Shootings and solidarity: a very problematic case (updated)
Two murders shocked my hometown Kaunas. When I heard that a judge was murdered, I thought, 'Mafia shootouts - here they go again'... We have more or less forgotten about them since the 90s. However, the case proved to be quite different. It provokes thousands of comments on news portals every day now.
Apparently, almost a year ago, or so they say, the judge, the other victim and the judge's colleague were accused of child molesting by Drasius Kedys, the father of the child concerned, and he is now the key suspect.
The suspect, whose name means 'brave' in Lithuanian, legally kept a gun. He was divorced, and didn't have the custody of the child. Yet when he or his mother heard the stories the child told, the father tried all available means to open a legal case against the judges - to no avail. Facing resistance within the system, he addressed the media, and his cause was presented to the public. It's a bit more problematic than the father would like it to seem - he himself objected to 10-day psychiatric monitoring of his child. He said this is due to his fears that the judges would put pressure on both the medical experts and the child.
As the case was still 'frozen', he is now believed to have committed an act of desperation - he shot down one of the judges and the child's aunt, whom he accuses of 'supplying' young children to the judges. Nothing is proved yet, and there is no evidence to close the case or label anybody 'pedophile' or anything (let's not forget the presumption of innocence), but one thing is clear: there was resistance within the system to the opening of the legal case, and there are grounds to believe that this is due to the factual impunity of judges. They are also immune to media pressure as they are not elected.
What is interesting is that the police reports that hardly any citizens called to indicate the whereabouts of the suspect. One out of three or four of those who did call reported seeing him in the old town - that would be very brave of a suspected murderer. In other famous murder cases, the police would get thousands of phone calls. Comments in online portals show a huge wave of solidarity with this 'lonely fighter against the system'. Most people would recall their own bad experiences with the judiciary - or at least reading about their corruption. It doesn't feel as if this, I would even say, act of terrorism is romanticised. It rather feels that it expresses and embodies the anger and frustration that people feel over not having their rights properly defended. Therefore people empathise with the suspect. Even more people will now admit that physical violence is the only means of getting through the complex layers of the system, and this is scary.
This event reminds me of a case in Russia, when a man brought his wife to hospital and was made to wait as the staff expected a bribe. The wife died, the man went home, took a gun, shot down each one of the staff that refused to treat his wife, and killed himself.
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Update 24/10/2009
A special commission investigating the way the case was handled has already announced that five people in the general prosecutor's office and the Kaunas office will be punished by demotion or dismissal. The conclusions from the commission state that the 'untypical case' was handled using typical means, inappropriate for the peculiar circumstances. They ascribe this to 'lack of competence'. The case was passed over from one institution to another until it was left for public prosecutors in Vilnius for investigation. The people concerned have a right to appeal the decision.
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Comments
this was a good read & an excellent synopsis of this case.
Jos.
Maryland, USA
This man is far stronger than I would have been. After over 200 letters to media, officials, and deputies went unaddressed and he finally relented to have his child interviewed by specialists who agreed that she was being truthful.... without even needing to interview the perpetrators....after all this he finally broke? Kudos to him....I would have killed them after the second phone call I had to make. This man is a saint for trying to go through the system for so long. Violence is sometimes the only way to achieve a goal in a system where officials act with impunity!!! I hope they never find him! This man is a hero!
This man showed more restraint than I would have. Personally, any person who has it in them to hurt and molest an innocent child should not be shown leniency.
It's as if our society accepts it as the norm and that to me implies some sort of psychosis that is permeating our society. How is it that Hollywood can say to forgive Roman Polanski because he's artistic, even though he drugged and raped a 13 year old girl? How is it that Minister Mitterand can still be in power in France after admitting he likes to sleep with young boys after giving them hash cakes? How is it that a Republican Congressman Foley can send sexual text messages to young boys and not be charged and brought to justice? If a man steals to feed his family he is thrown to the dogs. If someone of status does steals the humanity of a child, there is another system of laws and those laws exempt them from punishment and the world is starting to see this.
I may have done the same thing if I was in that position. I do not advocate the use of violence, but if you cannot trust those who have been tasked with protecting the public and providing justice, then justice must be served by us; the citizens.
My hat is off to this man who did a very brave thing to not only save his daughter, but the sons and daughters of others who are too weak to help themselves. Hopefully this sends a message to those who think that they are above the law. Eventually events in the universe will orchestrate to allow you your fair share of what you've given the world. And the plate is always served cold.
Good story and I'm betting this will be happening more and more world wide as things continue to slide into darkness of corruption.
If I live there - my reply would be "he was with me at a bar at the time of the shootings". Bravo brave citizen.
I would buy that man a beer and gladly be an alibi, justice was served cold and I hope they fail to prosecute him
I would buy that man a beer and gladly be an alibi, justice was served cold and I hope they fail to prosecute him
Now they will not molest another child... that man is a hero.
Miami
Hopefully this will send a message to those corrupt individuals in the judicial system. They may be in a place of power, but they won't always be able to get away with their crimes. If our voices are denied, we the people will come and serve justice any way we can.
thats what we will get to eventually. this greed cycle has led us to just that - violence, ultimately as the last resort. In the developing countries, the cops are there to eliminate the evidence of politicians messing up everywhere. its ironic that the last couple of decades of extreme growth/ easy money/ capitalism on steroids have infected people all around the world.
i hope that such events are reminders for the corrupt to beware of extreme avarice.
Can I get a link to the similar incident in Russia that was mentioned? I couldn't find anything related to that on google.
This is what it will take to bring down those that think they are immune. Lest they forget it is the power of the people, that grants them the right to decide such things. The right of the people, which many have forgotten, to seek justice on their own. I would be say he was at my home having dinner at the time....and I would have at least 3 other adult witnesses that would say the exact same thing. Therefore surely he could not be jailed...
I would not call this man a terrorist. That word is stigmatized these days to dehumanize a figure and put them as everyone's enemy. This man was a vigilante. He fought against the law because he felt the law abused him (or in this case his daughter). If I could, I'd give this guy a medal. Way to show 'em friend, the police and judicial systems don't control everything we do... yet.
We had a case in Ireland in 1999 in which a former nun, Nora Wall and a homeless man Paul McCabe, were accused of raping a child twice several years before. One of the rapes was supposed to have occured on the girls 12th birthday. By an extra-ordinary chance there WAS an official record of where the man had been on that date and it was nowhere near the site of the supposed crime. However, in an athmosphere of hysteria about child abuse, the jury acquitted them on that count but convicted them on the second charge which did not specify an exact date.
Then the accuser and her "witness" sold their story to a tabloid newspaper that published their names for the first time. It turned out that BOTH of them had made several previous allegations against different people - but the Defence had not been told about these. One of their previous victims recognised the name of the "witness" and the case quickly collapsed. The media that had howled obscenities at Nora Wall ("Vile Nun", "Pervert Nun", "I Was Raped by Anti-Christ") quickly buried the story.
I would be very cautious about assuming that there is a conspiracy by the authorities to cover up child abuse - and even more so about the suggestion of a child abuse ring involving several people. In Ireland the only "conspiracy" was that directed by the prosecution against two innocent persons. And everywhere else, claims about a "child abuse ring" usually turn out to be fantasy.
"Even more people will now admit that physical violence is the only means of getting through the complex layers of the system, and this is scary"
Not half as scary, as a pedophile in such a position of authority?...I mean, c'mon...THREE years old? Can we no longer as a civilization, register disgust?