Hey, didn't ya'll limeys actually hang a monkey once? http://www.thisishartlepool.co.uk/history/thehartlepoolmonkey.asp
dj On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 4:17 AM, archytas<[email protected]> wrote: > > Have to agree with Don on academics. Worse, we have given up notions > of wisdom in favour of fact regurgitation just as the Internet, for > all its faults, allows this to anyone who can keyboard. As Slip and > others have become aware, my keyboard has now replaced my mind and > relieved me entirely from the tyranny of wisdom. Equipped with > chained monekys (surely if we can text we can converse in typo?) I > shall enter the lists of politics secure in the permanent excuse that > I can never lie and only be accused of singing from the wrong > hymnkeboard and offer up the odd monkey for hanging when its policies > fail. > > On 13 July, 09:56, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: >> I mentioned the case of Nico Bento in another thread. My academic >> career is over and I'm hoping to get on with something worthwhile. I >> feel wisdom has deserted the system of our society almost entirely and >> that we might glean some understanding of what wisdom might be by >> looking at what it clearly isn't in practice. One of the categories >> I'm looking at is miscarriages of justice. >> >> Nico Bento is a Portuguese man living in England. He was convicted of >> the murder of his girlfriend four years ago and is now a free man. >> She drowned in a lake and was a Polish woman of 26. The most >> interesting facts are these: >> >> 1. There was no forensic evidence of murder. She was not strangled, >> there were no signs of any struggle and her clothes were neatly piled >> up on the lakeside, causing a passer-by to phone police. >> 2. Bento called police to report her missing and try to get them to do >> something. >> 3. Her white handbag with a shoulder strap was in Bento's flat. >> 4. She was depressive, working as a cleaner and had given up her >> college course. >> 5. There is CCTV footage of her walking along the river footpath >> towards the lake just before she died. No one is with her, and to the >> layman's eye it is obvious she is not carrying the said bag. This has >> been shown on the BBC Newsnight programme. I could not see the bag. >> 6. Bedfordshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service produced an >> expert witness, Casey Cordell from Los Angeles tom prove she was >> carrying the white bag in the CCTV footage. He said it could be >> evidenced from a shadow on the ground. >> 7. Bento was convicted on the grounds that the bag was in his flat >> and the implication he must have been at the scene of the death and >> carried it back. >> 8. British forensic scientists, including John Kennedy, then of our >> official Forensic Science Service, a world-renowned expert all >> concluded there was no evidence of the bag in the CCTV footage. This >> evidence was not disclosed to the defence and suppressed at the trial. >> 9. Cordell, the US "expert" was a known fantacist and has since >> topped himself. When asked to write-up his findings by other experts >> he clammed-up and tried to character assassinate other experts. >> 10. A reconstruction clearly demonstrates the "shadow" of the bag >> claimed by Cordell is present without the bag being carried (it's of a >> park bench) and the bag can be clearly seen in footage from the same >> camera in similar conditions anyway. The CCTV footage of the night in >> question is actually evidence of the non-presence of the bag. >> 11. There is substantial evidence of a suicide risk despite police >> ruling this out. >> 12. There is no real evidence at all against Bento. What should have >> been evidence of the eye in his support was turned, perversely, to >> evidence against him, cops and prosecutors choosing to bend the case >> against him. >> >> We not only convicted an innocent man, but persist in covering-up the >> miscarriage of justice. Kennedy is subject to a 'gagging order'. >> Cops claim the reconstruction is 'bollocks'. There is no explanation >> of why vital evidence was not disclosed to the defence or why the >> defence was so bad. In short, all the evidence in this case >> demonstrates a massive cock-up and a conspiracy to pervert the course >> of justice (even if a conspiracy of idiots) that should have been >> prevented by fair play and adherence to the rules. Murder enquiries >> of this kind usually involve a designated police officer handling >> 'disclosure'. It should be utterly impossible to suppress evidence >> relevant to the defence. There is a long history of similar cases, >> including utterly fatuous 'ritual abuse' cases and dismal police >> actions against 'terrorists' (classic ones of 'being Irish in the >> wrong place' and 'shooting innocent Brazilians'). >> >> What I believe cases like this exemplify is a lack of wisdom and >> integrity and the presence of some kind of 'dirty hands philosophy' >> used to justify what is, in fact, an idiot ideology of power. I fear, >> perhaps at the extreme, that this is "why" we are in Iraq and >> Afghanistan and even that some "nightmare tyranny" is involved. It is >> as though we dare not put the facts to public scrutiny and must >> instead present a skewed case because the crooks and "evil" will >> somehow triumph if "we" try to use open means and do not match their >> secret cunning with ours. Virtue somehow becomes an 'idiot ploy'. >> >> What we need is for our system to be open to clear and patient public >> scrutiny in order that we can act in trust. However difficult these >> matters are, what is clear is that this is precisely what we don't >> do. I suggest wisdom has lapsed to Machiavelli with the sad rider >> that even he might well have been a satirist trying to open up dark >> practices to public scrutiny. > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
