Amanda Knox Blog Wars Cross the Line

The people who keep claiming that Americans have been whipped into a frenzy by "American media" are themsleves showing their stereotyping of Americans as idiots who led around by the nose.

THEN WHY DID YOU VOTE FOR GEORGE BUSH TWICE !!

distrust fear of and lack of interest and knowledge of all places outside your own country"

You mean like Switzerland banning minarets?

Or maybe the anti-immigrant fervor in France or Spain?

Or how about the outward racism toward minority athletes?

The above 3 mentioned problems,Swiss,French,Spanish have nothing to do with my arguement that Americans have a distrust, fear of, and lack of interest and knowledge of all places outside their own country AND CLEARLY ILLUSTRATES THE POINT THAT YOU JUST DONT SEEM TO GET IT.

Just ask my Austalian friend why some Americans asked him where he learned to speak such good English ( they must have confused it with Austria)

Do you have a passport ?? where have you been ? To Italy perhaps?? Long Live Ganong !!

America has many good things, and the world would be a poorer place without her. So the point is not to attack the country as a whole, but to point out the isolationist mentality which festers in peoples heads over there and including the mainsream media is causing serious problems with the rest of the world.

You mean like Switzerland banning minarets?

Or maybe the anti-immigrant fervor in France or Spain?

Or how about the outward racism toward minority athletes?

Switzerland is a tiny country being overrun by a core militant islamic immigrants who have shown little intention of accepting western Democracy. Dutch politicians being murdered by these militants and London buses blown up may have something to do with attitudes here.Why must we tolerate the intolerant.

At the end of the day, there is no utopia you can find faults and advantages in both the US and Europe.

Here in Britian most football teams have black players and this never poses a problem with rascism.

People are speaking negativly of your homeland is largly due to 8 years of Bush and his neo-con morons that have hurt the reputation of the USA like nothing I have ever seen. Most Americans I have spoken with seem to have been oblivious to this .

Americans are still a bit too sensitive when people take the piss or use irony..people here practise self criticism and ridicule in pubs after work openly and on a daily basis, and thats why the response from the "Defend Knox at all costs against these foreign infidels" sounds so insular and WELTFREMD !

But you did call your blog space " Blog wars"

Cheers

Frank the ex pat Yank

crimstudent....I agree with much of your post. I also am involved in criminal law. The make-up of the jury was a sore spot for me, especially during a murder trial...2 Judges and 6(??) citizens; plus, the fact that the majority won!! (I think it was a total of 8...I could be wrong.) But ALSO, if it was a tie 4-4, the head Judge got a second vote. It does not take the village idiot to know that the Judges are going to vote with the prosecution. I feel horrible for Meredith's death and her family, but I believe they got the killer when Guede was arrested. Amanda & her friend's verdict made me ill, but I can not say I wasn't expecting it. After 41hrs of interrogation without an attorney, Amanda would have said anything they wanted her to say. I am afraid she is up that proverbial creek without a paddle now.

The people who keep claiming that Americans have been whipped into a frenzy by "American media" are themsleves showing their stereotyping of Americans as idiots who led around by the nose. We have the internet now in case you havent noticed (remember it originated here). A have a large news folder in my bookmarks, ie. foreign media, domestic, blogs, etc. We get our information from everywhere.

The bottom line is the girl was a victim of character assasination and no physical evidence tied her to murder. Any impartial person can see this. The only thing they have on AK is that she has proximity to the crime due to living there; and by pounding her for 10s of hours, the police were allegedly able to extract inconsistencies in her story.

"distrust fear of and lack of interest and knowledge of all places outside your own country"

You mean like Switzerland banning minarets?

Or maybe the anti-immigrant fervor in France or Spain?

Or how about the outward racism toward minority athletes?

You may not be speaking of ALL Americans, but even the ones you refer to, you've boiled them down to the one characteristic you find objectionable.

America certainly isn't perfect.

Even these flag-waving nationalists you castigate would agree. But when someone singles out one nation and speaks of negatively of your homeland, it's a natural to get defensive about your country and act in the manner you note.



The US has its problems, but Europe does to. It's not a uniquely American trait to prefer your home country's way in doing something. (I mean think about the smug way in which Canadians and Europeans talk about their free healthcare systems compared to the US. I don't disagree, but still...)

Let's not pretend that one is universally better than the other.

In response to those who believe all Americans are in favor of Amanda Knox because she is American and that there is a biased slant because we feel that Italy has a corrupt judicial system while America has a just one, I would like to add some light onto why this is certainly not the case.

First, I'll begin by stating that I am a doctoral student in Criminology and Criminal Justice at an American University currently working on his dissertation so I do speak with some knowledge. As far as my opinion goes, I'll begin by stating that I believe America has one of the worst criminal justice systems in the world. Yes, we have safeguards, but we also have a racist, biased criminal justice system; we have the most punitive laws in the world and our idea of rehabilitation is all too often a joke (because politicians over here often believe it better to spend money on prisons than on rehabilitations). We also have a deplorable record of sending innocent people to prison and of imposing lifetime collateral consequences on ex-cons (perhaps Europeans may not be aware, but there are sprouting up colonies of homeless ex-cons in America who can't find affordable housing because of barbaric American laws). I also believe our foriegn policy involving Abu Graib is deplorable.

So, take my comments, knowing that I am an American who has knowledge of the American criminal justice system and is appalled by what our country is doing.

With that said, I back Amanda Knox because I don't believe the evidence proved she did this. I believe, based on what I've seen and heard, that Amanda and her boyfriend are innocent and should be released. I also think that Amanda was not convicted because of anti-American sentiment, but rather because Italy takes pride in its police and prosecutors and often believes that they can't do wrong (we have the same problem in America - we also have cases of corrupt judges given the recent indictment of two judges on charges they were paid off to send juvenile defendants to a private detention center).

Why I'm saying all this is simply to highlight that there are people in America who back Amanda Knox because we believe she did not get a fair trial. We further believe she should be exonerated on appeal, simply because the evidence doesn't exist to support a conviction (and the same holds true for her boyfriend).

This has nothing to do with "injustice in a foriegn country". Instead it simply has to do with the fact of "injustice.

Regarding my last posting .Do realize that not ALL Americans are the target of my critique. I was speaking in GENERAL TERMS. Also ,Americans are not used to hearing anything critical of their own country, since social critique is largly taboo or missing entirely.This is why any rant that is not one of praise is seen as an attack. Over here its an entirely different matter as nationalism is frowned upon . You will be hard pressed to find Flags flying everwhere as is so common in the US

I am not calling you a right winger ,but the inluence of these media outlets are well known .This whole Knox verdict issue goes far beyong the actual case itself.It exposes Americans for their distrust fear of and lack of interest and knowledge of all places outside your own country.How many times have I heard America is the greatest ,the best,etc by yanks who dont even own a passport. This sort of arrogance and smugness can no longer apply in todays world.

Europeans are far better informed and travelled than average American, for one thing they have 6 weeks paid holidays at their disposal,while the average american has only one or two.People here have more of an interest in foreign travel, and the tv news is all inclusive while yours is only interested in Europe when it concerns Americans..too bloody nationalistic,and all assuming.

The OJ VERDICT was what I was refering to as he got away with murder,and dont forget that the US supremecourt cancelled the Florida recount which gave us 8 years of massive damage and misery.

I was not refering to boorish tourists as such as they tend to be drunken anti social..what ever.What sets American tourists apart is their endless in your face patriotism ,cultural ignorance of the country they are visiting ( ordering a diet coke in a pup lol)and general poor sense of dress.

As where I am from...Los Angeles and I relocated to Europe 15 years ago

To all the yanks screaming anti Americanism...get a passport and see more of the world instead of watching Fox news and inferring that the world outside the USA is corrupt and inferior to your country. Dont critisize the Italian court system when your country gave us the OJ Simpson verdict..talk about third world. And no ,the Europeans dont hate America. As a high school teacher I can verify that my students are mad about all things American and most have been to New York or Florida. They simply dont like these loudmouthed uber patriotic, our country is the best jock types that show up here with frequency.So stop all this insular drivel because if you keep this up there WILL be an anti American backlash.

Does the right wing radio network and fox news have something to do with this? You bet.

Yes, Frank, anybody who disagrees with you must be a right wing hack. All those Fox News, Glenn Beck, dittoheads, like... oh, Maria Cantwell.

And you realize that the OJ thing is the OPPOSITE of Amanda Knox, right? He was found NOT guilty.

That's the whole point. Our justice system may be flawed, but it's flawed to prevent putting an innocent person in jail (while admittedly letting some "criminals" escape prosecution when the government can't deliver enough evidence)

I clearly don't have all of the facts of the case (and I'm assuming you weren't a Perugian Juror on the case, so I'm sure you don't either), and I'm not "outraged" in any way, but you have to admit that there was a different standard for justice in this case, and the fact that she was American didn't help her cause.

(Also, I love you tell us how your worldly students "have been to New York or Florida" I guess someone who has made one visit to London has a complete view of European culture.)

Also, I'm curious, what country are you from? If it's England (just a guess...), I'm not sure you have much of leg to stand on when it comes to boorish tourists...

We're behind Amanda 100%

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqGNYCVPo2E&feature=channel

much aloha,

Bobby and Dick Pockets

I think we need to stop drawing an arbitrary distinction between blogs and "real life". The idea that what you put on the Internet shouldn't spill over into the offline world is silly. Clearly, I don't think Ganong should be harassed or threatened but he (and many others) need to stop expecting the Internet to be a vacuum where the offline world ceases to exist - and vice versa.

For anyone who is interested in the facts behind the media spin, and who cares to learn more about the victim of this terrible murder - Meredith Kercher - there is an excellent discussion board

http://perugiamurderfile.freeforums.org/index.php

as well as an interesting blog

http://truejustice.org/ee/index.php

These online resources are not for profit. Anyone can read and/or participate and people from around the world do. They have followed this case since November 2007, and are in no way related to Amanda Knox. Nor are they her friends.

He's crying foul over shit he puts on the internet?

Baby.