Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Trial by Sentiment


Have you been following the bizarre case of Amanda Knox?

Knox is a young American student, who has been found guilty and sentenced to 26 years in prison in Perugia, Italy for the brutal sex game killing of her roommate, Meredith Kercher.

What has made this case so strange is the almost universal reaction of the American media.

CNN has been all over it and Larry King had Knox's parents on his show last night. I didn't watch.

The central message seems to be, "Amanda must be innocent because she's American!"

My take, based on nothing more than watching a few news reports last week?

She's guilty as sin.

Grinning idiotically and mugging for the cameras...Puleeeze.

But you should see all the smart American commentators and lawyers basically claiming that a lovely blond haired blue eyed American princess could never do something like this.

Are you kidding?

7 comments:

Gary L. said...

I agree with your position David, that "The central message seems to be, "Amanda must be innocent because she's American!" I pointed out to my Handler the other evening that Amanda is also "innocent" because she is pretty. It the same double standard that we have regarding seal pups. If the pups looked like large sowbugs, there would be no furor.
Beauty seems to trump everything else, every time.
Shame on us......

Cheers

Jeff Taylor said...

This so-called beautiful, little American girl is a classic example of a sociopath. 100 percent GUILTY.

Anonymous said...

I also agree with your take on this. She appears to have a lack of affect -- her demeanor is quite unsettling and does not ring true. Pretty or not, my 'blink' reaction is that something is not quite right with Ms. Knox.

Mo.

Anonymous said...

I have traveled to Europe five times, my first time was when I was 18 and i has always surprised me how badly Americans behaved when traveling. This is not to say other nationalities don't behave badly and I was no angel, but American, especially younger teens and early 20's treat Europe or almost anywhere else as a candy store of alcoholic and sexual delights.

American girls, brought up in the strict pseudo religious atmosphere go berserk once out of the country, drink until they pass out and think they just invented sex.

I remember on the train in Europe, where my compartment had 10 people crammed in because the two American girls in the adjacent compartment talked on and on about who the slept with and how many times they "done it".

We had fun having some beers and listening to the chap with the guitar, all traveling down the Rhine Valley. The two American girls never stopped and yammered on and on missing the real flavour of the trip.

The American lifestyle is repressive, being full of myth and urban legends and is something many teens want to escape from and they do.

Amanda Knox is just such a girl, growing up in repressive society, hit Italy with a vengeance drank, drugged, and screwed her way into this conviction.

Americans should take time and consider what the real problem is here - not the Italian justice system, rather out of controlled youth, who think once out of their repressive US lifestyle can do what ever they want, including murder, with impunity.

There is much good with our neighbours to the South, but there is much wrong too.

I almost understand what happened and how the tragic the results were, only if the US media would understand.

Evil Eye

Anonymous said...

Their is an equally ugly other side to this ugly coin...

If a victim of a crime is not blonde/beautiful/wealthy - it causes nary a ripple in the media or in the minds of the public.

How many hours will police look for a missing attractive woman with good connections? How many hours will police look for dozens and dozens of missing drug addicted prostitutes from Hastings and Main?

We all know the answer to these question.

Anonymous said...

I think that all the unsolved murders in the world were by the hands of beautiful women. Let's face it: male cops, even though they are sworn to uphold the law, will always, always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS believe a pretty face and put that before the law. Most men, even cops, want so badly for a pretty woman to like them that they'll do anything in any situation to seek her approval. It's why my bus driver let a woman onto his absolutely crowded, standing room only downtown bus waving around a double chocolate ice cream cone. It's why gang members' girlfriends are only ever seen as innocent accessories. It's why the beautiful woman in my office who starts at 10:00 and leaves at 1:00 most days when she's supposed to work 8:00 until 4:00 continues to be employed.

Anonymous said...

I may be naive but I don't think a lovely American girl like Miss Knox could do the things she is accused of. Her sweet face is one of a young lady of high morals and I truly believe that she is a virgin. Her high scholastic abilities and obvious intelligence would preclude any of the horrible things that she has been convicted of. It's so obvious that the Italian court is corrupt and evil.