Tuesday 7 January 2014

Khobragade's ace in the hole.

Devyani Khobragade was in trouble. Her Mary Poppins had absonded. Her dad back at home was accused of having threatened the Nanny's family. She was being accused of Visa fraud and Human trafficking and failure to pay the minimum wage and might even have faced Jail time.
As a 'creamy layer' Dalit- one, moreover, married to a High Caste naturalized American- she stood in danger of becoming a hate-figure for not just jhollawallah types but even the 'Aam Aadmi'. Her glamorous career would stall. She'd be transferred to a desk job in New Delhi or some punishment posting in the Third World. It would take years for her to live down the scandal. She'd also have to pay a hefty fine to a U.S court.

Then, as if Bhagwan Krishna had Himself intervened, everything changed. She was strip-searched. But hers was a Draupati Vastraharanam, by which her antagonists were undone while her innocence was preserved.

An Upper Caste Khatri had sought to humiliate the chaste Devyani for the crime of being an 'uppity' Dalit!
She immediately received the offer of a safe seat in U.P. But, Maharashtra will give her something even better. From being tainted by the Aadarsh scam and her own father's maladroit medlings, Devyani was able to emerge as stainless and pure as Draupati from her Disrobing.

Interestingly, it turns out that Devyani actually did have diplomatic immunity by reason of accreditation to the U.N. She claims to have forgotten or not known this at the time of her arrest. Her own ignorance in this matter, or indeed the State Dept's on going refusal to certify her immunity or issue a Statement of Interest, still does not alter the fact that, as a matter of substantive and procedural due process, her arrest was unlawful and thus she can claim a 7 figure settlement for wrongful detention while simultaneously escaping prosecution for visa fraud. In other words, she can have her cake and eat it too. 

It's an extraordinary reversal of fortune and all thanks the U.S Marshals Service insatiable desire to gape at the orifices of all and sundry. This, truly, was Khobragade's ace in the hole.

Note- the warrant against Devyani was issued on the basis of an affidavit from a State Dept Diplomatic Security Agent which, in showing 'probable cause' failed, however, to mention her U.N. Accreditation and thus was faulty. Was it also recklessly so?
This may sound reasonable. The guy checked a database and made a couple of phone calls to some other guy. Clearly, it wasn't reckless at all of him, or the guy whom he talked to at Protocol, to just go ahead and sign off on the affidavit which got Devyani strip searched.
So what if SCOTUS  decided, in Florence vs Board of Chosen Freeholders, that there is no longer any 4th amendment right not to have some guy shine a flashlight up your arse if you are arrested for even the most trivial offence? 
How does this fact impact Protocol? 
The answer is that Protocol must make damn sure that America really does have personal jurisdiction over a foreign diplomat before signing off on a probable cause affidavit because, thanks to SCOTUS, America is now a barbaric and perverted country which can't be trusted to respect the human rights of anyone caught up in its corrupt, racist and utterly unfit for purpose, Criminal Justice System.
It now transpires that Devyani had personal immunity. An agent of a State Dept. Agency signed a recklessly false probable cause affidavit because he relied on some guy at Protocol to know his arse from his elbow. Will any of the people responsible for this travesty face arrest themselves? No because no good purpose would be served. Everybody already knows what these shitheads have got up their assholes- viz. more assholes, assholes furiously shitting assholes, while themselves being shat out by assholes and even the American Criminal Justice System- and American Diplomacy is now nothing but an asshole shitting out that asshole while being shat out by it- can't muster up sufficient resources of Perversion and Imbecility to shine its flashlight up that infinite regress of assholes.

Which is why Obamacare is like totally Socialistic and un American and the moral equivalent of Sodomy. Incidentally, did you know Devyani is a Medical Doctor? Maybe, that guy at Protocol, or Proctology, did know and arranged for this dainty little diplomat to get Obamacared but good. That'ill larn her. That'll larn all youse dam dothead sand-nigger scum.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

'as a matter of substantive and procedural due process, her arrest was unlawful'- Why? Are you saying that Procedural Due Process means that the judge who issued the warrant didn't have personal jurisdiction over Devyani because she was a diplomat under the personal jurisdiction of her country's courts?
I'd imagine her lawyer would have already tried that tack.
What are the substantive issues involved?

windwheel said...

The main substantive due process issue is personal inviolability arising from her status as a diplomat- not a consular official.

Anonymous said...

Kobragade has been indicted and deported from the U.S. So much from your theory that she could sue for wrongful arrest and get a million dollar settlement!

windwheel said...

If she hadn't been granted immunity, her lawyer would have had to argue along the lines I have indicated. Then, if she was acquited on the basis of lack of personal jurisdiction she could sue for wrongful arrest. She can still do so, but in a private capacity with permission of M.E.A. (so long as she remains employed by them)
My point is that but for the strip search, today would be a day of humiliation for her. Her image in India would have been tarnished.