I read in this article how an American woman in Italy is on trial for murder, and she claims that the Italian police "had it in for her" because she had a vibrator and condoms in her purse when she was arrested.
And I thought: "Is Italy really that repressed?" In my mind, I don't picture any of Europe being so conservative, but I've never been to Italy. So it seemed worth a google search, as that was the quickest way to indulge my natural inclination towards confirmation bias, which always makes for good blogging.
As it turns out, Italy has sex shops, which I expected, but even if you don't go to such a specialty store, you can buy a vibrator at the pharmacy, or at the gas station. They're everywhere, it seems. And who could forget Ilona Staller, the Italian politician who starred in porn films while in office, and offered to have sex with bin Laden in exchange for him surrendering?
I guess I find myself somewhat skeptical of the notion that simply having a vibrator in your purse would make the Italians assume you're a murderer. Unless the vibrator had the victims fingerprints or DNA on it, then that's a whole other story...
4 comments:
I had to add the image below.
The Italian police system is incredibly corrupt, though. Douglas Preston's book THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE details how one reporter was eventually charged with murder by the police because he was very critical of the way the police were handling the serial killer case.
Apparently the corruption stems from the fact that the justice system is completely outside all the other systems of government, they're answerable to no one.
Dig, that's a very good point.
But I still don't think that it follows that "they had it in for me because I had condoms and a vibrator".
Even if they did plant evidence or coerce a confession, they probably didn't do so because she had a vibrator, which is what she claimed. There's got to be some other reason they had it in for her, even if that reason is just that she's an American, or that she mouthed off during interrogation. Either of those would be easier for me to believe.
I'd also point out that their police could be brazenly corrupt, AND have a very good reason to legitimately suspect she's a murderer. One being true does not automatically rule out the other.
Here in the U.S. we are lucky enough to have a legal system where evidence of police corruption is likely to get your case thrown out. Unfortunately, that standard is not world wide.
"Here in the U.S. we are lucky enough to have a legal system where evidence of police corruption is likely to get your case thrown out. Unfortunately, that standard is not world wide."
If you can afford a good lawyer and know not to trust authority, that is. If you are poor and ignorant of your rights, the police can still do pretty much whatever the fuck they want.
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