Speaking of injustice and bad prison conditions, we need to remember Rob and Cindy Stanley. They made a mistake. They went sailing and got caught smuggling 200 kilos of cocaine from the South Pacific to Australia. Yes that is a huge amount of cocaine. Yet locking them up for 300 years or giving them the death penalty won’t touch the Hells Angels or their drug trade. They'll just get another mule.
In the mean time they are suffering undue hardship in horrible prison conditions in a country that was neither the destination nor the point of origin of the drugs. They weren’t even in New Caledonia. They were on the water north west of New Caledonia.
When I look at those small but clean cells in the new Edmonton prison I think about Rob and Cindy. Letting them rot away in those horrible conditions just isn’t right. The Hells Angels don’t care but I do. Surely there is something we can do. Surely Amnesty International can speak on their prison conditions. They should either be transferred to a Canadian prison or to an Australian prison. They should not be left there. That just isn’t right.
Conditions at New Caledonia's prison prompt concern in France
Gerard Jodar Campaigns for Change in New Caledonia’s Prison Conditions
French Officials To Assess New Caledonia Prison Conditions
Violence fears at 'inhumane' New Caledonia jail
Live by the sword,,, die by the sword,,, the thousands who may have died from this batch of poison may have bought themselves a couple years relapse for the arrest of these two. Death follows cocaine at every stage of development, from 3rd world countries, to drug rip - offs, to shoot outs over turfs, and the nameless junky in a seedy hotel hit a rig in their arm. A harsh sentence for cocaine dealers and mules, would make people think twice.Pity for accomplices to possible muder? and attempted murder, really? If It were explosives, and public places the target, how would you feel then? Responsibility for our actions should be a paramount characteristic...Some thing a guy told me before we did out 1st robbery. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. Stiff penalties are a good deterrent. I'm retired and law abiding for now..
ReplyDeleteC'mon, you want to repatriate someone supposedly "guilty" of a "drug crime"? start with Marc Emery. He is nothing but a political prisoner out of favor with the media because he speaks his mind. Sorry, but the photo of these two people simply reeks of 'douchbag'.
ReplyDeleteThat is the exact blind heartlessness that made me write this post in the first place. In the ideal world, justice and mercy both exist. Compassion is a Canadian value. No matter what someone has done, they deserve to be treated like a human being. Torture or mistreatment of prisoners shows a lack of self respect. Do the crime and do the time, yes. First we need a fair trial. Then we need to determine what a just punishment is. Once that is done we need to assure the prisoners are not mistreated and aren’t living in inhumane conditions.
ReplyDeleteMarc Emery is a good example. Right across the street from his office the Hells Angels sell pot at the Black door and the Bulldog Café while the police do absolutely nothing to stop them. That is a huge business. The Hells Angels are as we speak extorting the entire Vancouver 420 movement. Mark gets locked up for five years in a US prison for selling seeds while the Hells Angels continue to use extreme violence to control the entire drug market in BC. That isn’t right.
Marc is an activist. He’s trying to legalize pot. Martin Luther King taught that if you participate in any act of civil disobedience, you must be prepared to face the consequence of the unjust law you are trying to rectify. Otherwise you simply have lawlessness. Colorado and Washington State have now legalized pot. Marc’s case is different in the sense that he’s not being mistreated in prison.
When I look at Rob and Cindy’s picture I see something very different. I see a nice couple with a good relationship who have a good relationship with their daughter. Gary’s the one that looks like a scumbag yet this is something I wouldn’t even wish on him or my worst enemy. Statements like Geoff Meisner never cared about his family or he would never have got involved in crime is false and unfair. Geoff was a really nice guy who deeply cared about his family. His young children deeply miss him. Geoff was totally used and screwed over by you guessed it, the Hells Angels.
The questions I have about Rob and Cindy are: Do they have a lawyer? Has there been a trial? Why are they being tried and held in New Caledonia when they never set foot there they were sailing past it? They tricked Clay Roueche. He flew to Mexico and they rerouted his plane to the US and arrested him there. That was dirty. They should have charged him and extradited him. In Rob and Cindy’s case that’s like charging someone with a crime in a third world country they never set foot in but happened to fly over.
What if they brought explosives to a public place? Don’t get me started on that. Like Hiroshima or Nagasaki? There have been a lot of people set up and falsely accused of a terrorist act. I deplore terrorism but just like during the war with Hitler, all prisoners deserve to be treated like human beings. The mistreatment of prisoners is the sign of a dying society that has lost touch with it’s humanity.
Marc Emery donated his so called drug money from the sale of seeds to all political parties. My question is why have those political parties not been charged with laundering drug money and put out of business?
DeleteI think putting every political party out of business is a stretch but your comment about money laundering is fair. One would have to prove he did in fact donate to each political party and one would have to prove the money he donated to those political parties were in fact the proceeds of crime. Personally I think pot should be decriminalized not legalized and I think mandatory minimum sentences for pot is insane when we can’t even deal with violent crime or hard drugs. I also think the Hells Angels monopoly of the drug trade in BC is shameful.
DeleteHas there been any news or update on the information regarding Bob and Cindy's situation? It's weird that everything seems to have gone deathly silent for so many years.
DeleteGood question. I'll make a new post and see if anyone has heard anything. Sad how the story gets buried and not a word is heard.
DeleteScanBC @ScanBC 55m
ReplyDelete#MapleRidge #RCMP on scene with a male that has been shot at Haney Place Mall, 11895 226th St. Air Ambulance landing in the parking lot.
Thanks. Those scanner web sites and twitter accounts are very helpful.
DeleteAK: "Right across the street from his office the Hells Angels sell pot at the Black door and the Bulldog Café while the police do absolutely nothing to stop them."
ReplyDeleteThe Black Door is still using violence to control the Victory Park area. I got *bunked* in that Park on the way to the Black Door; folks leech off their biz., tell you the BD is shut today; take your money & split.
But I told the Black Door; & they were furious @ customers being bothered in any way shape, or form. I gave them a good facial sketch, I'm good @ drawing.
The Black Door then regularly swept the Park, as I did; to find the guy, it only took them a few months, and they informed me of the details.
He won't be *bunking* me again.
Beating someone up for ripping people off is different that beating people up just for selling pot and destroying a free market. I do not support the black door or the people who run it. They are the ones responsible for all the gang murders. They are eliminating the competition because of their greed and they are betraying their own for the same reason. People like Brittney and Geoff.
DeleteYeah, but the cops' attitude was in context of an out-of-control Victory Park; full of pot-sales, rips, the resultant knife-fights, chaos, pandemonium...
ReplyDeleteThey traded in the anarchy for the Black Door.
None of it is right, but it's just tiring listening to the VPD's anti-HA rhetoric, whilst such deals are handed out the back-door.
Their business is huge; the suits have discovered its safety, next door to the Business District. They have the University crowd. It's worth millions p/a to HA.
You make a good point about the RCMP confronting the Hells Angels in the media, then turning around and let them operate the black door freely. That is a double standard. It’s like all this time and energy they are spending on busting grow ops. Why do they do that on one hand, yet let them sell it openly on the other? It’s somewhat of a contradiction.
DeleteI realize the police use the out-of-control Victory Park situation as a rationalization but I really can’t accept that. In a free market supply and demand means if somebody rips you off, you’re not going to buy from them again. Letting the Hells Angels storm into the American Backpackers hostel with guns drawn saying the kid that’s selling pot there has to leave town is absolutely absurd.
As is Tony Terezakis filming himself beating the life out of drug addicts who owed him money. That means he was giving impoverished drug addicts free drugs then beating the life out of them for payment. That is predatory. Letting them run the black door is ultimately supporting the people who murdered Janice Shore.
I don't see how you can make the disconnect between the HA and the mules. The mules knew what they were doing, they got caught and are now doing time. The mules are just as bad as the HA, for without them the HA would not have coke to sell.
ReplyDeleteHow can you tell from looking at a picture of 2 people what kind of people they are, for all you know he/she may have beat their kids daily for cripes sakes, unless you knew these people personally you certainly don't know them from a photo.
There is a possibility that these 2 have been mules before and successfully delivered the drugs, which as someone else stated more than likely caused the deaths of people. If the knowledge came out that these 2 delivered tons of coke in the past would you be so quick to want them repatriated and serve their time in a Canadian jail?
I just find it odd that the deciding factor in weather or not you have sympathy or no sympathy for someone is the presence of an HA patch on their back regardless of who that person is, there are all kinds of douche bags and violent criminals without one. For all you know the 2 in the pictures could be just as bad if not worse than any given member of the HA (again unless you knew them personally and can dispute that).
Would you make the following statement if he were a full patch member??
"Compassion is a Canadian value. No matter what someone has done, they deserve to be treated like a human being. Torture or mistreatment of prisoners shows a lack of self respect. Do the crime and do the time, yes. First we need a fair trial. Then we need to determine what a just punishment is. Once that is done we need to assure the prisoners are not mistreated and aren’t living in inhumane conditions."
You are right in that if they were patch members I wouldn’t be as concerned about them but I would still say they deserve to be treated humanly while incarcerated and should be transferred to Canada or Australia since they weren’t in New Caledonia when they were caught. The reason I think there is a difference between the Hells Angels and their mules is because there is one.
DeleteTake Rob Shannon for example. He’s a bit different because he was involved over a long period of time and was living it large as a result with a huge boat and ridiculous truck to pull it. Still, he was just a mule and locking him up for 30 years hasn’t touched the Hells Angels cross border drug trafficking network as we have seen in the Jones indictment and the New York bust.
Locking Giles up is a different matter because he was a kingpin. He benefited from all the misery and was likely involved in the committee that decided what rivals they were going to murder next so they could live in extravagant greed.
That is totally different than a couple who like to sail getting tempted and say OK just this once to secure our retirement and help our kids get a down payment on a home. It’s totally different. Yet like I said, I do oppose torture. That means I oppose the torture of Hells Angels as well.
If any member of the Hells Angels were to say they wanted a fresh start and genuinely wanted to leave the violent drug monopoly behind, I would say more power to them. Anyone can change and everyone deserves a chance to make a better life. That’s why I support TBM Fresh Start in Denmark. The founder and public face of that group is a former Hells Angel. They are helping people leave the gang life and start over. I totally support that. The whole purpose of my blog and web site is to confront the lies and the violence so that behavior stops. It’ not to lock them in prison for a million years so I can say I told ya so. Not at all. My goal is to help them see what they are really doing in hopes they will change. That’s the real motive.
The (UK) Guardian.
ReplyDelete"Inside Denmark's 'fixing rooms', where nurses watch as addicts inject in safety."
"Away from public view, this safe haven for drug users has 1,000 regulars. Crime is down, the streets are safer. Could it work in Britain?"
"Maja Petersen, 38, a prostitute, could not wait a moment longer for her fix. She had made her way to Copenhagen's drug consumption room, hoping to inject there, away from public view and within sight of its nurses. But the room – a place where addicts can use class A drugs free of fear of prosecution – doesn't open its doors to the city's 8,000 addicts until 8.30am."
"At 8am last Wednesday, she sat down on the cobbled street outside and plunged a syringe into her arm, flushing cocaine into her bloodstream. Speaking shortly afterwards, with tears welling in her eyes, she estimated that she would inject herself another 20 times that day with cocaine, methadone, or a mixture of the two – her usual routine. "With cocaine you want more and more and more. If you have it, you take it," she said. "I hate life. I don't have a life any more."
http://tinyurl.com/cpehtff
I don't care what they say, this does NOT sound good.
Enabling openly the tragic life of this woman, & thousands of others...
Why is she not immediately admitted to a methadone/cocaine rehab....?
This free shooting-up & free heroin business is spreading most unfortunately...
I know too much about dope, to ever believe this is the right method to go forwards...
We've talked about the *activists* who populate the DTES's NGO's and non-profits.
ReplyDeleteNow, for months, they've been protesting...a restaurant! It's disgraceful that even one business can't open in the re-juvenation of the DTES, without the following;
"Vancouver police hunt for woman accused of trying to chain shut Pidgin restaurant doors."
"Robyn Claire Pickell, 25, is wanted for mischief in connection with an anti-gentrification demonstration."
http://tinyurl.com/cddu4qt
She's the subject of a police manhunt. They hate capitalism in any form...
Does anyone know if they have been tried or sentenced?
ReplyDeleteExcellent question. We need to follow up on it because the conditions of the prisons out there are atrocious.
ReplyDeleteThe court case involving three Canadians arrested in New Caledonia after 200 kilograms of cocaine was found on their sailboat will be taking place in France.
ReplyDeleteNew Caledonian Attorney General Clair Lanet told the Review on June 15 that the case was “out of her hands” as the three Canadians are in the process of being transferred to France, where they will be tried in supreme court.
Lanet said that the action took place because organized crime is suspected to be linked to the smuggling operation.
On March 31, an unregistered sailboat was seized off the New Caledonian coast and three crew arrested after cocaine with a street value of between 70 and 200 million dollars was detected through a joint effort involving the U.S. DEA. the Australian Federal Police, and the New Caledonian military.
The three Canadians - widely believed to be Bob and Cindy Stanley and Gary Yuzik, all of whom formerly had ties to Keremeos in the recent past - have not been officially identified by French police, ten weeks after their arrest.
Thanks for the link. It would be a colossal relief to find out they were all tried in France: http://www.keremeosreview.com/news/159632945.html
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