reviled by some for using genetically modified seeds that it says help battle disease — or the German pharmaceutical company Bayer of trying to force on them products they do not want.
I'm shocked to see the words in print.
Although talks on the trans-Atlantic pact will resume Monday, the presidential election in the United States may make an agreement impossible in Washington this year. France and Germany will have elections in 2017 that are also likely to hurt the chances for a deal.
Those damn voters and citizens they are supposedly serving!
In a separate development Sunday....
He sent troops into Syria!
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Looks I'm overnighting:
"Obama urges Europe to stay united despite threats and fears" by Michael D. Shear New York Times April 25, 2016
Now I can't sleep.
HANOVER, Germany — In his 49-minute speech, Obama urged Europeans to remain united in the face of growing economic and security threats, saying that the dangers of inequality, terrorism, prejudice, and injustice would drag down the United States and Europe if countries on both sides of the Atlantic do not continue to work together.
Obama told an audience of business leaders, politicians, and students that Europe must not let itself be pulled apart by those who fear cooperation.
“Dangerous forces do threaten to pull the world backwards, and our progress is not inevitable,” Obama said in one of his final trips to Europe as president. “We are not immune from the forces of change around the world.”
Obama has spent much of his visit to Europe urging the British people to vote to remain in the European Union in a referendum June 23. He said repeatedly over the past week that leaving the 28-member bloc would undercut Britain’s influence and weaken the democratic alliance that binds Europe.
I can't take any more of this pimping.
In his speech Monday, Obama went further, arguing to members of the predominantly German audience that they, too, must resist the temptation to go it alone in fighting the Islamic State, pushing for economic security, and confronting the huge flows of migrants.
“If we do not solve these problems, you start seeing those who would try to exploit those fears and frustrations and channel them in a destructive way,” Obama said.
He's the guy who has created the problem with his government's creation and support of ISIS, as well as that of key allies like Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
All these refugees are REFUGEES from HIS WARS!!
Support for populist and nationalist movements has grown in Europe in recent months, with the most recent example coming Sunday in Austria, where a member of the far-right Freedom Party finished on top in the first round of voting for the country’s largely ceremonial presidency.
That's my next stop.
Reflecting on the dangers to the political situation, Obama cited the words of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, who said that such dangers lurk where “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
I'm here nearly every damn day, but no longer with passion.
That kind of destructive politics must not take root in Europe, Obama said, or there would be damaging consequences for the United States and many other nations around the world.
“If a unified, peaceful, liberal, pluralistic, free-market Europe begins to doubt itself, begins to question the progress that’s been made over the last several decades, then we can’t expect the progress that is just now taking hold in many places around the world will continue,” he said.
Neo-colonialism in the form of global corporatization, and it's all a delusion at best, $elf-$erving lie at worst.
Obama’s warnings against unilateral actions were clearly intended to steer Europe away from nationalist or isolationist stands.
As if those were somehow bad things.
But, in fact, his close ally, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, has found herself isolated in the European Union for refusing to meet calls from other countries or from her own conservative bloc to put an upper limit on the flow of migrants.
Merkel crafted a deal between Turkey and the European Union in March that gave a veneer of unity to the Continent’s very mixed response to arriving migrants. That deal remains the subject of intense debate in light of Turkey’s current crackdown on the news media and on other freedoms.
The accord has succeeded in sharply reducing the migrant flow, but only in tandem with an earlier decision by Austria and Balkan states to close their land borders and shut off the route favored by approximately 1 million migrants last year.
Or we are being told the flow has been reduced.
Remember, it's an agenda-pushing paper that often omits things.
Obama also gently chided the Germans and other European nations for not always carrying a fair share of the financial and military burden as part of the NATO alliance.
Then maybe they should get out of NATO, and DOES HE EVER SOUND LIKE TRUMP THERE!
Those comments echoed remarks the president made recently in The Atlantic, where he referred to some European leaders as “free riders” who relied too heavily on the United States to pay for their military defense and to wage the fight against extremism.
He said he would go to the NATO meetings this summer and would demand that every nation contribute 2 percent of its gross domestic product to the defense of the Continent.
Even if you have to shred the social safety nets to do it.
“We can’t deal with these challenges by ourselves,” Obama said.
You may have to; have you seen the real unemployment rates in Europe?
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You know where I'm moving next:
"Right-wing candidate wins first round in Austrian presidential election" by George Jahn Associated Press April 24, 2016
VIENNA — The law-and-order candidate of Austria’s right-wing party swept the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, winning more than 35 percent of the vote for the party’s best result. Government coalition contenders were among the five losers, signaling deep voter rejection and political uncertainty ahead.
With the candidates of establishment parties shut out of the office for the first time since Austria’s political landscape was reformed after World War II, Freedom Party chief Heinz-Christian Strache hailed the ‘‘historic event’’ that he said reflected massive ‘‘voter dissatisfaction.’’
Still, Alexander Van der Bellen of the Greens Party, who ran as an independent, remained in the running. Many of those who voted for other candidates are likely to swing behind him in the runoff in hopes he will defeat Norbert Hofer and the Freedom Party.
Reflecting voter dissatisfaction, an ORF/SORA poll of 1,210 eligible voters released Sunday after balloting ended showed only 19 percent ‘‘satisfied’’ with the government’s work. Its margin of error was 2.8 percentage points.
Mayor Michael Haeupl of Vienna, a Social Democrat, spoke of ‘‘a catastrophic result,’’ but even worse could lie ahead for both his and the People’s Party. A new national election would probably result in a Freedom Party victory and could move Austria closer to the camp of anti-immigrant Eurosceptic EU nations, further complicating joint European Union attempts to solve the migrant crisis and find consensus on other divisive issues.
Although an Austrian president has the powers to dismiss a government, none has taken this step since the office was newly defined after World War II. Presidents have rarely gone beyond gentle criticism of the government....
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Austria's Trump!
"Austria coalition rocked by populist party’s surge" by Boris Groendahl Bloomberg News April 26, 2016
VIENNA — The outcome underscores the antiestablishment mood among voters in a region still grappling with the worst migrant crisis since World War II. In neighboring Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s approval rating has plunged to the lowest level of her third term after admitting about 1 million asylum seekers last year.
In Sweden, Social Democratic Prime Minister Stefan Loefven’s government is suffering record-low poll numbers amid the biggest inflow of migrants in the country’s history.
Austria’s two main parties, which clung to a majority in the last national elections in 2013 after having run the country for most of the past 70 years, have seen approval ratings slump as they flip-flop on the migration issue. The government’s inconsistency added to domestic discontent about rising unemployment and economic stagnation....
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Then it is on through Hungary and into Poland:
"Poland’s Interior Ministry said it will send 120 border guards, police, and migration bureau officers to Greece to help protect EU borders under the mass inflow of refugees. Poland is refusing to accept any refugees, citing security concerns after deadly attacks in France and Belgium. Officials in Warsaw argue support should be offered to refugees in camps nearest to their home countries. In a separate development, Obama has assured European leaders the United States was prepared to also ‘‘take responsibility with regard to the Mediterranean route from Libya if necessary.’’ Also Monday...."
Who could argue with that?
*********
Turning the other way now:
"The meat industry contributes more to greenhouse gas emissions than the combined exhaust from every form of transportation on Earth — a whopping fifth of the total. Beef is the biggest culprit, and Denmark links eating habits to climate change. The meat industry contributes more to greenhouse gas emissions than the combined exhaust from every form of transportation on Earth, with beef the biggest culprit. Denmark’s Council of Ethics, a government think tank, said that in light of these facts, Danes are ethically obligated to change their eating habits and that a sliding-scale tax should be imposed on foods that are proportional to their ‘‘climate impact.’’ The proposal now goes before lawmakers. Under the plan, a tax would first be imposed on beef, then would be expanded to all red meat, and possibly further food sources based on the sliding-scale model."
I hate to say it, but that Hitler guy never ate a hamburger -- and he never told you what to eat, either.
So how much does the war industry contribute?
Small-town politicians pivotal to migrant relief in France
What a bunch of weasels.
Of course, there will be no crossing of the channel just as before.
Good thing the migration slowed after that.
*************
Time to emigrate from Europe:
"As men return from Syria, Europe weighs security vs. civil liberties" by Adam Nossiter New York Times April 26, 2016
PARIS — Now among the biggest challenges facing governments and security services, grappling with how far to go in tightening laws to prosecute, monitor, and restrict the movements of returnees.
At the heart of the debate is whether to take preemptive legal action against people who have not committed terrorist acts or even been implicated in a plot but who have simply been to Syria and possibly received training in Islamic State camps.
The thumping you hear is Hitler spinning in his.... wait, they cremated him.
Several urgent factors have propelled the debate: the steeper risks of terrorist attacks, the fact that monitoring the sheer numbers who have returned is overwhelming security services, and the difficulty of building cases against suspects who may have been trained and indoctrinated in distant lands.
Setting policy for dealing with returning jihadis is just one example of how Europe, like the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks, is being forced to weigh security concerns against civil liberties....
This is all such a load of crap when you consider that the very same governments are behind the terrorists. It's all problem-reaction-solution management of society stuff to further advance the total $urveillance $tate.
And this load of bull pushed forth by the NYT about how much lying governments care about our rights.
Puh-leeze.
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Related: US needs to help the EU end the refugee crisis
Maybe they shouldn't have started it first.
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Finally, on AmeriKan shores:
"State drops plans to evict Iraqi refugees from motel" by Steven A. Rosenberg GLOBE STAFF April 27, 2016
SAUGUS — The state has dropped plans to evict an Iraqi family, recently profiled in the Globe, for allowing guests into their state-subsidized motel room, including a Globe reporter and photographer.
The family of nine, refugees who arrived in Massachusetts in 2014, has been living in two motel rooms at the Colonial Traveler Inn in Saugus for about three months.
But on Friday, several workers from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development visited the family and accused them of violating the state’s emergency shelter policy, according to Ahmed al Rubaye, who has seven children with his wife, Abeer.
State policy prohibits homeless residents who are staying in state-subsidized hotels from having guests.
That same day, Rubaye received written notice that beginning next week, the state would no longer pay for the motel rooms.
Two of the alleged violations were for allowing a Globe reporter and a photographer into one of the family’s motel rooms, along with two other friends of the family.
GLOBE GOT 'EM IN TROUBLE!
The Globe was unaware of the state policy against visitors. Rubaye provided the Globe copies of the complaints, which indicated that they were filed with the state by the motel’s general manager.
They should have been! I guess pushing the agenda was more important.
The story on the family’s struggles was published last Saturday, the day after Rubaye was told they would be evicted.
Yeah, I saw that.
But on Tuesday, Rubaye said he was visited by a state housing official, who told him the state had changed its mind and decided not to pursue the alleged violations. Rubaye said he was immensely relieved.
Globe connection helped him there.
“I am happy that we will not be sleeping in the street,” he said.
Got enough vets out there.
Cherifa Khaddaoui, a friend who often serves as a translator for the family, said the uncertainty had been trying for them.
“This is confusing and there seems to be a lot of contradictions,” she said. “One day they tell him they’re putting him on the street and the next day they say he can stay. I hope what they’re saying is true.”
I so wish my war criminal government hadn't lied its way into military aggression and occupation, thus destroying the lives of these people.
I also wish the lies hadn't been blared from the front pages of my pre$$.
Paul McMorrow, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, which oversees the motel program, declined to comment on the case.
Under state law, the director of the Department of Housing and Community Development has the right to waive an eviction decree of a homeless family housed by the state.
The third alleged violation involved allegations that the family’s “6-year-old son” had thrown rocks at cars earlier this month. In an appeal of the state’s decision, Rubaye wrote that he does not have a 6-year-old son — his youngest son is 7 — and denied that his child had thrown rocks at anyone.
The state provides emergency housing for homeless families who have school-aged children, and has long used motels to offset a shortage of affordable rental units. As of late March, 1,361 families lived in motels across the state, including 1,351 children. On average, a family spends 341 days in a motel, at a cost to the state of $117 a night to house them, according to state officials.
The motel’s general manager declined to comment.
Kelly Turley, director of legislative advocacy for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said the al Rubayes’ experience underscores the difficulty many refugee families face in “navigating the complex housing and social services systems.”
“We are happy to hear that the state has rescinded the Rubaye family’s notice of termination,” she said. “We hope that the family will receive the additional housing and support services that they need to reach housing stability here in the United States.”
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Those are the good refugees.
Here is a bad one:
"Man arrested after shot fired at trooper, dog" by Martha Schick Globe Correspondent April 30, 2016
A Sierra Leone man already facing deportation on felony charges was arrested early Saturday morning in Springfield after allegedly firing at a Massachusetts State Police K-9 unit, according to State Police.
Police said they received a report of Mohamed Fofanah, 35, driving just 10 miles per hour on Interstate 91 southbound at 12:15 a.m.
His name is what?
The vehicle he was driving was wanted for hitting three separate vehicles in traffic moments earlier, according to David Procopio, a spokesman for the State Police.
Fofanah exited the highway and abandoned his vehicle after crashing again, then walked toward Main Street, Procopio said.
K-9 Trooper David Stucenski and his canine partner, Frankie, found him. When Fofanah refused to stop and surrender his weapon, Stucenski deployed the dog, police said in a statement.
Fofanah allegedly fired one shot but didn’t hit the officer or the dog, who was able to subdue him, according to the statement.
He was treated for minor injuries at Baystate Medical Center and is being charged with attempted murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, various firearm violations, leaving the scene of property damage, and mistreatment of a police dog.
Upon further investigation after his arrest, Fofanah was found to be in the country illegally and to have multiple felony charges against him in Connecticut, Procopio said.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer against him while he remains in custody at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction and awaits deportation, according to Procopio.
Has to be within six months, otherwise they let him out.
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"Man who fired at trooper was under deportation order" by Maria Sacchetti Globe Staff May 02, 2016
Federal immigration officials had been trying to deport Mohamed Fofanah for nearly five years when he allegedly led State Police on a wild ride early Saturday through Springfield. Police say he smashed into three cars on Interstate 91, veered into a car dealership, and then bolted on foot, still wearing the GPS device that immigration officials had attached to his ankle.
As police closed in, the 35-year-old allegedly pulled a silver handgun from his waistband and fired a bullet at a trooper and his dog.
The bullet missed, but the case is raising new questions about why the United States never carried out an immigration judge’s 2011 order to deport Fofanah to Sierra Leone after he was convicted and served time for crimes in Connecticut, including felony weapons charges and resisting arrest.
Instead, federal records show that immigration officials released him in late 2012. At the time of his arrest Saturday, he was awaiting trial for a September 2015 arrest for assault, endangering a child, and other charges in Connecticut.
Related: Conn. governor honored for defending refugees
Odd timing, 'eh?
“The big issue here is that he should have been deported a long time ago,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based nonprofit that favors tougher immigration laws. “The federal government has tools to do this. They’re just choosing not to use them.”
It's called neglect.
State Police spokesman David Procopio said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer against Fofanah, indicating that they would detain him again if he posts bail.
How is he going to be able to do that?
He said immigration officials told the state that they were trying to obtain travel documents to deport him to Sierra Leone.
“ICE was certainly in the process of deporting him. Without question, this defendant should be deported after answering for his crimes here,” Procopio said. “He clearly has no regard for the laws of our country, or for life of humans or animals.’’
BUT?
Daniel Modricker, a spokesman for ICE, said only that the agency is reviewing Fofanah’s case. ICE did not respond to Globe questions about whether they also took him back into custody after his September 2015 arrest.
Fofanah, who lives in Hartford, pleaded not guilty Monday in Springfield District Court to attempted murder, assault and weapons charges, mistreating a police dog, and leaving the scene of an accident, according to police and court officials.
Judge William Boyle ordered Fofanah held on $1 million cash bail and $10 million bond.
Fofanah’s latest arrest comes amid increasing impatience in Washington with the release of foreign criminals whose homelands refuse to take them back. Just last week, members of Congress criticized ICE and the State Department for failing to pressure foreign countries to accept their citizens, leading to the release of tens of thousands of criminals in the United States.
What are we supposed to do, bomb them all?
ICE officials say they had to release them because the Supreme Court has barred them from detaining immigrants indefinitely if they cannot deport them.
They also have ruled they can keep Gitmo guys forever.
But critics say ICE could rearrest criminals if they are accused of new crimes....
???????????????
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