I met Bart Debie (at left in the photo, with Luk Van Nieuwenhuysen) this time last year in Antwerp and Brussels. He was one of numerous friendly and helpful members of Vlaams Belang who accompanied the attendees of the Counterjihad Brussels conference and made sure that our facilities and victualling were smoothly taken care of. You’ll never meet a more personable and outgoing fellow.
After a long legal struggle, Bart is about to begin a year-long prison sentence for the crime of “racism”. Diana West has this report:
“Funny enough, one does get used to the news.”
That’s what Bart Debie told me on confirming that, yes, he has been ordered to report to a Belgian prison on Wednesday—tomorrow—to begin serving a one-year term for “racism.”
Let me explain the ghastly surrealism of this sentence as meted out to this former police officer and former Antwerp City Council Member by the Belgian state: Debie neither made the racist remarks at issue, nor was he even present during the incident. This only adds horrific dashes of Kafka and Koestler to a politically correct prosecution of a member of the political opposition by what may be best described as fascistic little Belgium. Of course, expressing incredulity over Debie’s utter innocence of “racism” is not to admit to the legitimacy of such “racism” prosecutions. Any such prosecutorial curb on speech is a gross violation of freedom of speech; but there is a doubly unjust and even absurd aspect to this case given Debie’s non-involvement. Hence the Kafka- and Koestler-esque touches.
But there’s also a touch of Dumas to the story. This struck me when I first listened to Debie tell his tale last summer during a visit to Antwerp, a city of about 500,000 people including some 40,000 illegal aliens mainly from Turkey and Morocco.
– – – – – – – – –
Once upon a time, Debie, a clean-cut and athletic-looking man of 34, was a senior police officer. When I met him, he was on the city council, but at age 25, he was the youngest police superintendent in the country who would later be nationally celebrated for leading successful police campaigns against mafia-run prostitution, human trafficking and illegal drugs organizations in Antwerp. Then came a night in 2003, after which things get both complicated and nightmarish.
I am still trying to master the facts of this five-year-plus case, but here’s how I understand the salient points: While responding to complaints about a pair of drunks, Debie and his policemen were attacked by five Turkish men wielding a baseball bat and a knife. Two witnesses testified to this attack in court. After helping to subdue and arrest the attackers, Debie was called away to supervise a SWAT team elsewhere in Antwerp, and his men returned to the station with the Turkish prisoners, who later claimed they had been beaten and subjected to racism while at the station. Debie believes the beating did indeed occur in his absence, although his ultimate conviction was for creating, as he explains it, “an atmosphere which led other people to say such things” as—get this—”Now we have five lambs here and we can slaughter them.”
Initially, Debie was given a suspended sentence in what turned out to be the first of two trials. “I was very happy with the first sentence,” Debie recalled. The policeman who admitted to making the “racist” comments went unpunished and now serves, Debie told me, on a “team for managing diversity in Antwerp.” Meanwhile, the Turks were never charged for their assault on police.
Read the rest at Diana West’s blog. She recommends contacting the Belgian embassy to express your concerns. Here’s the information for the USA:
Embassy of Belgium in the United States
3330 Garfield Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
Phone: | 202-333-6900 | |
Fax: | 202-333-3079 | |
202-333-5457 | ||
Email: | Washington@diplobel.org | |
Website URL: | www.diplobel.us |
Remember: Be polite!
Using the catch-all of “racism”, political speech is being criminalized throughout most of Europe. And don’t think for a moment that the United States is immune: once the Apostle of Hope and Change is installed in power, we will begin our own journey down the same road.
I’m certain that readers who attended Counterjihad Brussels 2007 remember Bart’s smiling face. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers during the difficult times ahead.
”Now we have five lambs here and we can slaughter them.”
Exsqueeze me, but isn’t the lamb / slaughter argot a favorite code of the Islamists in reference to throat-slitting and decapitation of captives or hostages?
I know I’ve read this elsewhere and would appreciate it if anyone with a direct link would post it here.
What an absolute travesty of justice. It is a sickening example of how the EU facists impose their dogma by force and intimidation.
And where are the simpering liberal-lefties such as the corrupt Amnesty International (I will be emailing them btw) demanding that this gentleman’s human rights be upheld? They’d be on this case quicker than a fly round the proverbial if an “enricher” was treated in such a despicable – and in this case clearly racist – manner.
To think that the lives of thousands of allied soldiers were sacrificed to liberate Europe from the rule of tyranny only for tyranny to triumph 60 years later desecrates the memory of those who gave their today for this rotten tomorrow.
This festering swamp of cowardly, duplcitous, corrupt and hypocritical reptiles have defacated all over democracy in Europe and I pray that one day, these facist traitors will answer for their crimes.
Shame on Belgium.
And so it begins.
Ireland’s no vote has delayed total EU control by 12 months, but pressure is being applied to ensure a “yes” vote next autumn, with full ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in January 2010.
These people are not going to stop, they will never allow themselves to be voted out, and they will become more and more repressive as the situation in Europe worsens.
It is time for people to think in revolutionary terms, not yet physical revolution, but mental revolution at the very least.
We must start to assemble movements all over Europe, and most importantly we must do so quietly.
Only when there are sufficient numbers should we make ourselves known in the form of street demonstrations.
If we are large, and frighten the authorities, more will join us.
If, as has been the case to date, we are small, we will be intimidated and nobody will join us.
We must start to do this NOW. In January 2010 it may be impossible.
The policeman who admitted to making the “racist” comments went unpunished and now serves, Debie told me, on a “team for managing diversity in Antwerp.” Meanwhile, the Turks were never charged for their assault on police.
Seems to me that the charge wasn’t about racism: it was about getting Debie.
No wonder crime grows rampant, when you vilify and jail your best policemen 🙁
It’s just weird. The criminals can basically scream ‘racism’, and the police goes to jail?
Here goes the Rule of Law.
Speaking of which, what Belgium does here is a violation of a fundamental EU principle. Someone should take this to the .. ehm .. actually, where does one go with a case like this? Human Rights Watch?
It’s poignant that this appalling case should happen in Belgium, home of the EUSSR’s HQ.
After the EUSSR has steamrollered over Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, we’ll have conclusive proof that we’re living under a fascist regime.
After all, following Ireland’s No vote, why were there no public announcements to the effect that the Lisbon Treaty was defunct, which, under the EUSSR’s own rules, it should therefore now be?
Yet another example of the what I call the Multiculturalist Reich in action. That an innocent man can be so easily convicted of racism in a supposedly free society is horrible. Sadly, it’s becoming the norm in Europe. And if Obama gets elected president of the US, we’ll see more of this insanity here. Be prepared for new Thought Crime laws and severe restrictions on speech not deemed acceptable by the Lords of PC. Conservatives beware!
What would they do if everyone spoke up and if everyone stood behind those singled out and accused of racism and other stupid trumped up reasons? We are all looking out for ourselves, and that is where the problem lies. People need to stand up in unison; not just idly watch while others start falling one by one to the wayside. This is exactly how the western world has gotten themselves into this pickle, by not reacting with full force in the beginning. Now people will have to rise up with limited numbers. It is a good thing God and one person make a majority; otherwise, we would all be screwed.
We need to start a campaign about Bart Debie’s case. Some of my initial ideas are as follows:
(1) Find the details of the Belgian Ambassador in your country and write to them BY SNAIL MAIL asking them for an explanation about this apparent politically motivated incarceration. The details for the UK are as follows:
Jean-Michel Veranneman
Ambassador
EMBASSY OF BELGIUM
17 Grosvenor Crescent
London SW1X 7EE
T 020 7470 3700
F 020 7470 3795
london@diplobel.fed.be
Watch the following video that illustrates the importance of writing: http://uk.youtube.com/
watch?v=Cf1qrJofX58
&eurl
Readers could post information about Belgian embassies in their own countries on this thread and explain what they are doing to help the cause of Bart Debie. In this way the thread could become a source of information on activism on this issue. After all, today Bart Debie, tomorrow you and me and other freedom campaigners.
2) Celebrate Bart as a political prisoner and champion of freedom in order to give his situation maximum visibility. You could perhaps end blog posts, comments and emails, etc. with ‘Bart Debie [number] days of incarceration left – the cause of freedom will prevail’. Also we need to design a ‘Free Bart Debie’ logo for blog sidebars. People could make YouTube videos about this issue and the broader issue of independence for Flanders.
(3) We should promote the independence of Flanders, as the Belgian state’s attitude to political dissent is unacceptable. This incarceration demonstrates that Belgium is a state that is dangerous place for civil liberties. See the Flemish Republic website: http://www.flemishrepublic.org/ – there is the option to subscribe to a newsletter. By supporting freedom for Flanders, learning about the struggle of the Flemish people and educating others about it will irritate the Belgian government and put pressure on it to stop political oppression. Some people believe that Belgium is a model for the European Union so by supporting Flemish independence you may also irritate the EU as well which is an added bonus.
A couple of hours ago, a good friend of mine in England sent me an E-mail Concerning Bart and asking what could be done. I already knew because I had received notification from other sources it is not that I was appalled, nothing can appall me when it comes to the antics of our so called political elite. I met Bart during the demonstration which had been forbidden by Fat Fredie on sept the 11th last year this was my reply. I hope my friend forgives me for publishing our correspondences.
At the moment nothing, things will only change when the system breaks down, and that shouldn’t be too long we can only hope that he survives his time in jail , it is not that I am cynical it is just that I am realist. I remember talking too him last year in the Flemish parliament and while walking along the road. He was a nice decent person but decency doesn’t get you brownie points as the Americans say, when they want a scapegoat. They want a too hang him out to dry as an example too the rest of Vlaams Belang. He is a symbolic head, like the real ones that were stuck on spikes at Micklebring gate in York to deter the others from committing crimes, in his case political perceived crimes, innocence has no meaning, we saw this in the charges brought against Nick Griffen of the BNP. It doesn’t matter what you think of Nick Griffen the trial and retrial were a despicable political act, to put it sarcastically by a morally challenged Government. This alone would stop me from ever voting labour The real problem is that the numb nuts who have thought this up, assume that the populace are stupid and will agree with their moral bankrupt ways. We saw this with the Archbishop of Canterbury over Sharia law, one of the highlights of this year for me was too watch the dissimulating bastard wriggle. Sorry about the word bastard, I should have used the correct PC version, gentleman of indeterminate parentage.
I personally do not know what to think, well I do, if I am honest. I think that we have lost our moral and ethical compass, in a world of economic globalisation and anything goes capitalism, we have lost our way. Make as much money in as short a time as possible and dam the consequences, is the motto of our country now. What ever you think of Chamberlain he was an honorable man. So was Churchill and Ernest Bevin, Kier Hardy, I could go on. None I fear of our leaders today would come anywhere near any of them. I read somewhere a couple of days ago about a conservative M.P. who had a meeting with someone in the Russian Mafia on his boat about funding the conservative party and getting round the funding rules. The man should have been shot. I suspect that nothing will happen. The immoral pigs that are our political elite,will allow him to still eat at the trough, and chastise him, not for doing wrong, but getting caught.
I sometimes think that I am a hundred years out of date. I have often joked with friends that I am the last of the Victorians. Being an history buff and a patriotic Englishman it is perhaps understandable that I look back to a period when it meant something to be called an English gentleman, when I see the low life infestation that has taken over our political system and debase it with their moral and ethical cowardice.
I am afraid we will have to wait until this system breaks down to rid ourselves of this curse.
The only thing we can do is support Bart, I am going to write a letter too him tomorrow and send it care of the Vlaams Belang that way it will certainly get to him. I am certain that they will be monitoring the system to see that nothing happens too him the political fallout would have devastating consequences if anything happened too him while he was in prison. I suggest you do the same and don’t forget a Christmas card.
Deep deep regards
Yorkshire Miner
Aeneas, the badge is a great idea. I totally should make one. I’m into the whole badge thing–I made the banned from LGF badge that is still proudly displayed on my blog (and this one as well).
“…a politically correct prosecution of a member of the political opposition..”
Shouldn’t that read;
..a politically correct persecution of a member of the political opposition.. ?
Belgium is already lost.. The rest of Europe prepares for the same fate.
I’ll write a physical letter (in Danish) to the embassy of Belgium. They’ll have to take the effort of translating it and providing me with a reply. That *will* be brought to the attention of the ambassador himself.
Further, the ambassadors are obliged to tell their government what happens in their countries they are working in. If a dozen ambassadors report that people have reacted to this injustice and see it as a bad omen for the European Union as such, action just might take place.
In general, as reply to YM’s comment, what we can do now is to stand up for what’s right, identify our real friends in doing so, and work hard to get our background right, understand history and develop a more stringent philosophy of how we wish to see society organized, that democracy may survive the pending crisis.
I do not doubt FOR A SECOND that something like that is possible in Belgium. However, is there any account of Debie’s story, other than what he told Miss West? Who keeps, by the way, cringe-makingly little distance to the object of her report and does Debie thus not a favour.
E.S. Queen —
Yes, I know other people (Flemish people included) who have been in contact with Bart Debie personally. The story is true.
He has now been released to some kind of out-of-jail sentence. I will report on that as soon as I know more.
Thank you Baron. I did not doubt the essence of the story and I have found some accounts from the Dutch media (being German enables me to at least read Dutch) which confirm the basic facts. I hate to rely on a single source and Miss West just sounds a tad too adoring for my liking. I’ll post the link to the blog entry I am going to write, if I may.