Letters to the Editor
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willy-nilly suspension of civil rights
American Citizens do not have civil rights abroad. None of us can expect to exercise our American Constitutional rights in any country besides the US. I don't think the British laws were circumvented, he sure didn't tell us that, and if they had been, I'm sure he would have told us. He himself admitted that the delay was due to the awkward timeing that a lot of courts are closed during the Christmas season.
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Gee fellow Anonymous...
Mr. Kurth seems to have felt secure enough as a white American male to unleash his inner ugly American with his unfortunate retort "I am an American citizen! You are our lapdog ally!"
--Anonymous
Wow. You know anonymous - Mr. Kurth is a GAY white American male... doesn't that place him a bit lower in the tier of privilege? You know - white heterosexual men on top - (fucking bastards!) - then, maybe, white heterosexual women? (entitled bitches!). Now, perhaps white homosexual men (oozing privilege yes, but you know, looked down on a bit by some folks...), white homosexual women (again, just dripping with privilege, but gay AND dealing with discrimination against women...). Now, who next????? Black hetero men? (no privilege whatsoever (relative to any white people), but, you know, they are male...). Who next? Black homosexual men, or black hetero women??? You decide who fits here! Whatever you decide, clearly, black homosexual women are beneath both in the tier of privilege! And I'll just bet that black lesbian women are the kindest, nicest, never rude, just plain good decent folks ever. How could it be otherwise?
I know. Ridicules. Gee. Maybe we shouldn't ascribe Kruth's bad behavior to his whiteness (or maleness, or gayness)?
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The people in jail
it's in the nature of killers, rapists, child abusers.
Cosmic Mojo, I agree with a lot of what you've said, but the reality is that most people in jail are there for drug-related offenses. The idea that the jails are stuffed with slavering degenerates is the reason that so many people are indifferent to the terrible conditions in many jails.
It's a shame that Kurth comes across as an unreliable witness because in fact Wormwood Scrubs has a long and well-documented history of abuses, which are especially repugnant given that most of the prisoners are non-violent offenders. More here:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR450142001?open&of=ENG-GBR
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my guess (fantasy) is that Kurth was initially quite shamed by this incident ... but as time has passed
he decided to write about the incident ...
the discrepancies between the previous version in the newspaper and this are VERY concerning ... and, no, I don't think either version is either "complete" or "entirely truthful"
I think his shame over ths incident is part of why he didn't reach out to, say, his agent or publisher for help, character references, etc, and likely why the newspaper version is as it is.
I have little doubt that he was, in fact, traumatized by events but trauma also involves some denial ... I think he may have returned to prison to "get himself together" feeling unprepared to walk out of courthouse into the "real world" just then...
Other than that, I try to take Salon's bizarre (and often much worse than this) essays at face value ... as I said in my first post on this subject, I think it is a worthwhile cautionary tale ... and I think many letter writers are in denial at how easily it could have them them or someone they know.
People have been incarcerated for bad behavior on planes attributable to illness, mental and otherwise, drug reactions, Tourettes, language difficulties ... and I've known a few people with anger management issues in my life.
I always thought that most of these incidents resulted either in medical care or brief "holding cell" type incarcerations while things got "straightened out" ...
I'm sorry also to learn that Britain has the same stupid problems we have with incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders resulting in not only overcrowding (which must be hard of staff and resources as well) but "hardening" of criminals and creation of a true "criminal class", that is the making of criminals out of what were once youthful offenders. I was glad to hear they were addressing illiteracy, however ineptly.
I suspect Kurth thought of his pupil as his "friend" and possible ally somehow ... when I suspect the pupil thought no such thing ...
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sassing a flight attendant
that's not what he did. He got belligerant and THREATENING and refused to move from a secure area when asked by flight attendants. He was rightly seen as a threat to the safety of the plane.
He was charged and held until his hearing, just like in the US (one doesn't always qualify for bond here either). His punishment for his crime was either $1,000 or time served plus a few more weeks.
Heck, parking in a handicapped-accessible parking space is a $500 fine in my state, so threatening airline staff during a flight and threatening the safety of a plane full of people should be a higher fine, I think.
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What he did was scary and it warranted an investigation. It’s easy to look back at the situation and say ‘he was just tipsy’ ... Kurth had an entire cabin full of people scared shitless that he was going to rip open a hatch over the Atlantic.
what a good point. Only a few weeks after the Va. Tech tredegy and now the peanut gallery is saying the opposite, the unstable guy should have been detained, and now the peanut gallery is saying the opposite, the unstable guy should have been free to terrorist the other flyers. cuz that's what he was doing, scaring the bejesus out of all the othter passengersm, making them think they might die in the next second.
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Alcohol at altitude
>>Airlines serve alcohol full well knowing that altitude potentiates the effects of alcohol and a third of their passengers are probably medicated anyway and giving them alcohol is just begging for trouble. As enablers and coconspirators in this affair the airlines are also culpable for these types of incidents.<<
Airlines serve alcohol to adults with the understanding that said adults are responsible and know their limits. Flight attendants are trained to monitor the amount of alcohol served on board and stop service to those who appear intoxicated or have simply consumed too many drinks relative to the length of the flight, knowing full well that the vast majority of in-flight incidents are caused by too much alcohol consumption.
Blaming the airline for Kurth's intoxication and subsequent arrest fits very nicely with his own version of events, however - let's pin the responsibilty on anyone and everyone but him.
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How to deal with the prison problem
The real issue is the deplorable conditions in the prison, and what can be done to alleviate them, not what Kurth deserved.
BTW - Kurth did not deserve top be raped, but for breaking the law he did deserve incarceration and a hefty fine, as well as some sort of ban on flying. And here's an idea, how about suspension of his passport for a period of time (1 year .. more?) for going to a foreign country and breaking the law.
Bigger question, more rights for prisoners or more powers to the jailers - how would you fix the problem? Seems many who have responded seem to be operating under the delusion that most people jailed for drug offences are not really bad people, and that legalizing the drug trade could solve much of the problem. Also unchallenged was the characterization of prison guards as obviously sadists. Let's let the prisoners run the jails and make meth, heroin and coke readily available to anyone with a few $$$.