Sunday, October 18, 2009

This fall has been awful

It has not been a good fall for the Danish citizen. The people, who properly suffer the most in the world, were tested once again.

The Camilla Broe-case:

First they really extradited Camilla Broe. She is starving in a prison in Florida where family members are trying to see to that she can get some food so she can be alive to the show trial in December. However the trial can be delayed because the prosecutor wants to go on honeymoon.

The extradition process was expected to attract a lot of media attention but in order to prevent her case to become an issue for the ordinary Dane, they surprised everybody by deporting 22 people to Iraq only a couple of days before. It was a decision most Danes supported, because Denmark had suffered by the burden to house refugees. We cannot even give hardworking and worn down people early retirement anymore. The removal of the early retirement made it possible to claim that they took our status status as a welfare society away from us.

The strategy the authorities picked worked. She could be sent to Florida without protests hitting the streets. The charges they have dealt with in Danish courts were altered so she faced another set of fabricated charges in Florida. She was sacrificed and it remains unclear what kind of payment Denmark received in exchange for her.

Next a group of extremist Christians wanted to change a number of things in Denmark:

Ban of the sex-workers:

First they wanted to punish customers who seek a prostitute. The association of sex-workers is protesting this ban on their right to choose a way of living. Everyone wants to stop human trafficking. It is awful that some people can exploit others in that way. The sex-workers cannot earn a descent income when others are being smuggled into Denmark, so they want it stopped. But to forbid prostitution at all would only move the business over the border to Germany.

The main reason for Denmark to have a rather large sex-industry is that Norway and Sweden are not taking responsibility to see to that the demand in their own home market is covered. However it is only one out of many areas where they send their problems to Denmark. They don’t educate people to their health care department either but ships their students to Denmark, where we pay for their education so they can get cheap labor to their hospitals. It is a kind of development aid to undeveloped countries we are not speaking loud about.

There is no reason to feel sorry for these students. They enjoy a way better student environment, where youth socialize instead being isolated and angry on the world like they do in Finland. In 1993 Denmark saw a tragedy when students became victim of a school shooting. We decided that it never should be repeated so we created Friday bars in our colleges and high schools, so the students learn each other to know better and it have worked.

But to take the path as they did in Sweden and Norway does not stop human trafficking. These people have a hidden agenda. We know that the Climate Summit we got as a part of a dirty deal with India will result in an increased demand for purchase of sex. Maybe some are envious on Denmark due to our success to attract a number of International summits where decisions are actually made where a lot of other summits abroad have been coffee breaks for the politicians. I don’t know, but to forbid people to take a job they want is not acceptable.

Attack on our alcohol culture:

Week 40 is a week where our department of health attacks what they think is killing Danes before time. The main reason is that our politicians want to increase the pension age, so we can pay taxes for a longer time. Danes pay more than 50 percent of their income in taxes, so we are talking a lot of money our politicians can use to eat and drink expensive wines for (now limited by court decision to DKK 1,000 per meal. There was no limit before), unlike most countries to pay the corrupt United Nation or send abroad as development aid.

This week they attacked our alcohol culture. Some have been abroad and seen what kind of prison the United States is for teenagers. The politicians know from foreign experiences that you have to break the morale of a population early and it is easy to state that a population which accepted Bush for 8 years and a stricter gun control when armed criminals kill a lot must be broken.

They want to increase the purchase age for stronger alcohol to 18. Some want a total ban on alcohol in firms making it very difficult to both attract employees and maintain a proper human resource policy inside the firms. A lot of the Friday bars are financed by private firms so they can get the best students when they graduate. I guess that it would be difficult to run a firm at all if all kind of human relations activities are banned.

But the attack on our alcohol culture is only a part of a larger battle!

The war against youth in Denmark

It is difficult to be teenager in Denmark. It has never been harder. Never before has there been so many ideas of how to punish youth for being innovative and open to meet people and socialize with them. I have searched the Internet and want to tell this story from a village outside Copenhagen, which illustrate how our politicians think. The youth in Stenloese complains about the fact that they cannot enter nightclubs as they used to do in the old days. They have no option but to travel all the way to Copenhagen when they want a night in town. I would have to state as a parent that I would be very scared about sending my children in the nightlife in Copenhagen, if I lived in this village. I would prefer that they remained in the local community. I know that they think that having a nightclub, teenagers can attend would result in more youth drinking alcohol, but really who cares when a ban on alcohol is a path towards drug use and violence as we have seen it in Copenhagen where not even news media can report from a local church in broad daylight with taking the same precautions as they do when they report from Iraq or Afghanistan.

The hate against the Danish youth culture which the town council of the county Egedal shows it totally irresponsible and an insult against the parents which by the case are the voters too. I hope that this issue will be a part of the upcoming elections to the town councils.

But the war against Danish youth culture is far more than a war on alcohol use among youth. A lot of Danish youth became exchange students in their own country this summer when a lot of the youth were told that the town they lived in had to room in the school so they could receive education. They had to leave their family and local network of friends, jobs and in some cases their boyfriend/girlfriend to live in remote villages like Slagelse, Odense or Esbjerg for years.

In some way it is positive that they are exchange student in their own country rather than a foreign country where so many things can go wrong. We are not talking of legal dilemmas which can haunt their future for the rest of their lives like Camilla Broe is a living proof of. We are talking of the fact that some exchange student agencies are hidden contact agencies where host families with a child who was last in the line when looks where handed out can get a chance to get their child married if they become host families.

But even moving to another part of Denmark can be tough on any person. While Denmark is a small country it is maybe the largest country in the world when you move. I am talking about the fact that speed limits were invented on Zealand to the distance can be felt longer. I am talking about the fact that you as a newcomer to a community have to prove yourself. The Danish citizens have been hurt too often by outsiders so everybody is measure on the actions of their parents. I moved across the country to settle in a small village, I would be the stranger for the rest of my lives and my children would be the children of the stranger. Maybe my grandchildren will be regarded as one their owns.

I believe that it is a shame that our government has not seen to that schools are to be found where people live rather than making the department of education into a tool for providing area development.

Then people began to speak about how many who drops out of boarding schools - the so-called continuation schools (Efterskoler). I believe that it is the parents who are too blame. They are too busy with their own careers to guide their teenagers through an important period in their life so they choose to outsource this task to a far-away boarding school. I have to ask the parents: What good is there about having children if you don’t want to go all the way. Children under 18 should not live outside the family unit. I believe that the continuation schools are over-rated. I believe when you can see that about 25 percent drop out of about 20 percent of the schools should make the families think long and hard about the reason for banishing their own child to a place with strangers for a year is the right strategy if you really want to remain a family in the long run.

I am happy that I didn’t have to face such difficulties when I was a teenager. I fear for the future of my children, but there are other fears in Denmark year 2009!

The police state Denmark

When I leave my house I am not afraid of being shot even given the fact that I sometimes don’t shave and I am a well-built weighing about 200 pounds. I might look like a biker and for some on unknown reason they are target for one-sided attacks by youth gangs.

But I am not afraid of them. They are few. If the Danish IRS teamed up with the police for real and confiscated all they did not buy by earning their money in a way which is legal, those youth gangs would be out of business in months.

I am afraid of our police due to the new weapon law. We really need a Charlton Heston and an organization like the National Riffle Association in Denmark. I have a lot of projects on my house which I would like to start, but I cannot not go down in a shop and buy a simple Stanley knife without risking being stopped by the police and given 7 days in jail. I forgot a Chain saw in my trunk the other day because I went home to bed after having helped my father in law. My wife exploded on me. You can only imagine a jail sentence I could have risked with a chain saw in my car, when you get 7 days in jail.

The police are everywhere and they can put you in jail for 6 hours without charging you. They do this every weekend with soccer fans. Some politicians have suggested that the 6 hours should be extended to months, so they could deal with youth gangs and stop arresting the same soccer fans every weekend.

In selected areas they can also search you without properly cause and they use this to harass the poor people.

So the answer right now to the fears of an arrest is to remain at home as much as possible and only rarely leave the home. I just got a mail from the company. They want to lower the expectations of the next week because the police wants to reduce the overall speed on our highways by 10 percent in week 42. It might result in more jobs lost. I hope that we can avoid it, but next week won’t be a happy one.

Will it change?

I hope that the weapon law will be abolished. It is a failure and made in panic over a terrible but few killings.

But in december we have the climate summit in Copenhagen and I guess that both the politicians and the police want too strict laws in affect until the summit is over. All people is worried about the violence expected in relationship with the summit and the Danish police unfortunately doesn’t have a legendary person like the French former police cheif in Paris Maurrice Papon to take care of riots in a classic way.

But I keep a small hope…..

Posted by JanKDenmark at 11:10:06 | Permalink | No Comments »

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Camilla Broe – The Danish Faye Copeland


A friend sent this letter to me, which I will print because I find the actions of my government unfair:


In a few weeks a Danish woman will enter Florida after a deal was made that put a Danish politician in charge of the most powerful defense alliance in the world in exchange for not trying this extradition case for the supreme court.

Everybody had expected this case in front of our supreme court because it is the first time a Dane will be sent to a country outside Europe to stand trial.

In order to motivate her to plea of guilt a special deal has been made:

She will be sent back to Denmark not later than 6 month after her sentence has been handed out to serve her time in a Danish prison.

It is totally up to her. If she chooses to fight to clear her name she will have to remain jailed in Florida until the witnesses has been called or extradited to the United States. Most expect a trial could take 3-5 years. Back in Denmark she has a 10 year old daughter, which she now will lose touch with, while this case will be dealt with because the daughter cannot visit due to the distance and oversea phone-calls is not allowed from prison.

None in their right mind would try to get acquitted when facing trial under these conditions. Calling it justice will hardly be the case.

However there is no doubt that she is guilty, because the defense she use is the worthless “Battered wife syndrome”.  She entered the United States as a student and fell in love with a boyfriend from Israel. She became citizen in the United States. At some point the relationship turned violent. Later the boyfriend established a drug ring. She lived of the profit of the crime but as a bird in golden cage. She did not know where to turn as she was living in a foreign country without her social network. Girlfriends and wives are killed all the time when they try to break loose from such a relationship even here in Denmark. So she remained in the relationship and gave birth to a daughter. This fact made her guilty according to the sentence in the Faye Copeland case, which ruled out the use of the “battered women syndrome” as defense in criminal cases.

Then the Police arrested the boyfriend. For the Danish woman it was like being liberated from a prison. However the evidence was hard to get. The investigators turned to her in order to force her to testify against the boyfriend. Then she made the next critical error based on her native culture.

In Denmark there is no rule about conspiracy. The police do not prosecute people who deny helping them, even if they must have known something. Denmark is a small country and all things are monitored. When a crime occurs it is standard for the police to get access to all calls made by cell phones in the area just by a rubber stamp down in the court. A secret DNA database holds the records for all children born in Denmark since 1980. When people seek citizenship they also have to provide a DNA-sample. Plea bargains are almost unknown because they require approval from the justice department.

Second it is regarded as very shameful to testify against family. While they were not married the fact that the couple had a daughter made them family. If her giving testimony would become public known it would be so shameful for the family that suicide would be the any method to avoid degrading the entire family.

So she did choose to run. She returned to Denmark and started a modest life. She has not even received a parking ticket since her return. She had no money in the start and lived by friends and family until she got a job. It does not sound as the druglord she is named as in Florida - a title which is securing her a sentence of 63 years in prison.

But how has she been named the druglord? Remember the original case. They had problems with the evidence and as all prosecutors the person in charge could use a high-profile conviction. So after her escape they turned to the boyfriend and promised him a slap on the hand in return for a testimony naming her the boss and he got off with 6 years for smuggling of 100,000 Ecstasy pills.

The Danish public fear for her life and facebook groups in favor of her has been created, but are there reasons for this fear?

The answer to this question relies very much on her decision to clear her name. As stated above nearly all people in the Danish legal system recommend her to give a guilty plea of some kind. Her lawyers should properly consider delivering an Alford plea or No contest plea.

When she arrives in Florida the political situation remains unchanged. A united front between Denmark and the United States against the terrorists in the world is still needed, especially with a Dane in charge of NATO. What they really don’t need right now it a sentence of not guilty or even worse: That the European Court of Human rights declares the entire extradition case inhumane.

Taking her case to this court is exactly what she did yesterday and the answer from the Danish state did at once.  Because the case would properly not end up in a conviction at a Danish court, she had been allowed to sleep at home and go to work in return of leaving her passport at the police. If she had any criminal connections she would have long gone, but the courts did not consider her a flight risk – until she appealed to the European court. That’s leave a small hint that someone in a high office wants a conviction.

The government of Denmark is really tired of international courts down in Europe. During the last 10 year we got a real bad whipping due to our immigration laws.

People who know her believe that she could choose to fight. She has been arrested 4 times during various court procedures and she has accepted that she will have to go to Florida. We all are afraid that she chooses to try to clear her name. There are tough prisons and then the dangerous one. Florida have them both and most expect that the conditions and level of safety she has to endure while being detained  in Florida very much depend off how fast she will break.

We have to remember that it is not only the politicians who have something to fear. Somewhere in the prosecutor’s office, a person has made a deal with a drug lord just to get her. This deal should be shameful for the tax-payers in Florida. Such a person should lose his job and he knows it. It is needless to say that it would be quiet embarrassing for the prosecutor’s office if the details of such a deal would be shown in court.

So the prosecutors would be really interested in not letting this trial go the entire way. They need a plea bargain. The question which remains to be answered is how far they will go to get it. Would they risk her life?

Most Danish citizens don’t understand this case. They don’t understand why they have to pay for more than two years of case work, prison time and court cases on several levels, when all the prosecutors could have done was to turn the evidence over to the Danish prosecutors, who would have given her a sentence just to satisfy an important partner in the war. They don’t understand why the tax-payers in Florida want to pay for additional prison time and a show trial. 63 year is twice the length of a person who killed four unarmed policemen in Denmark served. She will be given a new sentence the second she re-enters Denmark as part of the deal.

They are beginning to doubt the war on terrorism, which created the law she is extradited based on. This law was introduced in 2002 long after her alleged crimes.

Who is behind this case? Is it Florida who wants to end a long friendly relationship between two nations? If they want that they are about to succeed.

by Jonas Petersen

Sources:

Posted by JanKDenmark at 13:48:29 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Friday, July 3, 2009

A Danish woman is going to die in Florida

Yesterday The Eastern High Court ruled that a woman is going to be extradited to florida.

Most Danes believe that she is going to die in an American prison and now they are even starting to question the Danish partipation in the war against terrorism.

10 years ago she lived in the United States where her boyfriend was claimed to be the ring leader for a drug smuggling operation. It was a violent relationship and she was young.

When the police began to investigate she didn’t state anything because it is considered to be very shameful in our culture for a woman to testify against her husband. Very soon a lot of the other gang members plead and testified not against her boyfriend because they were afraid, but against her.

So she choosed to leave Florida with her little daughter and started a modest life in Denmark. Back in Florida they believe that she is a drug lord with a huge mansion. 63 years she is facing. Denmark hasdemanded that she will be returned to serve her sentence in Denmark no later than 6 months after she has been convicted, but it is most likely that she will serve a decade in Florida before the trial will even begin.

The reason most Danes fear for her life is that we know that the office of a prosecutor is a political one. The original case did involve a line of high profile sentences and it has been a career boost for the people involved in the case. Suddenly this small woman - the socalled drug lord - is standing on their door step and this can destroy their careers because it will become clear to all that it was the wrong people which got off with a slap on their hands.

They will have to silence her. It will properly be some kind of an assault in jail, which will claim her life.

Denmark has no death penalty but now it is clear to all that the Danish government will just let others do their dirty work.

So I will now support those, who wants our soldiers in Afghanistan home and stop our participation in the war against terrorism.




Posted by JanKDenmark at 06:37:24 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Electionday tomorrow

Tomorrow I am going to vote in the election for new member of the European Parliament. It is a sad farewell for Morgens Camre, who is one of the both brightest and visionary politicians Denmark has ever fostered.

But new people will take over and we have to continue our fight to enable Denmark to leave the European Union. We are facing potential famine now when the full effect of our membership has hit us hard.

At several firms the employers have told the employees that they have to settle with the payment they get in the poorest region of Europe or the firm will move to that place.

That choice should be one of the greatest things about the European Union. That all countries should be settled at the same level and develop themselves from that point.

Unfortunately Denmark is second to none in almost every aspect and of course also when it comes to salery. What the employers are offering the people who have worked to failtful for them is what people get on welfare. It is as if United States suddenly decided to allow Mexico to be a part of their country and the next step would be for all American workers to get paid what a poor family in Mexico earns.

Then why work at all?

It would be easy just to remain at home, but deep inside we know that we have to preserve the finest country on the earth. Mogens Camre told us how much better we were and we owe him to get up from our beds tomorrow and vote for people who wants to save our country by working for Denmark to leave the European Union.

So please get out there and vote. If not for your own sake and your stumach then for the sake of your children.

Should they starve because you were lazy on June 7, 2009

Posted by JanKDenmark at 20:04:26 | Permalink | No Comments »

Friday, May 1, 2009

How to create a tragedy - a story from Colorado

Just a week ago Danish Television broadcasted a program about the Youthful Offender System (YOS) in Colorado.

I investigated into the matter because the pride product of our system - in Danish called Ungdomssanktionen - is considered something of a total failure from all experts. It consists of two years of detention in a secure unit followed by home monitoring by the local authorities.

Only 20% percent of all the teenagers in this system manage to avoid adding new felonies during their time in the program.

It is not surprising because the system demands that the local authorities and the state work together. It is simply impossible in our culture. A public serviceman is a king in his field. His opinions cannot be challenged. Often the youth will be remaining way longer in the secure units before they will be moved on that original planned. The main reason is the bill for the stay. As long as the youth remain in the secure unit, the states pay. The very minute the youth leaves the secure unit to a group home or back home with mentor support, the town starts paying. So there is really no interest in bringing the youth back to the community.

While they are in the secure unit, they learn from all their criminals among the inmates. They learn how to be better in their new work area - crime!

So of course we are interested to learn how things are dealt with in other cultures.

How is YOS doing compared to our system?

The answer seems a little better. After 5 years about 50 percent would have a felony on their record. But the number concerns those only who have graduated the program. One of the conditions in the program are that if you fail to graduate, you will have to serve the original sentence.

So YOS may have a level of success closer to the Danish Ungdomssanktion. A common problem seems to be the question whether the systems receive inmates suited for the program.

The first phase of YOS is a boot camp component. It is designed to break the individuals down. We know from tons of research here in Denmark that there often is nothing to break down. The youth have been broken down from life already. Neglect from parents or other adults is often seen. Some have turned to drugs after rape or abuse. Some are mentally ill.

I learned of a typical case with a Youth sentenced to the YOS. We are talking about Nanette Lafleur.

What is her crime?

She drove a car in a drunken state. The car hit another where a girl died. Now she has been sentenced to four years including the boot camp. It does seem to be the best place to adjust a fine young lady who had made a minor mistake forced upon her due to a culture, which do very little to protect the youth from the dangers of alcohol. In Denmark youth would taste alcohol for the first time during their confirmation served by responsible parents. The most dangerous and deadly combination are drinking and driving. That is why the purchase age for all kind of alcohol in Denmark is 16 and the youth get access to a car when they are 18. In relationship with alcohol the only secure way to teach them about the dangers is learning by doing - in this case learning by drinking.

Had she been given the opportunity to drink alcohol some years before she could drive, the death of the poor girl in the other car could have been prevented. Our numbers here in Denmark show that. But it is not only safety on the road which is improved by letting youth getting access to alcohol early. Common safety among ordinary citizens is also improved. Denmark is at war. As a part of the war against terrorism we are trying to teach the heathens the right path down to Christianity. Because the enemy is very poorly skilled to meet our soldiers on the battlefield, they sent youth here to commit terrorism. That is where the alcohol comes into the picture. As long as youth remain among other youth drinking alcohol when they are in town to party, the risk of them ending up as victims of a suicide bomb is very little. Alcohol provides safety and it is an integrated part of our culture. The on-going gang war is another example of the harm preventing access to alcohol for teenagers can cause. A very aggressive group of teenagers coming from another culture are committing drive-by shootings. They are cut off from the workspace, social networks in our education system due to their choice of no drinking and instead of finding a society where they can live the way they want to instead of trying to model our country after Lebanon.

It is very easy to recognize that Miss Lafleur became victim of the double-standard of the society she was raised in and now her life is over. 4 years is in our culture considered too long a time to serve if a young person should return and become a productive member the society.

While we are analyzing the case we noticed that a girl who had not even been driving was sentenced to 45 days in jail and community service by an extremist organization. MADD is an organization which works to bring teenagers in the United States into the same situation as the teenagers in Iran removing any means of socializing with peers from them. Such an organization has no business in court cases.

Because the jail has to be served on Holidays the girl has no other option but to drop out of High School so she can get this over with. She can always re-enroll later. The Holidays are the period where the teenagers are supposed to create their network, so they can benefit from this network later in college or in the work space. Spring break allows youth from all over the country to meet peers during social gatherings. Without spring break most youth will drop out and get a job and most societies need people with higher education, so it is very damaging for a teenager to miss this valuable time.

So in fact we have a case which ended the life of 3 people. One is dead and buried; two will live a life on welfare as living dead without any chance of ending up as productive citizens.

So the conclusion is that they don’t screen the youth properly. Based on our rather tough approach in DUI cases, Lefleur would have got 12 months in jail.

But we were talking YOS and such systems usefulness as a tool to handle criminals in Denmark. Could we use the system in Denmark - if we screened the youth referred to the program better than they do in Colorado?

The leading researcher and psychologist Nicolai Sennels has published books stating that youth from other cultures than Danish could benefit from another approach towards their criminal actions. When having roots from cultures less developed than the Danish culture, the youth are often faced with difficulties understanding the message from staff trained address problems in persons coming from more civilized cultures.

A boot camp approach designed to break down non-western values could result in a positive development

However having several systems targeted on a group with certain religious or ethnic origins would for sure raise criticism from various human rights organizations.

So the conclusion is that a system like YOS has no future in Denmark.

Posted by JanKDenmark at 10:36:47 | Permalink | Comments (2)