When North Korea, Iran, or any other anti-American country arrests an American I always side with the poor American who got caught up in Trumped up charges. (Pun intended.)
That changed though with Otto Warmbier. (Now that is an interesting surname.) We know that this guy, don’t call him a kid, he’s 21 years old, actually stole a propaganda poster from a hotel. That is a crime, and each nation gets to decide the punishments for crimes committed within their borders.
Also, do we really want this guy back attending classes at the University of Virginia? Stealing is bad, we all know this. But to steal anything while in North Korea is begging to be sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor, and doesn’t show much in the way of intelligence.
The topper on the cake is that Warmbier, (it’s St. Patty’s Day, and this guy is begging for me to crack open a beer at 8:17 in the morning.) supposedly stole the sign for a church! Umm, how Christian of him.
I say we need to let him rot in the North Korean prison, this is one guy who actually did the crime. Is the sentence harsh, yes, but above the supposed 38th parallel it is to be expected. (Supposed because the demilitarized zone does not run exactly through the 38th parallel.)
Photo by Michael Day – CC 2.0