Roman Polanski arrested in Zürich

[Martinus]

I hope he runs away, just for the sake of the shitstorm that would surely follow.

[DGuller]

Hopefully he gets shot while running away, so that we won't have to hear about him again.

[dps]

To bad it's not the 40's when it was perfectly acceptable for the cops to shoot suspects if they were running away, even if they were known to be unarmed, and the crime for which they were wanted wasn't a violent crime.

[Martinus]

To bad it's not the 40's when it was perfectly acceptable for the cops to shoot suspects if they were running away, even if they were known to be unarmed, and the crime for which they were wanted wasn't a violent crime.

That's an opinion I do not share.

[Jaron]

Yeah seriously. Might as well say "I miss the days when the king could throw you away in the dungeon for life for committing no crime"

dps goes over the top sometimes though.

[Eddie Teach]

I doubt that really happened much except in Hollywood. Much cheaper to pay an executioner for a day than a jailer for decades.

[Jaron]

What do you mean? It happened all the time, even as far back as the Byzantine Empire. Executions seemed to not be a favored choice over imprisonment or exile.

[Eddie Teach]

I've never read accounts of long-term prisoners from the time period that weren't either being held for ransom or VIPs whom it would be too dangerous to kill.

[Jaron]

READ a Tale of Two Cities

[Eddie Teach]

That book was set in the 18th century, and a work of fiction.

[Sheilbh]

I've never read accounts of long-term prisoners from the time period that weren't either being held for ransom or VIPs whom it would be too dangerous to kill.

There were such prisoners but until the 18th-19th century you had to pay for your upkeep which meant that practically a long-term stay was restricted to the rich.  The rest would go into prison and quite often die of the unhealthy conditions.

[Syt]

I doubt that really happened much except in Hollywood. Much cheaper to pay an executioner for a day than a jailer for decades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darya_Saltykova

[Eddie Teach]

I'm not sure how that case is relevant.  It's obviously not an instance of this:

Yeah seriously. Might as well say "I miss the days when the king could throw you away in the dungeon for life for committing no crime"

[Syt]

I'm not sure how that case is relevant.  It's obviously not an instance of this:

Yeah seriously. Might as well say "I miss the days when the king could throw you away in the dungeon for life for committing no crime"

So you assume that maltreating peasants in 18th century, Russian ones at that, constituted a crime? 

[Eddie Teach]

It violated the law of God. "Thou shalt not kill."