
Police stop guarding embassy refuge of Julian Assange - christop
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34508500
======
yc1010
"The estimated cost of the police presence is more than £12m."

So who should get fired for such a waste of police resources?

~~~
polack
So whats the limit on how much society should spend to seek justice if someone
raped you?

~~~
appleflaxen
I'm not sure if you are being facetious, but that's actually exactly the right
question to ask. Not only would it be great to explicitly know the exact
number, but that number should be the same no matter who the victim (or
perpetrator) is.

~~~
tptacek
Wait, doesn't that logic essentially inoculate hedge fund managers and private
equity barons from rape prosecutions? That can't possibly be right.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
I'm not certain hedge fund managers and private equity barons are subject to
most of our laws anyway.

~~~
tptacek
So let's just officially immunize them?

~~~
idlewords
And give them autism? Nice try, comrade!

~~~
arcticbull
Well played.

------
christop
And from the Met Police's point of view:
[http://news.met.police.uk/news/covert-plan-at-ecuadorian-
emb...](http://news.met.police.uk/news/covert-plan-at-ecuadorian-embassy-
strengthened-after-removing-dedicated-guards-132799)

~~~
belorn
I find it interesting that MPS went and consulted the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office before deciding how to balance their internal resources in a
proportionate way.

------
cwkoss
It would be really funny to hire a bunch of Julian Assange impersonators to
hang out in front of the embassy.

------
sarciszewski
I really wish someone would come along and go, "Aha! Assange has secretly been
living in Ecuador this whole time. Fooled you, UK gov!"

But then again, I like to see government incompetence used against itself
rather than against innocent people, like what happens here in the US.

~~~
DanBC
I'm surprised he hasn't been smuggled out in a diplomatic crate.

Some of the shenanigans that went on with diplomatic bags shows that some
countries are prepared to do this.

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1132544.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1132544.stm)

The Soviets using one to transport a tractor shows the bags can be big enough
to get a person out. [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2234/is-there-
such-...](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2234/is-there-such-a-thing-
as-a-diplomatic-pouch)

~~~
vxxzy
US brought down a Presidential Plane in Search of Snowden. Any sort of
bag/crate big enough to fit a person would be opened immediately.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
I'd send hundreds of them, every one full of old socks or something. Make it
very expensive/annoying for them.

~~~
sarciszewski
There's got to be Assange lookalikes that can muck with their surveillance.

~~~
fnordfnordfnord
There is a lot of pen-testing fun to be had here. At the least you'll annoy
them and amuse you, and at the best you cause them to expose the holes in
their security capabilities.

~~~
sarciszewski
It's like fuzzing, but with _clones_!

------
mindcrime
So here's a question: why don't the Swedish just do the common-sense thing,
drop the political posturing and either:

A. interview him via Google Hangout / Skype / etc.

or

B. fly somebody to England to interview him at the Ecuadorian embassy?

~~~
gsnedders
A. Because he's wanted for arrest, and you can't arrest someone over Google
Hangout / Skype / etc.

B. Because the Ecuadorian government required guarantees the Swedish
government cannot provide (because it'd be overriding the judiciary).

~~~
mindcrime
_A. Because he 's wanted for arrest, and you can't arrest someone over Google
Hangout / Skype / etc._

I had thought that one possible outcome of the interview with him would be a
decision to not arrest him. If that's the case it seems they'd want to get the
interview out of the way by any means, and then if the need to arrest him
stands, deal with that then.

 _B. Because the Ecuadorian government required guarantees the Swedish
government cannot provide (because it 'd be overriding the judiciary)._

Interesting, I don't remember that bit, but that sounds likely. Oh well...
what can ya do? _shrug_

~~~
gsnedders
The view of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom was that the "interview"
was, in practical terms, equivalent to arrest under English and Welsh law.
From memory (though this was years ago!) a formal charge must be occur at the
end of an interview. There's no distinction, in the view of the Supreme Court,
between the interview and the arrest.

The argument that he's only wanted for interview was a large part of his
defence prior to entering the embassy, and was entirely shot down by the
courts.

------
n0mad01
It's a trap!

~~~
exhilaration
It actually is, from the MET statement above:

 _...the MPS will deploy a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him._

~~~
tonyedgecombe
They would say that though wouldn't they.

------
neoCrimeLabs
Am I the only one who was reminded of the end of THX 1138 -- specifically when
the droids stopped following due to exceeding budget -- while reading this
article?

------
maxpupmax
On mobile this redirects me to a bunch of spam somehow... Careful if you click
through.

~~~
joosters
BBC redirecting to spam? Seems a little unlikely? Perhaps something else on
your phone doing nasty stuff, maybe?

~~~
ViViDboarder
Happening to me in the in-app browser for Yarn.

------
NickHaflinger
Have they checked out the tunnel?

------
Nux
Or are they? .. ta ta ta taaaaaa!

