Did you guys see this?
Seems the European Union is attempting to establish a “European Criminal Records Information System”. The idea is to share information concerning criminal convictions between the member states, and the lack of a program to do this was first noted in the European Council Declaration on Combating Terrorism of 25 and 26 March 2004.
A criminal database is something I heartily approve of, particularly when dealing with all of those little bitty countries that make up the EU. Far too many hardened criminals would slip through the cracks if the police and courts don’t know their past history. In fact, I’m wondering why it took the member nations five years to get off their collective backsides and get around to actually taking action.
But I was taken aback when I looked over the categories of offenses that would make up the data entered into the database. The sheer number of offenses is staggering, taking up at least half of the PDF file I linked to above. And some of them are not anything that I would consider a crime.
For example, number 0200-00 is “Knowingly taking part in the non-criminal activities of a criminal organization”. So that means lawyers who defend gangsters in court are considered criminals?
I was also intrigued by the way that the listed crimes illuminated, if not the actual conditions in the EU, then at least the fears of the people who live there. Section 0400 concerns “trafficking in human beings”, which should most certainly be a crime. But there are eight separate crimes listed! Simply trafficking in humans isn’t enough, they have to break it down.
Take a look at 0403-00, which is “Trafficking in human beings for the purposes of organ or human tissue removal”. That is certainly scary enough, but 0407-00 is reserved for those who kidnap children to remove their organs! What the hell, is Europe turning into one big horror movie? A horror movie where, thanks to draconian gun control laws (section 0500), all of the victims are unarmed? Consider this the next time you plan a vacation overseas.
It isn’t until section 8 where we see violent crimes against individuals crop up. 0807-00 is all about “Offences related to committing suicide”. Take my word for it, if they manage to break this particular law then punishing them is a waste of time.
If you want to see just where the EU is going, then take a look at sections 1205-00 and 1206-00. Both of them say that it is a crime to “insult” the State, the Nation, the symbols of the State or Nation, or representatives of the State/Nation. Does this mean that it is considered a crime if someone writes an op-ed that is disparaging of a politician? Sure sounds like it.
I could go on for awhile, but you get the idea. Click on this link and take a look for yourself.
Keep in mind that this is simply a list of offenses where someone has already been found guilty. It is not a list of new laws, nor is it a sentencing guideline. But if this is an accurate snapshot of what the EU considers to be crimes, then it is probably too late for them.
(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket. Hat tips go to Milo and the Libertarians.)
I’m pretty sure that trafficking in humans for organ removal is an urban myth.
A lot of people, especially in the 3rd world, seem to believe in it but the scientific and economic realities make it almost impossible. Organs have to matched to donor with similar genetic profiles. You can’t just cut out someone’s kidney and sell it on a street conner. It has to go to specific people. The only way to find those people is to use a large distributed list of people needing transplants. Even if you have the list and could contact buyers, you would then need to perform genetic testing to find which people to harvest from. That would be very hard to do anonymously.
I don’t think there has been a single confirmed case of stolen organs anywhere in the world. I don’t think it is possible without the collusion of a government. That they chose to add a mythical crime to the database says a lot about the process of the databases creation.
“I’m pretty sure that trafficking in humans for organ removal is an urban myth.”
Oh, I’m pretty sure myself. My comments above were prefaced by the sentence…
“I was also intrigued by the way that the listed crimes illuminated, if not the actual conditions in the EU, then at least the fears of the people who live there.”
My discussion of how organ hunters snatch people from the street were supposed to be taken tongue in cheek. I should have made that more plain.
James
James R. Rummel,
I intended to agree with you, sorry if it didn’t read that way. I just wanted to highlight that they were including fictional crimes in the database.
I will say that having seemingly ridiculously detailed index entries is pretty common in these types of systems in which index numbers take the place of text descriptions.
Some time have a look at the European Arrest Warrant and the European Evidence Warrant. That is actually in existence while this database is in development. And we all know about government IT.
Here is a link to just vile the EU is. Imaginary crimes-nothing new-we had the child molestation rings,here.
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/
Shannon, you are probably correct about people being taken off the streets to have their organs harvested. It would be difficult to grab someone off the street, match tissue, have the operation, etc.
However, there is a very well documented case that is still happening in China where Falun Gong practitioners have been imprisoned for their spiritual practice are run through many tests for compatibility and “warehoused” in prisons, then they are matched with the “buyer” of their organs. This has happened thousands of times and of course, the “donor” is murdered as they remove the organs. Falun Gong practitioners are preferred because they don’t smoke or drink and are in excellent condition from their qi-gong exercises. Their practice was extremely popular in the China, over 100 million people did it before the 1999 govt. crackdown. Here is a link to the report by Canadian government officials: http://organharvestinvestigation.net/
“Offences related to committing suicide”.
What exactly do they mean? Isn’t suicide officially sanctioned in some member states? Do they mean — perhaps — that committing suicide without state permission and without the presence of medical personnel is illegal?