WEBVTT - What's the deal with diplomatic immunity? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.680 Brought to you by the all neween Toyota Corolla. Welcome 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:14.240 to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.200 welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and Charles W. 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:20.760 Chuck Bryant's with me. Jerry's here, so it's the whole gang. 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:27.400 It's stuff you should know. What's that? It's our dude 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.040 little theme song that was good? Thank you? Can you 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:36.000 hear like trumpet's going? Doc Severnson baseline on that Doc Severnson? 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:41.360 That dates us. People are like, who's our senior halls guy? 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.120 Doc Severnson For people who don't know, was Johnny Carson's 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.479 band leader on the Tonight Show? And I don't remember 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:53.000 Arsenio was a band at all? Oh wait, it was 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:59.840 a dude. They're always the weirdest flakes with band leaders. Yeah, like, um, 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.280 Paul Shaffer, he's a little odd. I love the guy, 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.360 but here it's had odd. Didn't this guy wear like 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:12.680 tales like tuxedo? Remember with Tales and News for that matter? 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:16.360 Who was Chevy Chases and Magic Johnson's bands man? Remember 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.720 those ships? No? Yeah, short lived and that's why I 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:26.880 don't remember them. Uh, it's a chuck. Yes, Um, I wonder, 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.280 have you ever heard of diplomatic community? I have, because 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.240 I've seen Lethal Weapon two. What do you what is that? 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:38.240 That was the basically the premise of that whole movie. 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:43.560 Diplomatic Community was this South African diplomat who was I 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.039 think he was. He's just doing bad stuff. Oh yeah, 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.760 well that was the apartheid era, yeah, and it was 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:51.760 all under you know. He even said at one point 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.520 like I have diplomatic community. And that's when spoiler alert, 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.640 that's when Gibson shot him in the face. I don't 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:01.080 know about the face, but I think he killed him 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:07.000 and said something like immunity revoked. Man, I don't think 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:11.239 he said that, yeah, exactly, wow, and said I don't 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:18.920 like Jewish people. I'm mel Gibson what a jerk? Wow? 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.400 Yeah yeah, yeah you did. I'm calling him out as 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:28.960 an anti Semite right here, Jenish you put like an echo? Yeah? Um, 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:35.600 so uh sorry about that. I have heard of diplomatic community, okay, um. 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.200 I've seen Lethal Weapon too, I think, and I don't 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.399 remember any of that. Yeah, I think it was part two. 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.400 Maybe I've just seen the one, which one is Joe Pesci. 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:49.760 I don't remember. You're thinking loaded weapon. That was good. Actually, 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:52.160 as far as Sposco, that one was pretty good. Yeah. 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:57.880 Uh yeah, it was like hotshots level good. Anyway, Chuck. 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:00.560 A lot of people on Twitter, I want to know 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:03.280 what diplomatic community was or how it worked. Howd that 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.640 come up? I just asked. I was trying to think 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:07.280 of stuff to write about, so I was like, oh, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.640 that's the people of Twitter. Um and a couple of 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:12.919 people said diplomatic community. So I was like, oh, that's 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.440 a good idea. So I would did a little research 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:17.919 and wrote a post and like, here we are, like 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.680 diplomatic community. We're about to explain it. It's like one 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.120 of those things that everybody knows about, but it doesn't 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:26.320 really know the nuts and bolts of it. I thought 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.079 it was very interesting and it's pretty easy to understand too, 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:34.320 especially if you take out my terrible sentences. They're not terrible. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.680 The structure. You just like to write, man, you like words, Yeah, 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:40.920 you like to get those fingers a little too much. 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.200 It's like short sentence. What is that? I'll take three 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.480 of those things and put them together. I like it, though, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.280 you man, why aren't you a novelist? I don't know, 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:57.280 work on that okay, okay, so um, we're talking diplomatic community. 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:02.680 It ain't anything new if at least four thousand years 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:07.920 old at least. And we know this because remember Hammurabi. 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.160 He was the first guy to come up with a 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.520 set of laws, the Code of Hammurabi. And it was like, 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:16.640 remember this thing. I don't remember what we talked about 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:18.880 it in but it was like, if you see someone 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:23.039 burning their house burning and you go to help them 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.600 get their stuff out of their house, but you steal something, 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:28.440 you're put to death. There's a lot of smiting. If 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.440 you covet your neighbor's goat, you're put to death. And 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.280 he came up with the eye for an eye here, um, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.440 and it was the first set of laws. Hammurabi also 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.080 has the distinction of being the first person who is 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:44.080 documented to have broken the spirit of diplomatic community. Yeah, 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:48.200 he may be responsible for the phrase kill the messenger. Yeah, 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.279 I don't think he killed anybody. He didn't know shun 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:56.120 smite the messenger, don't protect the messenger if you don't 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.599 like his news exactly. That's kind of what it came 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:03.000 down to. But his his basically, some someone sent an 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.320 envoy and I don't know what the message was or 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.920 who sent the envoy. There was probably like only two 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.200 or three other civilizations at the time, so it had 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.320 to be one of them. Um. But they they he 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.520 didn't like what they had to say, so he said, 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:19.960 you know what, I'm not providing your protection back to 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:24.320 your homeland. Good luck because and he was essentially a 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:28.480 diplomat being set loose without protection, right, which is in 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.560 violation of the diplomatic community of one part of it. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:37.560 That's Um. Thomas Jefferson didn't like the idea so much. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.839 He thought, well, this doesn't make any sense. You're basically 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.359 just giving permission for spies to get in there and 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:47.360 do what the heck they want. Yeah, and he he Um. 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.640 That was also the sentiment of the French Revolution, the 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.960 people who ran the French Revolution and the post revolution government, 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.599 And which is kind of funny because Thomas Jefferson was 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:00.720 the ambassador to France during that time and he was saying, 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:06.320 diplomatic community doesn't make any sense, even though I enjoy it, Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Uh, 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:09.520 and you point out that it's really kind of the 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.880 same over the years, and in fact, um almost wrongly, 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:17.360 has not changed much over the years. Yeah. Like it's 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.719 it was one of those things that was perfected pretty 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.400 early on, I mean around the time of Hamma Rabbi, 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.400 and then it was added to in the Renaissance, and yeah, 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:27.960 it hasn't changed. And now it's kind of the point 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.000 where yeah, it probably should change. Yeah, they should maybe 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.279 look into the nuts and bolts of it a little bit. 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.880 So the first concept, the one that Hamma Rabbi violated, 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:42.720 is this concept, this principle of personal and viold inviolable. Oh, man, 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:44.240 I knew I was going to have a problem with 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:49.320 this one. Inviolability. Yeah, it's a mouthful. You can't violate 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:54.320 the person of a diplomat as part of diplomatic community, 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:56.240 that's right. And you make a very good point in 0:06:56.279 --> 0:07:00.040 here that um it's it's a great concept, but it 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.960 is only a strong concept if people observe it, because 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.840 if they don't, then you know, there it goes right 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.080 out the window. It's almost like an honor code, it is. 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:15.400 It's it's saying, like you, this diplomat is untouchable, but 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:18.600 also your diplomat is untouchable when they come to my country. 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:20.640 Don't kill mine and won't kill yours, right, And it 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.840 works the other way too. If I kill yours, you're 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.720 gonna kill mine. So it's this kind of um truce 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:32.640 between nations that have um diplomatic missions within one another 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.520 that you don't touch our people, we don't touch your people. 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.160 To diplomat it is sacra saying yeah, but a tenuous one. 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:40.960 Back in the day, it sounds like it sounds like 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.080 it could go go south and turn into you killed mine, 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:48.280 I'll kill yours. It could. Um. There was Genghis Khan. 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:53.360 Actually Um was a an incredibly progressive ruler. You mean 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:59.240 ginge hiss Jengis That's right, Jengis is it? Jingis? Yes? Okay, 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.600 that's I mean at least at firm bank. How was 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.440 that where we learned that? Yeah, Jengis Khan um he uh. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:11.360 He was very much an observer of diplomatic community, and 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:18.120 he sent an envoy to the a mirror of Kara's Charasaman. 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.840 I believe it was in modern day Iran. It was 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.880 in modern day Iran, uh in parts of Afghanistan. He 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.160 said this envoy saying like, hey, I'm the ruler of 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.760 the land where the sun rises. You're the ruler of 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.960 the land where the sun sets. Let's establish a friendly 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:39.840 peace treaty and trade relations. Yea. And he took it 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.920 really seriously, like if you messed around with that with him, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:44.959 it would it was bad news for you. Right. Well, 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:49.480 the Amir did mess around with it. He had the envoy, 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:54.319 the five hundred Muslim strong envoy from the Mongols killed 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:59.400 and had two Mongol representatives shaved and sent back to 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.200 Genghisa on Jengis Khan, and Jengis con said say goodbye 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.199 to your empire and I'm going to utterly destroy And 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:11.959 he didn't because specifically because the diplomatic community of his 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.120 people was violated by the ruler. So before we move on, 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:16.960 I think it's a good time for a message break. 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.760 Where were we? So there were lots of envoys, some 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:30.000 respect in some violation early on, right, But even when 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.080 it was violated, some rulers have said no, still not 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.199 going to do anything about it. Like Darius the first 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:40.600 movie the three hundred. Uh yeah, not there. It's not 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.280 the three hundred, No, it's just three hundred. But yeah, 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.280 I saw it. It's like Edie brick Hell and New Bohemians. 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:52.240 It's like it wasn't look at her now, all right, 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:56.120 So why is it the three hundred. Yeah, it's just 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.040 three d Well. Anyway, that actually happened at the beginning, 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.640 you know where he kick the envoy into the pit. 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:03.920 Oh yeah, I don't know if he actually kicked him 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:08.040 into a pit. But the Spartans did killed two envoys 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.840 from Darius the first and he had some Spartan nobles 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.800 with him when he learned the news, and he refused 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:19.480 to harm them because he said, quote, it would wreak 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.400 havoc of all human law. Yeah, basically, it would send 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:27.679 us down this path of retribution back and forth. And 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.679 and you know it might not even be a law anymore. 0:10:32.000 --> 0:10:34.480 You don't touch diplomats, don't touch him. And again, this 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.959 thing has been so ingrained chuck for so long that, um, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.480 there was a power vacuum that was left after Rome fell, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.240 and uh, there were a couple of hundred years before 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.720 Charlemagne was pronounced the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:52.559 And during this time in between those two, in this 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:56.240 power vacuum, it was so well established that you didn't 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.440 mess with a diplomat that to kill a diplomat would 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:01.640 have been like a greater crime than killing a king 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:05.240 in many cases. Yeah, and the you know it should 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:09.160 be obvious why you need to protect diplomats, but I 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.320 guess we should just state diplomats. It's rooted in the 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.480 word diplomacy. They are there to be brokers of peace 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:20.560 between nations, or at the very least, ah, brokers of 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.960 messages of peace and trying to avoid war. Like they're 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.960 not like negotiating peace. But they're they're almost well they 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:32.120 are in some cases, but almost said they're neutral. They're 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.840 not neutral, but there is a certain neutrality to being 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.040 a messenger. I think, yeah, and and yes some of them. 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.520 It's and it isn't just messages, it's part of it, 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.840 but it is brokering peace, attempting to bring peace or 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.959 maintain peace between two countries. And so this is kind 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:54.800 of a special talent. It's a special job and as 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.040 such it must be afforded special protection because if they 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:00.400 weren't protected, they would be killed, and if they were killed, 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.360 no one would want to do it. If no one 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:04.080 would want to do it, then there would be more war. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:09.800 Right plus speaking of war, if since a diplomat is 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:14.800 often the last person in a country trying to broke 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.560 her peace between that country and the diplomats country, if 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.800 the peace negotiations fall through, the diplomat has to be 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.480 able to get out of that country. Yeah, usually or 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:30.240 hopefully with the assistance of the host country. Yeah. And 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.240 that still happens today. As you point out, you go 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.240 to New York City and you might on any given 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:39.040 day see the New York Police Department escorting diplomat cars 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.520 back and forth between the U N and the W hotel, 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:47.000 right or wherever they like to stay. Um, So it's 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:52.280 still still very much, very much the same, like, you know, 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:57.400 not only protection, but like safe passage. In World War Two, 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:02.959 apparently the Nazis um gave safe passage to the diplomats, 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:08.120 the Allied diplomats in the country when war was declared. Yeah, 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.840 all right, which is kind of surprising. And then Benghazi 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.680 was a big deal in part because the Libyan government 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:21.920 was expected to protect the people who populate the embassies 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:26.080 in that country. Yeah, and Christopher Stevens was killed. Yeah. 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.480 US ambassador is it an ambassador the same thing as 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.640 a diplomat. It's a type of diplomat, but a diplomat 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:35.400 isn't necessarily an ambassador. That's right, because we'll find out 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.280 there are lots of people who have diplomatic status. Yeah, 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.160 you can be an antiche and emissary, you all. There's 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.680 all sorts of things a company typically, Yeah, in the US, 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.199 the diplomat or the head diplomat is the ambassador. And 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:53.120 it also applies to UM, to the family and the 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.120 domestic workers. Yeah, people that work for you. Um, if 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.760 you have a driver, if you have a made your car, housekeeper, 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:03.520 your car. It's all protected under diplomatic community. And you 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:05.920 know what, my friend John, I wonder if you ever 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.240 wrote this. My friend John in l A wrote a 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:14.040 book about called Embassy Kids that I don't think he 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.280 ever got published. That sounded really good to me, and 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.200 it was about diplomat kids in New York City in 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:23.800 the eighties. Just raising Hell. Yeah, I need to call 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:25.440 him and ask him about that, because I always thought 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:27.000 it was a great idea for a book. Call him 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.680 right now. We have fine, that's right. UM, So you 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.640 just brought up the second principle. There's two principles that um. 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:39.680 Modern diplomacy and diplomatic community is based on personal and 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:45.600 violability and extra territoriality. Yeah, that one's kind of neat, 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:47.520 and that's what we just touched on it. It is 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.000 the house, you live in, the car, you drive everywhere 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.000 you are. Basically it might as well be your homeland. Yeah, 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:57.800 it's considered to be situated on your home soil. So 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:01.960 therefore the cops have about as much right uh to 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:06.120 rating those places, are entering those places unbidden as they 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.280 would your house in your native country. And that's the 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.920 type of legal fiction like I'm in my car, I'm 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.400 gonna smoke some weed and blow it in your face cop. Yeah, 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.040 and you can't do anything about it. Okay, So here's 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.720 here's here's part of a misconception. Technically, the cop can 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:26.720 very much do something about it. They can arrest you, 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:29.920 They can take you to jail, they can hold you 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.240 until you have a hearing, and then once you have 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.480 a hearing, then you're going to come face to face 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:38.440 with the brick while a diplomatic community, because the court 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.320 is going to say, we have zero jurisdiction over this 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.080 person and you have to let them go and drop 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.600 all charges. So basically, they can disrupt your life. Um, 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:50.760 which they probably would if you blew pot smoke in 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.320 their face. Yeah, but they might not if it was 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:57.240 something else because they're like, it's not worth the trouble. Right, 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.200 So I've got I have a whole um a little 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:07.080 scene here that displays all this. Right, let's do it. Okay, 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:11.160 we're in England, very nice. Uh, And there's a Russian 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:16.160 diplomat who is leaving the country to go back to Russia. 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.200 He's drunk on vodka. He's drunk on something because he's 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:23.240 racked up quite a bit of debt at this particular pub. Well, 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:25.440 the public owner finds out that he's about to leave 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.680 and stiff him and he grabs the guy has him 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.720 grabbed and is holding him, jailing him at his pub. 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.320 At the time, this is perfectly legal, like there were 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.280 debtors prisons, Like if you're a debtor, you had not 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:45.200 that many rights, right, Yeah, he got he wanted his rubles, yeah, 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:49.000 from the Russian. So um Peter the Great finds out 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:53.520 about this and it's contexts um Elizabeth the First and says, hey, 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.840 just wrang her up. Yeah, Liz, Well, you can imagine 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.600 like how long this correspondence is taking. This guy was 0:16:59.800 --> 0:17:03.320 being held in the pub. So um Peter the Great 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.400 asked for his envoys release and Elizabeth the First said, yes, 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.360 of course, we'll release him. And not only that you too, 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.080 who are legally holding this man in your pub You're 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.640 going to jail? Like, what do we do? And she's 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:18.800 like just shut up, um, And then England passed an 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.960 act I think the following year that said foreign embassies 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.720 are untouchable and outside the jurisdiction in the law, including debt. 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:30.520 Cod Yes, so what your codified personal and violability and 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.159 extra territoriality in this act? And it does it? It 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:40.399 reveals something else about diplomatic community corruption. Yeah, but what's 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.520 the deal with debt is that can't still be true? Right? Like? 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:45.280 You can't come over here and rack up a bunch 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:47.600 of debt and then just leave it, can you? As 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:49.640 far as I know, as far as I could tell 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:52.399 you can. The problem is it's very hard to do 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.080 because if somebody finds out you have diplomatic community, they're 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.000 not going to extend your line of credit because you 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:02.560 can legally walk out. Yeah, and you're well, I guess 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.520 it depends on who you are and how a corruptive 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:06.719 a person you are. But if you're interested in remaining 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:08.879 a diplomat, you're gonna keep your nose clean and not 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:10.840 do stuff like that. Sure, Now, I don't think that's 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.720 too much trouble for a diplomat to get credit. But 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.040 the line of credits coming from their home country, like 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.640 they have their credit card or whatever from their home country, 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:23.000 so they don't they don't need to establish the line 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.240 of credit the local tailor that they can just get 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.919 spindy with their own rubles um. But that does illustrate 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.399 a big problem like corruption still remains. It might not 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:35.399 be in racking up debt and leaving, which it could still, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.320 but there's corruption all over the place. Because when you 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.159 send a diplomat to a foreign country, you're saying you 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:45.680 can't be prosecuted. Yeah, yeah, and it's that's a very 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:47.840 tantalizing situation. Like you said, I think if you're a 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.560 career diplomat, you're gonna keep your nose clean. Yeah, but 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:58.359 I bet you prostitution happens. I bet you illegal drugs 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.600 happen more than you would think. Apparently, drinking and driving 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.280 is an enormous thing. Drinking and driving, And we'll get 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:07.359 to the traffic tickets, but that's obviously a big one. 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:08.880 Because you can just park wherever the heck you want. 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:13.600 It doesn't matter, so technically you're still under when you're 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.359 in a foreign country with diplomatic community, you're subject to 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:21.240 the laws of your homeland then, um and the courts 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:24.199 and all that jurisdiction. And that has happened here and 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:28.199 there over the years, Like people have been recalled and 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:33.400 prosecuted for crimes they committed in another country with diplomatic community. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:35.720 They've been tried and prosecuted for it back in their 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:38.439 home countries or that law. As we'll see with some 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:43.480 of these UH instances, sometimes it's a hand slap and 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:47.600 removal of your credentials as a diplomat, like you can't 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.560 do this anymore. You're fired essentially, but we're not going 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:54.840 to like prosecute you. But the the depending on the crime, 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:59.760 depending on the person too, um, the sending government, the 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:06.720 that the diplomats home country is ruled by might very 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.200 well just look the other way. Traffic tickets, like you said, 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.040 it depends on what it is. Let's talk traffic tickets. 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:18.040 In two thousand eleven July of two thousand eleven, the 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.600 city of New York, which is where the u N 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:23.639 is situated, so there's tons of diplomats running around, they 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.240 were owed it was sixteen point seven million dollars and 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.840 unpaid traffic tickets from people with diplomatic community in that month. 0:20:32.560 --> 0:20:35.000 Now not just that month, but in that month, if 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:37.679 you took a snapshot of how much money was the 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:40.440 total that was owed. Yeah, we found a great cracked 0:20:40.600 --> 0:20:45.840 um article the sixth and most Ridiculous Abuses of Diplomatic Community, 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:50.280 and they did cover the parking tickets and between and 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:55.199 two thousand two foreign diplomats got more than a hundred 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:59.639 and fifty thousand parking tickets, not fines, a hundred and 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:02.639 fifty thousand tickets. And they broke it down that is 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.640 seventy parking tickets a day. And they're like, you would 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:12.080 almost literally have to try hard to do illegal things 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.240 in your car to wrack up that many parking tickets. 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:19.080 And that is what accrued eventually to like close to 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.400 seventeen million bucks. They said the biggest defender was Russia 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:27.320 with thirty two thousand unpaid parking tickets. That's awesome. Yeah, 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.080 that's really justlike thumbing your nose. And you know, if 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:31.840 you ever been in driving in New York and you 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:36.280 see people, if you see a diplomat double park, I 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:37.840 don't know how to finish that sentence. I was gonna 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:40.480 recommend something, but I don't know what to do. Yell 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.280 and scream. Yeah, I mean anything. If you slash the 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:46.480 tires on their car, that's you're You're in trouble. You 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.120 don't have diplomatic community. Just pick up that condom off 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.399 the sidewalk and throw it at him. So there's a 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:55.720 what is a Coney Island white face? Yeah, don't pick 0:21:55.760 --> 0:22:00.360 those up. Actually, Um, that's good advice, chuck. Uh. So 0:22:01.119 --> 0:22:05.359 you are required to follow the laws of your host 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:10.000 country as per the u N Convention on Diplomatic Community. 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.399 From h They don't just say go do anything you want. 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:17.119 They say you can't be prosecuted. Yes, Um, I'm supposed 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:19.000 to be a good boy. And there are cases, like 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:23.239 you said, there's there's people who have been prosecuted. For 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:25.800 the most part, though it's it's looked the other way, 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:30.600 especially on things like speeding, traffic tickets, parking tickets, driving 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:38.240 drunk um. And because this extends to the person's home 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:42.920 and to their workers, their employees um, some people have 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:48.119 been accused lately, especially of human trafficking. Because your house 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:54.240 is considered sovereign soil um, it's outside of American labor laws. 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:57.320 So you can write a contract with somebody in your 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.320 home country and say, come work for us. We'll work 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.120 you forty hours a week and you get Sundays off 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:05.600 and you only have to prepare three meals a day, 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:08.439 and um, it's gonna be easy. It will pay you 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:10.960 X amount of dollars and when they get to your house, 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:14.120 you can literally tear the contract up in front of them, 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:18.359 lock the doors to keep them from leaving, and work 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:22.000 them like a dog. Um. The thing is is this 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:27.919 violates not just American law, but international law. That's human trafficking. 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:33.919 And it's apparently like unnervingly frequent. How often this happens. 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.280 Maybe not in lock the door and work you for 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:40.200 no money for a hundred and fifty hours a week, 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:44.960 but to some degree. Anytime there's somebody who feels like 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.480 they're not free to come and go as they please, 0:23:48.000 --> 0:23:49.879 they're not being paid what they were told they were 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:53.400 going to be paid, that's a violation. Um. And so yeah, 0:23:53.440 --> 0:23:55.119 they're starting to call it what it is, which is 0:23:55.200 --> 0:23:57.800 human trafficking, which I predict will mean that it drops 0:23:57.840 --> 0:24:02.639 off dramatically. It's kidnap thing. Yeah, it's false imprisonment, forced labor. 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:07.600 So let's say these are well that's not minor offense, 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:10.680 but speeding and things like that, or minor offenses. They're 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:13.959 willing to look the other way if they do something 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:18.200 really bad, Um, then sometimes you can't look the other way, 0:24:18.200 --> 0:24:20.960 and you actually have to address it. If you're the 0:24:21.600 --> 0:24:24.040 country that sent them, boy, who's in trouble, well, you 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:26.320 gotta address it between the two countries, Like we got 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:29.760