les Aventures du Lapin Chaud / Adventures of the Hot Rabbit / innocent until proven guilty / guilty until you prove you're innocent / I was a pimp for the International Monetary Fund / How can you tell if the attractive young naked woman at the party is a prostitute? Huh?

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PatfromCH has left a new comment on your post "la Justice":

For those who don't get it. This is the idtroduction to the penal code in France.

I consider the recent events in France (reported on Vleeptron) as higly questionable. Of course the guy was a complete loony but sendign out sharp shooters and Swat teams ?

France is in an election year, this action was the best PR for the current PM. Being Tough on Shit goes down well with voters.

Alas, now there will be no trial, no dirty laundry might come up, instead of asking itself questions the french can look up to the Guy Who is Tough On Shit and avoid unvomfortable revelations about possible connections of the internal secret service and the right wing. Seems the next election is more important than the truth. Or the rights and demands of the victims.

Germany suffered from similar case some weeks back and the german government must now face uncomfortable questions. No presidential election in sight.

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In the USA we are inordinately proud of "innocent until proven guilty," which I think traces back centuries earlier to English common law.

Getting busted in France was always a little different: You're presumed Guilty, and the burden of proving your innocence falls entirely and heavily on your shoulders. When l'etat charges you with a crime, you are already on the express bus to le Chateau d'If, buddy.

"Guilty until you prove yourself innocent" I guess is The Napoleonic Code, which still lingers in a lot of European countries that Napoleon used to have by the short hairs. (A lot of law in the USA state of Louisiana, which we bought from France, still uses the Napoleonic Code.)

Anyway I posted this 'cause some guy on IRC said France has changed it criminal code, and now you're presumed innocent.

Which is sure good news for le Lapin Chaud, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who just got busted for pimping.

I think DSK's initial defense is: Look, all these attractive young women at the parties were nude (except for gaudy jewelry), how was I supposed to know they were prostitutes?

Also DSK's defense lawyer told the court: "Lust is not a crime!" (I don't know his exact francais words, but it made for great tabloid headlines.)

So DSK will use the Randy Old Goat Defense: I'm just an ordinary French rich powerful politician and socialist, this is the traditional way such distinguished French guys are, we walk around all the time with big erections and try to bang every hot young woman who's not running faster than I can. (DSK, of course, is married to a very famous French TV news journalist, Anne Sinclair, they got a kid or two or three.)

btw if you should see any political cartoons of DSK dressed like a 1970s NYC pimp, SVP remittez a moi tout-suite.

But he's right! If all the pretty young girls at the parties I like to go to are naked, how am I supposed to know they're prostitutes? Fair is fair! I thought they were just Happy Friendly Party Girls!

(... which reminds me of the Amazing Far East Adventures of Neil Bush, brother of the recent President of the United States.)

The prostitution ring DSK is accused of pimping for operates (allegedly) also in Belgium.

So who's the classier Euro politician: DSK or Berlusconi?

btw the DSK hed shot above (and the reason he's unshaven, his hair is askew, and he's not smiling) was when he was arraigned in New York City criminal court for (allegedly) trying to rape a chambermaid at the ultra-ritzy Sofitel Hotel.