Golly, I wish I could look that cool and casual.
Posted on 05/28/2008 5:42:56 AM PDT by Abathar
John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, faces a citizen's arrest when he addresses an audience at the Hay Festival in Wales this evening.
George Monbiot, the journalist and activist, is planning the action because he believes Mr Bolton is a "war criminal".
He said he was surprised that a "war criminal" such as Mr Bolton would be allowed to "swim through the politest of polite soirees – which is of course Hay."
Mr Bolton, who was the American ambassador to the UN from August 2005 to January 2006, is due to talk at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival at 6.30pm on international relations.
Mr Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian, plans to arrest him as he steps off stage at the end of his talk. He said he was prepared to jump on stage and perform the citizen's arrest there if necessary.
He claimed Mr Bolton was "instrumental in preparing and initiating the Iraq war by disseminating false claims through the State Department" while he was under-secretary of state for arms control.
Mr Monbiot, who took part in a debate at Hay on Saturday entitled 'Iraq: Why They Lost Iraq', has been a fierce critic of the decision to launch the 2003 invasion.
He said he had formally notified police of his intention of performing a citizen's arrest.
Mr Monbiot said: "This is the one opportunity we have, because he is mingling with the public, which doesn't happen very often.
He added: "I can't think of another case where someone who has been instrumental in planning the war has been exposed to the public, so I'm taking the opportunity.
"John Bolton was pushing for the Iraq war long before he became part of the administration."
Explaining his motivation for carrying out what will be a purely symbolic gesture, Mr Monbiot said: "Many people accept that the launching of the Iraq war was an international crime, but no one has yet been prepared to act on it by arresting one of the perpetrators."
Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, said Mr Monbiot’s attempt at a citizen’s arrest would be “completely unlawful”.
He said: “The Hay Festival has sought the advice of both police and lawyers, and has been unequivocally assured that a citizen’s arrest, or an attempt to instigate a citizen’s arrest, would be completely unlawful in these circumstances.”
“The Hay Festival remains committed to providing a platform for speakers from a diverse range of political and social backgrounds.
“However much we might take issue with a speaker’s beliefs or opinions, we remain steadfast in our intention to provide them with a safe and free environment in which their views might be discussed with others. The Hay Festival encourages visitors to voice their opinions, but also requires that, in their expression, they respect both the law and the speaker.”
His way of hoping they will prevent him from getting a beating by security guards.
Pistol whip him hard with a 45.
That’s the chap, though his portrayal was the family friendly one originating in the book “Christopher Syn” rather than the take-no-prisoners original series. Nice that Disney’s finally going to release a DVD set of “Scarecrow of Romney Marsh” later this year.
I love the ending of clip #3 ‘Citizen’s Arrest’. Thanks for posting the link.
It's about time! I loved that series and its theme song when I was a kid, and even dressed up as the 'Scarecrow' one Halloween.
When will these self-absorbed, self-centered, irrational people grow up? Their opinions, such as they are, are not that important.
Evidently a little wuss.
The bat is the best idea.
This guy is a coward and publicity seeker. If he wasn’t a coward he wouldn’t have told anyone, just gone ahead with his stupid citizen arrest. This way he gets the ink but still will be stopped well short of Bolton. So he doesn’t even get to commit a crime, is free to run around like a fool, and has a good book of press clippings from this episode. Actually a pretty smart pr move on this coward’s part. I still like the bat, prempt him when someone first sees him near the stage.
“Explaining his motivation for carrying out what will be a purely symbolic gesture”
That’s all the left has anymore, symbolic gestures. They have no genuine ideas, nothing to contribute to society as a whole, and no original thoughts left in their empty skulls. So they set up little media events and then tell everyone who will listen about it in hopes that it will spark something...it does....disdain in great quantities.
If I was Bolton, I would hire a PI to determine what assets were available. Submit calmly to the citizens arrest and immediately have my attorney file a lawsuit for false arrest............. in effect, transferring those assets to me.
Oh brother.
Here’s hoping Bolton has the opportunity to punch Monbiot’s lights out.
Are they really! I've had it on my wish list forever at Netflix.
Oh my gosh... this is hilarious.
I’m no expert on their law over there, but such an “arrest” would clearly be illegal. Therefore any force used for such an arrest would be illegal and any reasonable force used to resist the “arrest” would be self defense.
Liberals often remind me of spoiled kids, given everything they want but perpetually unhappy. The other end of the spectrum, those raised with discipline and a sense of responsibility remind me of conservatives.
Agreed. And if McCain would step aside in 2012 and support Bolton for [conservative] President, it would be even better!
You are entitled to hope...
Now, now. There is no sense in risking damage to a perfectly good pistol by exposing it to the thick skull of an idiot.
Bump for viewing after work...
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