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I have been watching the latest events coming out of Italy, where American student Amanda Knox has been on trial for the killing of her fellow student. I watched a recent showing on US television where an investigative reporter dissected the Italian court case, and it appears to be nothing more than a made up witch hunt. The prosecutor in the case appears to get his direction from some woman who runs a satanic web site. Now it seems the police also slapped her around.
Another case in point. In 1994, a 7-year-old boy Nicholas Green was murdered by some drive-by Itialian thieves while he and his family were visiting Italy on vacation. The murderer, Michele Iannello, was allowed to go free by the Italian courts. It seems if you're in the Italian Mafia (as is alleged this guy was) and you murder a 7 year old American boy, you get to go free, even with overwhelming evidence against you. Visit The Nicholas Green Foundation website.
I had visited Italy years ago, and it was something akin to a Third World country. I was traveling with a couple from New Zealand, and we visited Florence, Venice and Milan. My travel companions were the first to utter the phrase to me, "This is like a Third World country!". When I arrived by plane in Rome, we were met at the plane by a bunch of military guys escorting everyone to the terminal. I did not see that in Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden or England. So right from the get-go you're thinking, "This place is like Haiti or maybe Somalia". Trains running either very early or very late, but not on time. Cockroaches in every restaraunt. You do not dare to walk across the street on a green light, as red lights are meaningless to drivers there. I was warned by the guy that runs the youth hostel in Rome to watch out for knife carrying thieves at train stations. It seems they sneak up behind you, slash the bottoms of the backpack with a knife and dump the contents into a bag and run off. They hang out at train stations and target tourist backpacking travelers. Some of the people in the hostel were using chicken wire on the bottoms of their packbacks, just in case. Let's not forget their corrupt police force, and now, as I watch this trial (and am not surprized), a kangaroo court for this poor girl who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you travel to places like Mexico, Columbia, El Salvador, Italy or Greece, you take your chances. It seems that Italy is still a card carrying member of the Third World.
That said, we too have our sad courtroom moments, like when OJ Simpson walked, after murdering his wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman.
Read this recent article in the Huffington Post.
Read the related book from Amazon.com, The Monster of Florence.
A recent article in the Seattle Times.