All Are Equal, but some are more....

[Rani]

But I guess in Israel, her family could have run to the police and filed rape charges against him for posing as a White person and having relations with their daughter. Crazy!

Aren't you jumping to conclusions? Judging an entire country based on a single event isn't wise in my opinion.

Wouldn't I look foolish if I were to judge the whole US based on the case of Hurricane Carter ?

[Eki]

This is a serious sidetrack, but how do you explain the fact the UN has commisioned 2 inquiries against Israel over the last year while Turkey has killed 40000 people over the last 26 years, hundreds if not thousands over the last few months. The UN is doing nothing against the tens dead every week in the turkish-kurd struggle. I haven't seen a single post concerning turkish military actions against the Kurdish population. How come no one mentions the armenian genocide?

Double standard? you bet.

But no sanctions or Security Council resolutions against Israel yet, and Turkey doesn't have nuclear weapons.

[Jag_Warrior]

Aren't you jumping to conclusions? Judging an entire country based on a single event isn't wise in my opinion.

Wouldn't I look foolish if I were to judge the whole US based on the case of Hurricane Carter ?

I take it you've watched the movie with Denzel Washington. Good movie. But it followed the facts of that case about as well as the movie he starred in about Frank Lucas (American Gangster). To this day, the only person who (really) knows if Rubin Carter is innocent or guilty of murder is Rubin Carter.

Accurate or not, yes, it is my perception that an Arab in Israel has about the same chances of being treated fairly as a Black or a Jew in the American south in the 1930's-50's (and before). My guess is that's why most of the examples you're giving are from roughly that time period. As I agreed with you, we do still have issues with race here. Some people in the U.S. have a real obsession with race. But institutional racism is something that I think we've done a rather good job of addressing.

[Rani]

No, it says you do your job and let the police do theirs. I don't know if the shop owner realized, but there might have been a chance the burglars were armed and may have killed or injured him when he went after them. The advice the police gives to people who see a robbery is "don't try to be a hero". One Swedish family learnt it the hard way when they went after their stolen bicycle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Fouganthine

It seems this guy, regarded as a psychopath, killed 3 people in cold blood over a bicycle, escaped jail 4 times, took a hostage, broke his release terms, stole a car, drove without a license and was released after all that...

Writing his autobiography now, he'll probably gain fame and fortune from his ways.
It seems if one wants to become rich and famous in Finland, all he has to do is commit some heinous crimes, rest in prison whilst regularly trying to break out in order to keep in the headlines and then write a book once they are free.

Not exactly model penal and judicial systems you have there IMHO.

Accurate or not, yes, it is my perception that an Arab in Israel has about the same chances of being treated fairly as a Black or a Jew in the American south in the 1930's-50's (and before). My guess is that's why most of the examples you're giving are from roughly that time period. As I agreed with you, we do still have issues with race here. Some people in the U.S. have a real obsession with race. But institutional racism is something that I think we've done a rather good job of addressing

I actually think an arab has the same chances of being treated fairly as an african american or a jew in the American south today. Not just arabs for that matter, any minority.

[ShiftingGears]

It seems this guy, regarded as a psychopath, killed 3 people in cold blood over a bicycle, escaped jail 4 times, took a hostage, broke his release terms, stole a car, drove without a license and was released after all that...

That is a joke. The fact that he was released is completely unjustifiable.

[Eki]

Writing his autobiography now, he'll probably gain fame and fortune from his ways.
It seems if one wants to become rich and famous in Finland, all he has to do is commit some heinous crimes, rest in prison whilst regularly trying to break out in order to keep in the headlines and then write a book once they are free.

I don't know anyone who has become rich and famous in Finland by writing an autobiography, the number of potential buyers is quite low. And he already became famous (or infamous) already when he committed that triple murder.

[Rani]

I don't know anyone who has become rich and famous in Finland by writing an autobiography, the number of potential buyers is quite low. And he already became famous (or infamous) already when he committed that triple murder.

He's already got a movie deal and I've got a feeling he's quite well known in Sweden as well, so that makes the number of buyers bigger.

[Eki]

He's already got a movie deal and I've got a feeling he's quite well known in Sweden as well, so that makes the number of buyers bigger.

Probably didn't get much for the movie deal. And the total population of Finland and Sweden together is still under 15 million. He probably didn't get anything, because his name was changed to Jari. The film maker just took the story, not the people in it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_Capi...wedish_Requiem

[Drew]

This kind of thing happens throughout the world, just in different ways. In the UK a story that seems to happen a bit is that girls get incredibly drunk and do stupid things and then regret it the day after and cry rape. Which takes away the seriousness of vilent rape cases.

However this law seems even more open to abuse, in order to protect "innocent" jewish women that make mistakes...

[Rani]

This kind of thing happens throughout the world, just in different ways. In the UK a story that seems to happen a bit is that girls get incredibly drunk and do stupid things and then regret it the day after and cry rape. Which takes away the seriousness of vilent rape cases.

However this law seems even more open to abuse, in order to protect "innocent" jewish women that make mistakes...

What law are you talking about? The guy plead guilty and agreed to a plea bargain.