American Hottie Goes To Italian Prison: Guiltier Than OJ?
Unfortunate. On Friday CNN dedicated almost two full hours to the Amanda Knox verdict. One would think nothing else of significance happened in the world that day. Would the same coverage occur if the center of the trial were an unattractive African American? The Amanda Knox case has everything the news networks love: sex, drugs, satanic killing, an attractive female, xenophobia, etc…
When questioned, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put the media frenzy into perspective and said she has been too busy with Afghanistan policy to look into the case. It’s a trial that allows Americans to rally against foreigners (“A verdict like that would never happen in the U.S.A.”) and snub our nose at those backwards, corrupt Italians. Was Amanda Knox really guilty? Was she innocent? Who knows. OJ Simpson was practically caked in the blood of his victims and an American jury found him innocent.
At a party last night I aked some Italian friends of mine on their take. They thought Amanda Knox was guiltier than sin. From their point of view the prospect of a fixed trial doesn’t fly. Their take: there’s really nothing to be gained by fixing a trial of a 22 year old college student–fixed trials in Italy are reserved for high-ranking political figures and mobsters. They said Knox fits with a certain type of crazy mentality of young American women who hook up with Italian guys and fall under a spell where they become willing to do things they normally wouldn’t do back home.
(Check out the Sky TV video on her prison diaries here.)
Here’re a few strange things to take into consideration:
-Amanda Knox did cartwheels (also the splits) and sat on her boyfriend’s lap in the police station while waiting to be questioned about the murder. Domenico Giacinto Profazio, the former head of the Perugia police detective squad, had to tell Miss Knox that it was not appropriate to do such (boyfriend lap sitting) when one is waiting to be questioned about their roommate’s murder.
-Knox was convicted of slander for accusing Patrick Diya Lumumba, a Congolese bar owner, of the murder. Yes, just like in the States always pin the murder on the black guy.
-A local shopkeeper presented the prosecution with a store video of Knox and her boyfriend buying sexy underwear and making out a few days after the murder.
-Knox said she was struck on the head by police during questioning. She also faced slander charges for the accused police brutality. The police, in turn, said they gave Knox Camomile tea and tried to make her as comfortable as possible.
-Her story kept changing on whether she was at the crime scene or not. One version: she was at her boyfriend’s house watching the movie Amelie. (Good film by the way.) When that was proved false, she claimed she was in her room at the time of the murder trying to drown out the sound of the victim’s screams.
Then there’s all those crazy drunk photos on Knox’s Facebook page. A little word of advice to anyone who is going to be involved in a murder case: never post drunk photos on Facebook.
The defense said that Knox (or Foxy Knoxy) was already convicted by the media for the crime. But then again, so was OJ and he walked away free–well at least for a while.
“In the US media, Knox was largely portrayed as the innocent American abroad being railroaded in a corrupt foreign system,” said Andrea Vogt, who has covered the story for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
“In Europe, she was the sex-crazed diabolical vixen trying to get away with murder. Those covering this story in Perugia for the last two years recognise that neither portrayal is accurate. The case is more complex, with the truth buried beneath all those stereotypes.”
Your thoughts?
Harmon Leon is Freedom Haters.org
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I agree with your assessment on this case. I am disgusted by the so-called journalism going on in America. They have already decided she is not guilty. I wonder if she wasn’t a cute little white girl, if the American media would have been so willing to take on her story. My God listening to CNN you would think Amanda is the reincarnated Joan of Arc. oh brother.
I think the American media has failed to look at the actual evidence in the case. There’s both DNA samples on two sources as well as a knife washed in bleach. The defense went with the excuse that the DNA samples were tainted, much like the OJ defense excuse that the police tried to frame OJ by tainting the crime scene.
Again, it helps to have the media on your side if you are an attractive woman.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by wRECkster and Indigo Mertel, Spanking Fetish . Spanking Fetish said: American Hottie Goes To Italian Prison: Guiltier Than OJ?: True/Slant -A local shopkeeper presented the prosecution… http://bit.ly/4xj1AJ [...]
This case is yet another example of what happens when a young, white, privileged American girl gets into trouble in this country or while abroad. The public either ignores or overlooks her outrageous behavior and just assumes she innocent. “She was such a good student,” “She is so innocent looking” and “She was so popular among her many friends” or comments to this effect are heard often. Well here’s a news flash, innocent looking, popular, smart, young, white privileged American girls sometimes do bad things just as guilty looking, unpopular, uneducated, black, poor American men sometimes do bad things. To call the Italian judicial system flawed is the very type of American arrogance that has given our country the reputation we have all over the world. I love this country immensely but we are in no way, shape or form in a position to judge or look down Italy’s or any other country’s legal system. We need merely turn the mirror on our own judicial system. Look at how those who aren’t smart, pretty, American white girls are treated. Ask any Native American, African American, Asian American or Hispanic American to describe how they or their families are treated by our judicial system. When I finally see Americans rally around someone from one of these groups who gets into trouble while abroad will I feel sorry for a girl like Amanda, if you know what I mean. Ever wonder why you never hear about ethnic Americans getting into trouble abroad. And believe me, they do too. But you never hear about it because they aren’t innocent looking, popular, smart, young…well, you know the rest. And for those do steer clear of trouble, they already know that the likelihood that the media or anybody else for that matter paying attention, let along coming to their aid if they ended up in the same circumstances, are zero to none.
I agree. It’s very arrogant to think all other judicial systems are incapable of handling a trial. Italy is based on the traditional European judicial system. How would an Italian jury handle the OJ case? How many black guy on death row recently got off due to DNA evidence? Texas just executed a killer who had the IQ of 60:
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/texas-executes-lowiq-convicted-killer-20091204-ka5z.html
It’s American arrogance. Remember the case of the American in Singapore who was sentenced to a caning for spray painting cars? Americans saw thought that was a barbaric injustice. The media in our country just likes to take one side or the other-failing to grasp the full picture and filtering things through a very ethnocentric point-of-view.
In response to another comment. See in context »This is a good article from the Telegraph on American media.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6763445/Only-doubt-over-Amanda-Knox-conviction-is-exactly-how-they-got-it-wrong.html
It points out how there has been no coverage on the murder victim Meridith Kercher’s family and their grieving reaction. (Can anyone recall any?) In this case, there is only one victim and that’ s Amanda Knox.
“Wherever Meredith is,” Curt Knox, his voice welling up with emotion, told CBS News, ” she knows that Amanda and Rafael had nothing to do with it.”
It seems a breathtakingly tactless remark but it is very much in tune with the American media’s handling of the conviction.
The English translation of Judge Massei’s sentencing report can be downloaded from here:
http://www.perugiamurderfile.org/viewtopic.php?p=53735