UK: London Police Commissioner Threatens Prosecution of US Citizens for Wrong Speech

Hat tip Red State

Mark Rowley

As most of you know, riots have been going on all over England in response to the horrific stabbing murder of three little girls by a 17-year-old of Rwandan descent. (He was born in the UK.) It appears that the Brits have had enough and have turned out in cities all over the nation to protest, demand a stop to immigrant crime, and in addition, destroy property, set fires, and throw objects at cops. As I wrote before, I condemn the violence and attacks against cops, but I can understand the anger and frustration on the part of those who are rioting. Their government is simply not protecting them and addressing their legitimate concerns.

Oops! That comment might just get me picked up by the FBI, extradited to Merry Olde England, and delivered into the hands of the London Police Commissioner, a chap by the name of Mark Rowley. He has issued a public statement that he will prosecute not just Brits who say the wrong things about the riots, but people outside the UK as well, meaning online commentators, bloggers and writers like me. He specifically mentioned the US.

The government has promised stiff prosecution for the rioters (as long as they are of a certain persuasion, of course). The UK, like the rest of Europe, enjoys fewer rights of speech than we do in the US. But this is troubling. I can see it if American citizens are secretly sending arms to the rioters, which would be illegal in the US as well, but this is a stretch.

But just to play Devil's advocate- Under US laws, particularly our conspiracy laws (which I support), the US can prosecute foreign nationals in US federal courts for violations committed against the US. Let me give you an example, which I observed many times as a DEA agent working overseas in Asia and Europe. It's no secret that there are numerous foreign drug organizations that are sending drugs to the US. They themselves may not have committed any illegal act on US soil, in fact, they may never have set foot on US soil. The key legal factor here is that they have committed an offense against the US, just as Uasma bin Laden was committing an offense against our country when he orchestrated 9-11.  We have seen many cases of both foreign terrorists and foreign drug dealers extradited to the US and successfully prosecuted here. Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, the Mexican drug lord, is serving life in a US federal prison because he committed crimes against the US-even while in his home country. In addition, Colombia has extradited several of its most notorious drug traffickers to the US (at times when extradition has been in effect in that country-it being a judicial and political tug-of-war). Pablo Escobar literally carried out a campaign of terror against his own country in an effort to fight the Colombian extradition law.

Of course, all of these prosecutions are predicated on other countries cooperating in terms of making provisional arrests and agreeing to extraditions. Extradition treaties come into play and there is always the question of whether the subject is a citizen of the originating country or a third country. In other cases, many countries will cooperate in simply deporting non-citizens who have violated their own laws as well as American laws. If it is an American citizen, the US embassy could simply cancel their passport and issue a temporary ID valid only for travel back to the US.

I would be astounded if the American government ever agreed to send a US citizen to Britain or any other country simply for expressing his or her opinion on such a topic. ( I'm not so sure under a President Harris.) So it's easy and tempting to give a big middle finger to Commissioner Rowley in this case. But consider if an English court were to issue an international arrest warrant for me because I said I understood the anger that was driving the riots-remember, I did not condone them, mind you. Suppose I am vacationing in some other European country or any country for that matter, and they had an extradition treaty with the Brits. Before you know it, I am having tea with Commissioner Rowley.

In the meantime, here is my response to Commissioner Rowley