Germany: Justice vs the Real World

FAZ ^ | 25 Jun 04 | FAZ

[pepsionice]

Police trial planned

FRANKFURT. A court ruled on Tuesday that a deputy police chief in Frankfurt should be tried on charges stemming from a torture threat he made in 2002. The trial of Wolfgang Daschner is unlikely to be scheduled before November, a court spokesman said. Daschner has admitted that he threatened a kidnapping suspect with torture in the hope of possibly saving a boy's life. The suspect, Magnus Gäfgen, then told authorities where the boy's body was.

[pepsionice]

For those who don't remember the story. The "friend" of the family, who was a buddy of the 12-year-old, kidnapped the young lad. The family was one of the richest in Frankfurt, and the kidnapper suddenly figured out in the midst of taking the kid...that he was identified by the kid. So they killed him. The police commissionar...figuring that there were limited hours of life left for the kid...told his police to threaten to bring in karate experts to tear the guy apart. Apparently, one of the policemen involved felt that was violating the rights of the kidnapper...but rest of the police made the threat...and the kidnapper quickly gave up his information. While the family and the vast majority of the police force in Germany support the threat made...the legal establishment doesn't. And the poltical sector has kept themselves strangely quiet over the event.

[Dallas59]

What gets me is that there are people who totally ignore the victims in these cases but will literally sacrifice their own life and those of others to protect the perpetrator…

[Dallas59]

The problem with the Democrats is they are to afraid to do anything about 9/11 except cry about it.
Then pass judgment on everybody BUT the ones who carry out terrorist actions.
Clinton did nothing on the first WTC bombing…nothing. Of course he was too worried about getting his ying yang sucked.

[Michael81Dus]

Well, this is a serious problem for us. Nobody wants that the lives of innocent are at risk, whether it may be the kidnapped boy or the immediate threat of an attack against US soldiers in Iraq (Abu Ghraib). But still, our justice systems (and I don´t exclude America here) must treat the kidnapper/terrorists with RESPECT (I know it´s so hard).
When a kidnapper takes hostages, it´s ok to shoot the kidnapper: the state kills people intentionally. It´s the same with the shooting down of hijacked planes. But where can we draw the line, saying "now this is illegal!" According to our laws, it´s that we may prevent somebody from doing something (like killing hostages by killing the kidnapper) but we must not compell somebody to do something (like confessing the crime/telling which is the next target, etc). A very difficult situation, because the behaviour could be justified, and even morally accepted, but the law says otherwise.