Disturbing Censorship

I guess most readers would have heard by now that Australian-born movie man Mel Gibson was arrested recently for drunk-driving. You might also have heard that he did a lot of mouthing off to the arresting officer -- including some classically antisemitic remarks.

Make of that what you will, but what do you make of this:

"Deputy James Mee's original arrest report was withheld from reporters by the Los Angeles County sheriff's department, however four pages were leaked yesterday to a Los Angeles gossip website....

Deputy Mee wrote a full report describing Gibson's behaviour and alleged anti-Semitic statements but superiors decided it was "inflammatory" and asked the officer to rewrite it."

Source

The truth is "too inflammatory" even in police reports?? What price justice if that is the case?

There is now to be an investigation into the coverup. I hope that "investigation" does not mean "whitewash" but, whether it does or not, the chances of senior police suffering any serious penalty for their actions are vanishingly small. And practices that are not penalized are highly likely to continue.

Update

I have received the following thoughtful email from a reader:

"I disagree with your assessment of the Mel Gibson arrest. While I believe in the importance of a non-corrupt police force, it does not bother me that the cops tried to change a police report to protect Gibson's career.

Gibson drove drunk and acted extremely disorderly, but that happens hundreds of times every night across the US. I'm pretty sure that cops don't write down in detail everything a drunk says as he's getting hauled off to jail. Instead, police note the criminal facts of the case and describe whether that person co-operates or is belligerentt.

I assume that the senior officer after reading the report realized the magnitude of what could happen to Gibson, and determined that Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks would not make a difference in the DUI/resisting arrest case against him. He then changed the report to protect Gibson - not from the arrest, but from his (drunken) beliefs.

While many may argue that the senior officer should not have done this, just look at how the public reacted to this story. No one is upset at Gibson for the DUI. Very few are angered about the police changing the report. The majority determined that Gibson's number one crime is his antisemitic remarks made while he was wasted. These remarks, while wrong and offensive, are still not criminally punishable in the US. At least for now."






Dual Citizenship Debate Denounced as "Bigotry"

Once again we see "bigotry" and "racism" charges being used as a means to suppress debate -- this time in an article by someone named "Waleed Aly" writing in Australia's most Leftist mass-circulation newspaper -- the Melbourne "Age" -- also known for its heavy pro-homosexual bias.

The hostilities in Lebanon have brought to light the fact that a lot of Lebanese Muslims have gained Australian citizenship but also retain Lebanese citizenship and have gone back to live in Lebanon. They are only technically Australians. See, for instance, here.

The people concerned nonetheless seem to think that they have a right to be evacuated from Lebanon by the Australian government when the going gets tough. Lots of Australians however doubt that the Australian taxpayer should be paying for the welfare of such nominal Australians and have called for dual citizenship to be ended.

I can't see why that is not a reasonable question to be debated (I myself can see some merits in dual citizenship) but Mr Waleed Aly and "The Age" want to shut the debate down. Rather than take part in the debate they express horror at it and that is apparently meant to settle the matter.