Justice reform
On the one hand Trump slumps in bored indifference as Nadia Murad tells him about the plight of the Yazidis, and on the other hand…
Just spoke to @KanyeWest about his friend A$AP Rocky’s incarceration. I will be calling the very talented Prime Minister of Sweden to see what we can do about helping A$AP Rocky. So many people would like to see this quickly resolved!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2019
The next day –
Just had a very good call with @SwedishPM Stefan Löfven who assured me that American citizen A$AP Rocky will be treated fairly. Likewise, I assured him that A$AP was not a flight risk and offered to personally vouch for his bail, or an alternative….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2019
Who???????????
A$AP Rocky, whose original name is Rakim Mayers, will be held for one more week in pre-trial detention in a Swedish jail after he was involved in a fight that broke out in downtown Stockholm earlier this month, the Associated Press reported. The court is expected to make a ruling on Friday.
I bet Trump would just love it if NYC cops arrested a Swedish man – shall we say a Swedish Muslim man? – after he was involved in a fight outside Trump Tower, and the Swedish PM called him up to complain about it.
A video clip published by a Swedish newspaper appears to show the rapper violently throwing a man to the ground. Another video posted on celebrity news site TMZ shows A$AP Rocky and others punching a man on the floor.
A defense attorney representing A$AP Rocky has said the incident was an act of self-defense, the Associated Press reported. The rapper also posted a video on his Instagram that appears to show two men trailing him and one of them hitting his security person with his headphones.
…
The rapper’s detention had raised concerns about poor conditions in the Swedish jail where he was staying, including unclean water, according to a report from TMZ.
Oh really? Really? Bad conditions in the jail? Unclean water? How shocking! Sounds almost as bad as conditions in the cages for asylum seekers on the US southern border.
Mind you, the chief of the Swedish detention center denies it.
The way the rapper has been treated is “standard, especially when you’re a foreign citizen and there’s a flight risk” and “you are suspected on reasonable grounds” said Dennis Martinsson, a senior law lecturer at Stockholm University, who has frequently spoken about the case for Swedish media.
“There have been a lot of misunderstandings about how the justice system works in Sweden,” Martinsson said. “I assume that people think we have a bail system and he was denied bail. We don’t have that system, so the only option is detention.”
But he’s a friend of Kanye West’s, who is a friend of Donald “Yazidi who?” Trump, so that changes everything. Doesn’t it?
Fortunately none of this has anything to do with celebrity and privilege and influence and string-pulling.
https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/1151982013508775936
Ahhhhh “justice reform” – yes that’s what this is, definitely. Let brown asylum seekers in Texas die in custody, but definitely reform all the justice when it comes to people with celebrity friends.
Lofven was the ‘very talented Prime Minister of Sweden’ on the 19th. but merely the ‘Swedish PM’ on the 20th. I guess he said no to Trump.
As if Rump could credibly personally vouch for anything.
Yeah, I suspect that is about as true as it sounds. Swedish prisons are known to be excellent. I suppose it’s possible that this chap might be in a completely different sort of facility where the conditions are the exact opposite to those in all other Swedish jails…. But I kind of doubt it.
Not that that’s the point, of course, and the irony is noted, but it doesn’t ring at all true to me.
I’m focussing on the important thing – how do you pronounce A$AP?
Re #4
Ha!
I think I’ll add that to the pile of many well-known names I have only seen in print and never heard, and so am unsure how to pronounce. It’s obviously derived from ASAP, but some people pronounce that as a word and some spell it out, so even without the character change its ambiguous.
I saw a tweet from Justin Bieber to Trump saying, roughly, “Thanks for helping my friend A$AP, I appreciate it, but could you please do something about all those kids in cages?” I was impressed.
The funny thing is, having Trump – or any third party – vouch for his bail really only increases the flight risk of MR. Aye Dollar Sign Aye Pee Rocky. What incentive does he have for staying if it is not his own money?