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Father goes beyond the law: Vigilantism or Justice?

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Mammoth Jones

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Interesting story. I didn't see it posted so I figured I'd ask how far you'd go to see someone brought to justice? Would you break the law? That's what this guy did.

PARIS — In the dark early hours of an October morning in 2009, acting on an anonymous tip, police officers in the French city of Mulhouse picked up an elderly German doctor who had been left — bound, beaten and bleeding — in a street near the municipal courthouse. The man, Dieter Krombach, had been kidnapped outside his home in Germany and secreted across the border into France, where there was a warrant for his arrest in connection with the death of a French girl nearly three decades ago.
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In the years after the girl’s death, the doctor came to be known in Germany as a sexual predator; in 1997 he was convicted of drugging and raping a teenage patient. Dr. Krombach, now 76, had nonetheless lived largely untroubled in Germany, safe behind a German refusal to extradite him for trial in France.

Now on French soil, however, he is being tried on a murder charge in Paris, where he and his accuser, both weak with age, face each other in a windowless courtroom. Mr. Bamberski, who has joined himself to the state’s case, as is his right under French law, sits before a panel of robed judges, flanked by his lawyers and stacks of bulging files, the accumulation of decades of investigation, occasionally raising a shaky index finger in a request to intervene.
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French judicial investigators summoned Dr. Krombach for questioning in 1984, but he refused to travel to France. A German court ruled in 1987 that there was not sufficient evidence to support charges — which German officials say essentially constitutes an acquittal — and Germany has refused to extradite him, arguing that a European double jeopardy principle precluded a French trial. In 1995, a Paris court convicted Dr. Krombach in absentia on wrongful death charges, though that conviction has since been annulled on procedural grounds.
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In the 1997 trial in Germany, Dr. Krombach pleaded guilty to charges that he drugged and raped a 16-year-old patient at his office. He received a two-year suspended sentence and was barred from practicing medicine for two years. Since that trial, several other women have accused Dr. Krombach of similar attacks in the 1980s and ’90s.

Stripped of his medical license, Dr. Krombach nonetheless continued to see patients, according to the German authorities, frequently changing addresses, apparently to avoid detection. He was discovered in 2006 and sentenced to 28 months in prison for fraud and illegal medical practice. He was released in 2008.
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Do the ends justify the means?
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(Disclaimer: I'm not a journalist. Any sensationalism in the title is purely unintentional.)
 
CnPfD.jpg
 
Justice. The line would've been crossed if the father killed the guy, but beating him up and delivering him to the police is pure and unadultered justice. Batman-style.
 
I'm glad things worked out for the best in this case, I don't condone vigilantism in general. That said, independently bringing someone to the authorities isn't nearly as insane as turning yourself into judge, jury, and executioner.
 
ITT, GAF approves vigilantism.
Technically what the the father did was vigilantism (he took "justice" in his own hands), kidnapping and assault.
But rightly so. Justice i say.
 
If the law failed me as utterly as it did this guy (allegedly), I'd drag the motherfucker to a court room kicking and screaming as well.
 
I fail to see the distinction between "vigilantism" and "justice." Vigilantism is by definition a person taking justice into their own hands. In this case, justifiably. I rarely have a problem with it honestly.
 
He pleaded guilty to drugging and raping a 16 year old and received a two year suspension of his medical license? Sounds a little harsh tbh, did he and the judge have bad relations?
 
BamYouHaveAids said:
He pleaded guilty to drugging and raping a 16 year old and received a two year suspension of his medical license? Sounds a little harsh tbh, did he and the judge have bad relations?
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I *knew* this thread would have a post like this. Joking or not, get ready for a dogpile.
 
It's far less than many fathers would do if someone raped and murdered their daughter. Shows a lot of restraint, really. I approve.
 
It's my wish for someone to do this to Roman Polanski. Kidnap him (rough him up during the transit a bit) and then drop him on the courthouse steps in LA. Welcome back to America, bitch.
 
zon said:
Even if he had killed the scum it still would've been justice.
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I am far less likely to view a vigilante's actions as "just" if they include pre-meditated homicide. This inevitably stems from my outlook (Read: STOOPID LIB'RUL) on the morality of killing people.
evil solrac 3.0 said:
of course it's a joke, fix your sarcasm meter.
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portal 2 chell I'VE SEEN SOME SHIT.png
 
Orayn said:
I am far less likely to view a vigilante's actions as "just" if they include pre-meditated homicide. This inevitably stems from my outlook (Read: STOOPID LIB'RUL) on the morality of killing people.

portal 2 chell I'VE SEEN SOME SHIT.png
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For me it comes down to: No, the actions aren't justified, but do I give a shit that an evil person is dead? Nope. I surely won't expend any energy being even slightly outraged by it.
 
good on this guy. wouldnt have cared if the father murdered that piece of shit either

Emerson said:
For me it comes down to: No, the actions aren't justified, but do I give a shit that an evil person is dead? Nope. I surely won't expend any energy being even slightly outraged by it.
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pretty much
 
Orayn said:
I'm glad things worked out for the best in this case, I don't condone vigilantism in general. That said, independently bringing someone to the authorities isn't nearly as insane as turning yourself into judge, jury, and executioner.
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Pretty much.
 
Emerson said:
For me it comes down to: No, the actions aren't justified, but do I give a shit that an evil person is dead? Nope. I surely won't expend any energy being even slightly outraged by it.
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Yeah, I can definitely see where you're coming from and it makes perfect sense. It's just that the idealist in me is a restless jerk and won't let me ignore unjust actions, even when their net result was positive.
 
It's definitely vigilantism, but since he decided to imitate Batman as opposed to The Punisher, I have no problem with this.
 
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