The United States: No Special Favors for Big Shots

In New York, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is treated like every other suspect.

The Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair is getting more confusing the longer it goes on. Was there a sexual attack, a rape? Is the International Monetary Fund boss really a perpetrator? Or is the whole thing just an intrigue, an elaborate plot designed to discredit a potential candidate for the French presidency? Was he not even in the hotel at the time of the attack but innocently having dinner with his daughter in a restaurant?

The French media have already apparently decided to support Strauss-Kahn as quickly as the U.S. media decided to condemn him. The question that remains is whether he will be treated fairly by the American justice system.

The first remarkable thing to emerge is the fact that the New York police went about its business without fear or favor. They were faced with a serious allegation, the alleged perpetrator was still near the scene — although about to board a flight out of the country — and they acted. Ever since the arrest, Strauss-Kahn has been treated exactly like any other suspect in the United States: namely, preliminary detention, interrogation, consideration of the evidence and a hearing before an arraignment judge. Nobody in the United States can be so famous that he or she escapes this often-embarrassing sequence of events. Countless politicians, Hollywood stars and famous people can attest to that.

It’s a lot different here in Europe. Recently, the difference in understanding of jurisprudence was illustrated by how Europe handled the Roman Polanski affair when he was wanted in the United States to face possible imprisonment on rape charges. Many Europeans decided that an artist shouldn’t be treated “like that.”

In Italy, at least ever since Berlusconi, we’ve learned that many can evade justice with all sorts of trickery. The French knew about Strauss-Kahn’s prior record of similar attacks and had reacted with a shrug of the shoulders. And here in Austria, as evidenced by the accomplishments of certain government prosecutors recently, we fear they might end up prosecuting the victim instead of the perpetrator.