[cherdano]

http://en.wikipedia..../Manfred_Rommel

Quote

As the mayor of Stuttgart, he was also known for his effort to give the Red Army Faction terrorists who had committed suicide at the Stuttgart-Stammheim prison a proper burial, despite the concern that the graves would become a pilgrimage point for radical leftists.

[billw55]

kenberg, on 2013-May-07, 16:09, said:

I think when someone is dead we should bury him. Religious views should be respected within reason. By which I mean if his religion forbids cremation we should try hard to avoid it, and if we try hard we should be able to succeed. However if his religion requires some complicated ceremony he should have arranged for it himself, that's not our responsibility. As with many such things, I think this is not so much doing something for him as respecting out own standards.

Personally, I think that by his own actions he surrendered all right to expect any particular handling of his remains.

kenberg, on 2013-May-07, 16:09, said:

I would think there is someplace paupers are buried, with more or less no questions asked. I have not actually been following it, but I try to keep things simple. I believe dead people should be buried, I see no reason to think further about it.An unadvertised burial in an unmarked grave for security reasons would be fine. That we should do, as part of our own standards. Not more, not less.

Agree, an unmarked grave, for reasons of avoiding future unrest at a marked location. Burial at sea would be fine with me. Cremation too. Or any disposal at all that is in accordance with our own culture's standard of dignity. But I see no reason to consider his.

[Zelandakh]

billw55, on 2013-May-08, 07:45, said:

But I see no reason to consider his.

What about his family's? AFAIK they are not radicalised in any way. Funerals are for the living, not the dead. Do you have something against them being able to say "Goodbye" with dignity and according to their beliefs?

[barmar]

Zelandakh, on 2013-May-08, 08:50, said:

What about his family's? AFAIK they are not radicalised in any way. Funerals are for the living, not the dead. Do you have something against them being able to say "Goodbye" with dignity and according to their beliefs?

Isn't the problem that his family has chosen NOT to hold a funeral and bury him themselves? They've mostly disowned him.

[hrothgar]

barmar, on 2013-May-08, 09:00, said:

Isn't the problem that his family has chosen NOT to hold a funeral and bury him themselves?

No

Radio Boston on NPR had some good coverage on this topic a couple days back. The Huffington Post also has a decent article.
http://www.huffingto..._n_3225750.html

There are a bunch of different issues at play, ranging from religious restrictions on how the body should be disposed to conflicting local, state, and federal laws regarding burials.

FWIW, the direct family (the mother and the father) want to bury the body, however, the father isn't being allowed to enter the US, Russia refuses to take the body, the US government doesn't have clear standing and no-one can figure out what set of regulations apply.

[barmar]

Do problems like this happen often? After a serial killer, let's say, is executed, do they typically have a problem finding a place to bury the body?

Should a municipality really have the right to refuse to let someone be buried there, if someone is willing to pay whatever the normal fee is? Private businesses may be allowed to refuse business (as long as they don't violate anti-discrimination laws), but I feel like the public sector should not be allowed.

[hrothgar]

barmar, on 2013-May-09, 08:33, said:

Do problems like this happen often? After a serial killer, let's say, is executed, do they typically have a problem finding a place to bury the body?

As I understand matters, this case has some unique circumstances:

Islam forbids cremation (Timothy McVeigh's body was cremated and the ashes disposed of at an undisclosed location)
The rise of social media means that its much easier to whip up a bunch of idiots

FWIW, here are some previous examples that seem relevant

Timothy McVeigh: Cremated, ashes disposed of somewhere
Lee Harvey Oswald: Buried in Texas
Sacco and Vanzetti: Cremated, ashes returned to Italy
Leon Frank Czolgosz: Body buried on prison grounds (family refused custody)
Charles Julius Guiteau: Remains in storage at the National Museum of Health and Medicine
John Wilkes Booth: Original buried on prison grounds. Re-interned significantly later

As I recall, the Haymarket bombers were buried in the Chicago area, however, they were viewed much more sympathetically than the Marathon bombers.

[hrothgar]

Looks like they found a way to conveniently bury the body at an undisclosed location.

http://livewire.talk...closed-location

[PassedOut]

hrothgar, on 2013-May-09, 09:52, said:

Looks like they found a way to conveniently bury the body at an undisclosed location.

http://livewire.talk...closed-location

It's always heartening to be see good people rise to the occasion.

[ArtK78]

When I went to the link in hrothgar's post, there was a link to a new story. The first two paragraph's read as follows:

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment today revealing a Tunisian man named Ahmed Abassi was charged with visa fraud designed to help him remain in the United States to build an Al Qaeda-linked terror cell.

According to the indictment, Abassi made a false statement on a Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization by saying he, "intended to remain in the United States for employment, when in fact he sought to remain in the United States to facilitate an act of international terrorism."

So Mr. Abassi was charged with visa fraud for putting a false statement on his Form I-765. Assuming the facts are as stated in the indictment, if he had answered the question on the Form I-765 truthfully, by putting "I intend to remain in the United States to facilitate an act of international terrorism," would he have avoided being charged? I suspect that the answer is yes, although his visa application would probably have been denied. Facilitating an act of international terrorism is probably not on the approved list of employment opportunities for visa holders.

[hrothgar]

Much better version of the list that I provided earlier with a lot of details I wasn't aware of
Leon Czolgosz was dissolved in acid!!!

http://www.motherjon...merlan-tsarnaev