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August 24, 2007
Frickin' France
[Pic]
I was in Boston once, and I saw a shirt that says "France sucks." Naturally, I had to buy it for my France-hating friend. One Ohio State fan I know used to have a t-shirt that said "I wouldn't cheer for Michigan even if they were playing France." Ouch!
With this latest news coming out of France, I think I am starting to see their point:
French officials rejected a request to extradite a man suspected of killing a Loop dermatologist last year, a Cook County state's attorney's spokesman said Thursday.
Hans Peterson, 29, turned himself in to French authorities Aug. 6 on the Caribbean island of St. Martin after an arrest warrant was issued for him in the U.S. He is accused of fatally stabbing Dr. David Cornbleet in his office in October.
On Wednesday, French officials declined to extradite Peterson because he is a French national, said Cornbleet's son, Jon Cornbleet. The French typically do not extradite citizens who may be facing charges that could result in the death penalty. The family, however, would not object if prosecutors don't seek death, Jon Cornbleet said.
So listen... I see France's point. They're anti-capital punishment. Mexico is another country that will refuse to extradite murder suspects to the United States because they face capital punishment here. It's an interesting stand, but I have to wonder what the point is. No matter how much France and Mexico protest, the only thing that's going to make the USA stop executing people is if Americans decide it themselves. I myself am against capital punishment, but I also know that the fact that the rest of Western civilization doesn't have capital punishment is no barrier to its use here. What's particularly annoying to me about this case is how this guy became a French citizen:
Peterson turned himself in to authorities in French-controlled St. Martin two weeks ago and allegedly said he repeatedly stabbed Cornbleet, 64, because he believed the doctor had prescribed medicine that made him impotent.
Peterson is considered a French citizen by authorities there because his mother is French. He obtained his French passport in May and holds dual citizenship.
Whatever, yo. It seems pretty clever to me that he chose not to become a French citizen until this opportunity came about. He's wanted for murder in the USA, he has a French mom. Why don't I flee to French territory off the coast of South America, and get French citizenship so they won't extradite me to the USA? Genius!
Anyhow, this is just another episode in what seems to be continued French petulance. I'm not talking about that World War 2 thing, but all kinds of other stuff. As an early example, the French refused to use the internationally adopted prime meridian - the one in England - and instead made their own maps using Paris as the prime meridian. Thus, French maps were 2.2 degrees off the rest of the world:
In 1884, at the International Meridian Conference in Washington DC, the Greenwich Meridian was adopted as the prime meridian of the world. France abstained. The French clung to the Paris Meridian as a rival to Greenwich until 1911 for timekeeping purposes and 1914 for navigation. To this day, French cartographers continue to indicate the Paris Meridian on some maps.
That's cool, France. Who reads French maps anyway?
Then there's the so-called Rainbow Warrior incident. I'm learning about this is one of my classes, so it's fresh in my mind. Those fine folks at Greenpeace sent their ship, the Rainbow Warrior, off to the South Pacific to protest French plans to conduct nuclear testing in the region. As the ship was docked in New Zealand, French special agents sneaked onto the ship and planted a bomb aboard. The bomb destroyed the ship, but also killed a crewman. Oops! Most of the team was able to leave the country, but the police captured two of them. They weren't too amused that the French government was sending agents into their country to commit illegal acts, and they ended up pleading guilty to manslaughter. France wasn't about to let their agents wind up in a New Zealand prison, so they swung a deal that they broke as soon as they had a chance:
In July 1986, a United Nations-sponsored mediation between New Zealand and France resulted in the transfer of the two prisoners to the French Polynesian island of Hao, to serve three years instead, as well as an apology and a NZD 13 million payment from France to New Zealand.
Mafart [one of the agents] returned to Paris on December 14, 1987 for medical treatment, and was apparently freed after treatment. He continued to serve in the French Army, and was promoted to Colonel in 1993. Prieur [the other agent] returned to France on May 6, 1988 because she was pregnant, her husband having been allowed to join her on the atoll. She, too, was freed and later promoted. This was in violation of the agreement France signed; the French were consequently required to pay further reparations to New Zealand.
Three other agents, Chief Petty Officer Roland Verge, Petty Officer Bartelo and Petty Officer Gérard Andries, who sailed to New Zealand onboard the yacht Ouvéa, were later captured by Australian Police on Norfolk Island, but had to be released as Australian law did not allow them to be held for sufficient time until the results of forensic tests came back. Knowing the tests would show they had transported the bombs to New Zealand, the crew rendezvoused with the French submarine Rubis and sank the Ouvéa. They were never punished.
Of course, France went and set off their nuclear bombs anyway. I have to say, this behavior by France is unsettling. France, I think, is struggling with the fact that it is gradually losing status as a world power. They're shrinking in relevance, and stunts like that are France's way of trying to keep in the public eye. However, I have a feeling that like many of the USA's recent actions, they will merely have the effect of pissing off the rest of the world. Good luck with that, France!
entry no. 948
Posted by oz115 at August 24, 2007 10:24 AM
Comments
I think that Hammurabi guy had the right idea regarding capital punishment...
Posted by: G at August 27, 2007 07:40 AM