[pp.int.general] Germany Arrests Paul Watson

[Travis McCrea]

I am not going to repeat too much because Justus and Mozart basically hit the nail on the head, I am not trying to say that we should adopt environmentalism as a platform, or even promote Paul Watson's cause (though I do). This is about him being wrongfully extradited to a country based on an illegitimate claim (or a claim he considers to be illegitimate) without even receiving a trial. 

I do, however, see his "Whale Wars" being a mirror of our "Copyright Wars". Let me just take out the technical terms and try to decide which I am talking about:

A group trying to protect the future by taking on an abusive industry which lobbies government to the point that a fair legislative and judicial system seems nearly out of reach.

It's both of our organizations. With increased government transparency (a Pirate Party platform) Japan wouldn't be able to bribe countries as easily. With science-based decision making processes, like what we promote (at least in the Canadian Pirate Party) we would see that over fishing of Blue Fin tuna (and the worlds ocean in general) is going to cause an environmental problem by upsetting the food chain. 

I am not asking you to support the cause, just keep supporting Pirate Party ideals, and it will help the environmental movement as a side effect. 

As for Paul Watson, I just want him to be given a trial before he is sent to a country which might keep him in prison without a fair trial at all. 

Travis McCrea
Deputy Leader, Pirate Party of Canada
Chief Administrative Officer, Pirate Parties International
Captain, United States Pirate Party (PNC)
Member, Washington State Pirate Party

Canada: 1(778)709-4859
US: 1(206)552-8728

Twitter: @TeamColtra
Facebook: fb.me/teamcoltra
Blog: http://travismccrea.com

The views expressed in this email represent my own personal values and not the values of the Pirate Party, the Pirate Ideology, or any of my associations. 

On 2012-05-16, at 5:58 AM, Justus Römeth wrote:

> Gareth,
> 
> PPDE only got able to really become succesful because we developed a party programme, and elections programmes, that go beyond the typical core issues (freedom of information, limitations to copyright and patents), but we tried to analyze how such bad legislature concerning those topics was made to begin with and tried to develop something akin to an ideology from there. In that sense we in PPDE also have strong opinions on the legislative process in general, education, the environment; and are working on things concerning agriculture (admittedly coming from the patent controversy) or a different financial model for public transport.
> 
> That is not to say that other PPs have to follow our lead on this (or copy our positions: hell no!). But it is what made us successful and become less fringe.
> 
> This topic is clearly more related with civil liberties than anything else. I think that the German judicial process is actually not so bad (apart from bad legislature concerning patents and copyrights, but the politicians are to blame here, not the lawyers and judges), and I do not know enough about the circumstance surrounding this. It seem quite fishy though, so for Pirates (in their function as pirates) to put their index finger up for everyone to see and to make sure that Mr. Watson's civil rights are not violated should actually be a no-brainer. That is not supporting his cause, but just claiming his civil rights. Just as we should fo everyone who's civil rights are (potentially) being abused.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> -J
> 
> On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 9:46 AM, Jan Lettow <janlettow at gmail.com> wrote:
> Shouldn't the circumstances of the arrest figure prominently in the discussion?
> 
> 
> The Costa-Rican warrant is a decade old, and Interpol decided against
> enforcing it to the result that Mr. Watson could travely freely in
> Europe and elsewhere for the past years.
> 
> Why exactly the authorities ignored Intepol in this case is a bit of a
> mystery. Over-zealous 'on the ground' personnel could be a factor in
> my opinion, then we should see a release soon.
> 
> But if not we must take a close look, I think: Arbitrary detention of
> politcal activists, nutjob or not, is not something to be taken
> lightly.
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> 
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