BICZ8,
As you may have noticed I moved your thread from the ‘Government’ forum to the ‘Debate’ forum and the reason should be obvious. As nobody took your bait on this thread I've decided to respond to your post.
I read the article you linked to and I really don’t see whereas teniente general Bernardo Santana Páez is “bewildered” in the present actions taking place in the justice system but the frustration may well be there. I find it amusing that you should title your thread “Dominican Version of the Miranda Rights” and would ask if you have any knowledge of the Miranda Rights as they relate to the US due to the fact that the US is where the name and law comes from?
I remember well the situation in the US as it relates to matters of the police prior to the 1966 supreme court ruling in favor of Ernesto
Mirando. I also remember the frustration felt by a lot of the police back in those days as that thought that criminals were walking for no reason after being arrested.
It is interesting to note that prior to 1966 the US police had a tendency to handle themselves in contradiction to the US constitution and it took a court order to make the police ‘tow the line’ so to speak as it pertains to rights of individuals be they honest or dishonest.
The Dominican police now seem to be coming under these same ‘tow the line’ procedures as it pertains to peoples rights be they honest or dishonest.
Over time the US police learned that they had to respect an individuals rights of self incrimination by simply reading from a card those rights to the accused prior to questioning. Those words have become so common place that I would venture to say that all board members know them by heart regardless of nationality.
This article seems to be in complete contradiction to what you stated and this is from the president of the Dominican supreme court, Jorge Subero Isa, and explains in a little more detail where this individual is coming from in reference to the ‘rights’ of the people.
In
this supposed case of hábeas corpus who holds the blame? If is was in fact a case of hábeas corpus then there are those that would say that the system worked as planned. I am saying this due to that which is written into the Dominican constitution.
As in a lot of the threads here it all seems to come down to the rights of people and how they should be treated be it in deportation, arrest, questioning and a host of other areas. Along those same lines comes the question as to whether the constitution and laws should be adhered to or whether you should allow the military and police to do their own things as has been the case all along.
It would seem that if the desire is for the advancement of the DR then the military and police must advance their techniques for fighting crime and not stay in the Trujillo and Balaguer mood of operation.
I wish to thank you for the following statement as it made my day, “but eventually this is all going to start taking a toll on the officers. Frustration will start to settle in, the morale of the police force will start to deteriorate (if not already) to the point where officers will all be guilty of dereliction of duty or official misconduct,
as if this is not an already rampant problem in the DR.”
My suggestion? Force the military and police to do their job but do it correctly.
Rick
Edited to add;
This article is a good example of that which needs to be done in this country. So close yet so far away.
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Dominican Version of the Miranda Rights
