Reactions to the arrest of a young Dane in New York for crimes against children

A young Danish man has been charged and held without bail for alleged crimes against children. While the case not reached the courts yet his name is put up worldwide. Even if he is innocent his life is over. He will never be able to work with children again unless he is hired by a burger joint. He must settle with a McJob career.

Heine Ehlers wrote this comment in the New York Daily News:

When the news was reported in Denmark the reaction was: Can it be real? A few years ago Denmark extradited a Danish woman believed to be the kingpin behind a drug operation in Florida back in the 1990s when she went to the United States as an exchange student. A lot of effort was made to talk her into making a deal giving her a few years in prison instead of the 60 years she was facing. In the end she was acquitted but left with a lifelong debt as result of financing her defense. The charges were never real. It was a publicity stunt by the DEA.

I hope that the court can find justice in this case. The evidence seems not to be there but perhaps they are hoping that he would break due to his stay in jail so they can save their faces if he agrees some kind of deal.

Had the cameras picked anything up it would not be case but we are talking of a case based on slander and bullying from a cop. Regardless of the outcome of the case his reputation in both Denmark and the United States will be destroyed. That is how damaging it is to be accused of such a terrible crime.

The result of the old extradition case was that the Department of education in Denmark ceased to accredit exchange student agencies due to the lack of legal security. If this case is based on false charges also it is because he went to the United States without being lawyered up. It needs to be stopped just as American Exchange Student agencies have stepped up providing massive legal aid to exchange students studying in Italy. Young people should rather remain in their home-countries rather than exposing themselves to unnecessary risk abroad. A lot of human rights organizations in Denmark have started a campaign to lower or even put a stop to the traffic of young Danes taking a year abroad. No learning experience can justify this torment the young Dane has to go through now.

Heine Ehlers is right. The advice to young Danes is not to use part of their life working or studying abroad unless they have put thousand of dollars kept in spare just in case they should be involved in any interaction with local police agencies. The time is over when you could go to another country without thinking of the worst case scenario.

• Remember Camilla Broe who had to spent a year in prison before she was aquitted.
• Remember Louise Woodward who was unlucky to charged with a crime 10 years before the science could prove that she hadn't committed a crime
• Remember Amanda Knox who was prosecuted by a prosecutor himself found guilty for abuse of office

The list could be continued. Fact is that there are policemen and prosecutors out there being ready to built their career on charging innocent people for crimes they hadn't committed.

Be safe - stay at home unemployment or not - or lawyer up so the first sentence you will say even at a normal trafficstop would be "I wan't a lawyer"

Source:

• Woman who reported intern for sexually abusing Midtown preschoolers was fired, parents group head says allegations are ‘fishy’ (New York Daily News)

Can you erase your entire online history. If not don't travel abroad

Two British women have been sentenced to six years and eight months in jail. They had been caught with drugs in Peru.

Fact is that they once they arrived in Spain were told that accidents would happen to their families at home if they didn't participate trying to smuggle drugs from Peru to Spain. All the information about relatives they have given the criminal masterminds behind the crimes themselves by being on Facebook, Twitter etc. which is normal for many young adults.

That combined with the knowledge that it is normal for the hotels and travel agencies to know the names and hometowns of the guests in advance make it easy to learn all you know to force a person to do all you want.

Because who wouldn't try to save a kid sister or a niece from being run over by a car back home?

It seems that the authorities in Spain have done little to prevent similar cases from happening in the future. They have not arrested and taken everyone in with connections to Peru. They have not clamped hard down on immigrants from South America. Two woman is serving time in Peru under conditions which makes it unlikely for them to survive unless they are transferred to the United Kingdom or they manage to escape like the woman from Norway who aided by the embassy managed to get out of Bolivia.

The death sentence handed out should have resulted in bigger focus on the level of security tourists have to deal with in Spain. However it seems that the government in Spain doesn’t care about the tourist industry or the economy in general. Maybe the unemployment rate in Spain is not large enough. It seems that the only answer people can give is to stay away from Spain.

We urge all people who think about choosing Spain for their next holiday to reconsider. The Internet remembers almost everything. It is quite impossible to delete your entire online history and the criminals who work in hotels and travel agencies know when you leave, where you live and who your relatives are.

Don’t be the next Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum. Stay away from Spain.



Sources:

• 'Peru Two' could be freed in less than three years and serve part of sentence in UK: Girls jailed for attempting to smuggle £1.5m worth of cocaine (The Daily Mail Online)
• Norwegian drugs convict escapes from Bolivia, hides in the Norwegian embassy in Brazil, now planning to fly home to Norway (African Press Online)

Prague cheats tourists

We have learned that several teenagers have been asked to leave various night clubs despite the fact that they have purchased party packages.

It seems that the police works in the spirit of Ludmila Brožová-Polednová who was the icon for law and order shortly after World War II.

It leaves the tourist no reason for choosing Prague and the Czech Republic as destination for holidays. We urge all Danes not to purchase trips to the Czech Republic in the future.

A contract is a contract. A deal is a deal. Will they not deliver what they promised to sell then the only answer but be to sue both the traveling agencies, the hotel.

We also urge all Danes who is in Prague right now to make videos and document the arrest procedure and publish the abuse on the Internet to warn tourists from other countries to stay away from the Czech republic also.


Sources:

• 17-årig i Prag: De tjekker os i hoved og r.. (Metroxpress - in Danish)
• Danskere i Prag: Politiet går helt over gevind (Metroxpress - in Danish)