Diasporia News of Tuesday, 3 September 2002
Source: New Haven Register
2002-09-03Son of Ghanaian diplomat suspected of 15 rapes
While diplomatic immunity was designed to protect genuine diplomats from false arrest and harassment, the system has been "gamed" to such an extent that in New York and Washington alone there are 37,000 people with diplomatic immunity — plus all their dependents! Not only is that number ridiculous, but the actions of these people are all too often criminal.
For example:
Peter Christiansen, a retired New York police detective, tracked down a man suspected of 15 rapes. Two victims identified the man, but he was the son of a military attach? from Ghana and had diplomatic immunity. "I was forced to let him go," Christiansen said. "As he left, he snickered and laughed at the crime victims."
The son of a Saudi Arabian diplomat was suspected of raping a 16-year-old girl in Alexandria, Va. Our State Department presented evidence to the Saudi embassy, which made "no denial." Because of diplomatic immunity, the son was never prosecuted.
The ambassador from Papua New Guinea was driving drunk around Washington one day when he slammed into three parked cars, critically injuring a 26-year-old American. He was never prosecuted.
The son of a Brazilian ambassador once got into a fight in a topless bar in Washington, pulled out two guns and fired several shots, hitting a bar employee in the hand, leg and abdomen. The ambassador's son was sent to Brazil to sip pina coladas; the wounded American could not even get his medical bills paid.
Shoplifting by diplomats is considered commonplace. They are never prosecuted. There have been cases of robbery, counterfeiting, weapons smuggling, heroin smuggling, assault and -I kid you not — the keeping of slaves on American soil.
