Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of guilt or threat

Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by masklinn on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @07:05AM (#17714813)

That is the case in (some?) Scandinavian countries, as well as Switzerland. I think it's generally indexed on income (based on tax return), with fines being expressed in days (of a fraction of the offender's disposable income). There's usually a lower bound (e.g. 6€ in Finland) but no upper bound. The day-fines may also be convertible to jail time (at a ratio of 1:3 or 1:4 I think).

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by Shoh3pif on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @07:13AM (#17714860)

That's also the case in the german-speaking countries.

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by candiodari on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @08:09AM (#17715178)

... and also the case in the US.

(however it's always going to be >$1000 or so, for obvious reasons, including of course in Germany and Scandinavian countries)

(by the way, I hate how tiring it is to see Europeans claim how "socially progressive" and protective of rights the EU governments supposedly are. You have more rights, as a suspect, in the US. Not less. The US, without any doubt, protects the rights of accused person FAR better than ANY European country. Just ask Julian Assange)

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by dragonwriter on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @09:23AM (#17715694)

> The US, without any doubt, protects the rights of accused person FAR better than ANY European country. Just ask Julian Assange

Since Assange’s entire excuse for his flight from justice is the fear that the whole Swedish and British process has been a pretext for being dragged to the US for an unfair trial, I don't think he'll back you.

Of course, he's also completely nuts. If the US wanted him from the UK, we'd just file charges and seek extradition directly rather than go through some Rube Goldberg Swedish rape charges to get him extradited to a country we have a less-closw relationship with than the UK.

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by drivingmenuts on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @10:30AM (#17716241)

He's not hiding in the UK - he's hiding in Ecuador, with whom we do not have an extradition treaty, apparently. An embassy is the sovereign soil of it's own country. Otherwise, we could just storm the place with overwhelming force and take him. Ecuador lacks the means to effectively stop us.

Note: I am NOT suggesting we do this.

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by FireBeyond on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @12:46PM (#17717361)

> An embassy is the sovereign soil of it's own country.

Apropos of anything else, no, it is not.

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by DarkWiiPlayer on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @08:26AM (#17715288)

At least with Assange they bothered fabricating an excuse¹. Look at Snowden for a good example of how the USA won't even bother with something like that.

¹ Most likely, though nobody can say 100% for sure if it's just a fabrication in the end. But it does all seem rather suspicious.

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by candiodari on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @08:56AM (#17715475)

Note that it was European countries that complied with the orders, and local European courts that agreed with and ordered enforcement of the orders, all without so much as hearing Assange, and all at the request of a foreign government (if true).

Note the technique used by the European courts:

> On 20 August 2010, two women, a 26-year-old living in Enköping and a 31-year-old living in Stockholm,[6][7] jointly went to the Swedish police not seeking to bring charges against Assange but in order to track him down and persuade him to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases after their separate sexual encounters with him.[8] The police told them that they could not simply tell Assange to take a test, but that their statements would be passed to the prosecutor.[9] Later that day, the duty prosecutor ordered the arrest of Julian Assange on the suspicion of rape and molestation.

So it was the Swedish government, NOT the women, that came up, with very flimsy justification, with the rape charge.

And let's just ask it: if they do that at the request of a (very) far away government, lying about that fact, do you think this is the only time they do such a thing ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assange_v_Swedish_Prosecution_...

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by sp332 on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @08:56AM (#17715479)

Arrange claims to be hiding because he is afraid of being handed over to the US.

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Re:Bail has become a way to lock up the poor regardless of g... by sp332 on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @11:24AM (#17716678)

*Assange, sigh

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