The American Exception: The Legal System

Check out this post by One Salient Oversight:

The SMH is reporting that a US Navy sailor has been arrested by Australian officials for “grooming” a teenage Australian girl online. He was arrested after his ship docked in Rockhampton.

As I pointed out the other day, there is an increasing US-centric attitude to our legal system. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the US Navy is now demanding the sailor’s release into their own custody to deal with him as they choose.

I find this intolerable.

First of all, an Australian citizen commits a crime over the internet and is arrested and sent to the US for trial, even though he didn’t set foot in America. On the other hand, a US citizen commits a crime over the internet and is arrested as soon as enters Australia – and the US argues that he should be on trial in the US.

And then he goes on to whine about how its unfair. I know this bothers the South Americans also, as now and then examples come up in the South American press. Buncha damn foreigners. They should be pleased and proud to be treated as vassals.

Two non-snarky comments now:
1. I can see the point of this when dealing with a country where the legal system is somewhat shaky, say in some of the countries that are “friendly” to us like Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.
2. Why One Salient Oversight picked a fictional country for his post is beyond me. Next we’ll be hearing about how things are going in Fantasyland.