this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024
887 points (98.0% liked)

World News

39143 readers
1549 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And exactly how long was he in prison in the Netherlands? For repeatedly raping a 12-year-old girl?

[–] johan@feddit.nl 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I totally agree with you and fuck this guy, but there is some context to his sentence here in the Netherlands:

One legal distinction is that Van de Velde is unlikely to have been convicted of rape had he stood trial in the Netherlands rather than England. In England, sex with a 12-year-old is rape, regardless of the circumstances: an under-16 cannot legally consent. But after he was extradited to the Netherlands, having serving almost a year of his prison sentence, he was released after less than a month. Under Dutch law, his crime was deemed to be the lesser offence of ontucht, sexual acts that violate social-ethical norms.

From https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/30/netherlands-child-rapist-olympics-steven-van-de-velde

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh I know. It's disgusting, but it's the law and you can't retroactively change it. But they could, at the very least, not let the fucker on their Olympics team.

[–] johan@feddit.nl 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

100% agree. I'm Dutch and he's sent there to represent me/us/the country, it's fucking disgusting.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's interesting, isn't it, that none of the people in this thread defending him being on the team seem to be Dutch.

[–] Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is it? What do you read into that?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That Dutch people are apparently not as supportive of a child rapist from their country than other people from other countries are.

[–] Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You, like most people in this thread, are confusing support for a person with support for a form of punishment which is humanitarian and rehabilitative, rather than vengeful and punitive.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

How is a year in prison for repeatedly raping a 12-year-old girl either humanitarian or rehabilitative?

He called it nonsense. He joked about finding 10-year-olds at this Olympics. He has never made a public apology. Where is the sign rehabilitation?

[–] friendlymessage@feddit.org 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

He joked about finding 10-year-olds at this Olympics.

WTF? Seriously?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Someone in another thread showed a deleted Instagram post, but I can't find it now. I suppose it could have been a photoshop or something. Also, I don't speak Dutch so I could only approximate that's what it said. Anyway, the rest is definitely true.

[–] yamanii@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The times article said he was very transparent and remorseful though. I find it really bad that you people think a country would be so desperate as to let a criminal off the hook just because he's good at some sport, it's not like he's a powerful politician or something.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Oh, well if the Times article said so.

Did they show exactly how he was remorseful? Because it didn't include a public apology.