mention you think Amanda Knox is innocent and flying monkeys descend almost immediately

[wyldwolf]

Twitter, facebook, online article comments - I've never seen anything like it. The case aside, it's almost like there's a headquarters somewhere staffed with people using NSA-like techniques to spread their talking points.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

1. Really? I've noticed the exact opposite.

What really seems to attract ire is questioning her innocence.

[DURHAM D]

2. Apparently there is a very busy housewife

somewhere in the Pacific northwest who translates Pig Latin professionally yet still has time to obsess about Amanda 24/7.

[mainer]

12. Don't forget the weirdo guy in NJ who threatens journalists

http://world.time.com/2013/03/29/the-amanda-knox-haters-society-how-they-learned-to-hate-me-too/

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. Attractive white american girl convicted of murder? It can't be true!

I don't know much about the case, and I'm disinclined to speculate, except to say that a) young white women do bad shit too and b) I tend to give juries some benefit of the doubt.

Like other cases, there's an element of chivalry at work in this issue that I really dislike.

[Adrahil]

11. I was inclined to believe she was guilty...

... Until I read about the investigation and trial(s). What a fucking circus. I don't know that she's innocent, but I do know she didn't get a fair trial.

[Squinch]

4. Isn't it amazing? People love to set up a woman who is

generally minding her own business as an "evil jezebel," and then punish her for their perception of her.

This obsession with their label of her as a "sex fiend" is as old as the hills. Think witch trials.

[Gman]

6. Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she's not guilty.

I don't really know one way or the other. But just sayin'.

[Squinch]

7. Doesn't mean she is, either. We are talking about crazy zeal of the people who are vociferously

insisting that she is guilty.

[hlthe2b]

5. I don't get those so invested as to start blogs promoting her guilt 24/7

While I can not say with 100% assuredness that she is innocent, I surely do not believe she was convicted with evidence surpassing "reasonable doubt" and I would surely join those who think Italy's evidential standards in this case simply suck.

It seems now to be an exercise in "saving face"... I don't know how she'll escape US extradition to Italy, though, from what I've read--unless Italy somehow backs down.

[Vattel]

8. Most people observing criminal trials tend to jump to conclusions.

The law and the available evidence rarely have much to do with their beliefs concerning guilt or innocence, but for some reason a lot of people become emotionally attached to such beliefs and attack those who disagree. DUers are no exception here. For example, anyone who thought the evidence in the Zimmerman trial didn't support a guilty verdict was vilified.

[cpwm17]

9. That's my observation

There are some similarities between the two cases:

-Prejudice against the defendants -believing the original claims concerning the cases even well past the point where they are proven to be bogus -heavy creative speculation to explain away the problems of the weak cases

At least in the US the defendant was acquitted, as he should have been.

[Vattel]

10. You realize, of course, that you have said enough to qualify as evil

in the minds of many DUers. But I agree, the "creative speculation" that was used to make the facts conform to the early media narrative was quite remarkable. (I don't know whether Zimmerman is guilty of murder because I wasn't there, but I do think that the suggestion that he was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is simply mistaken.)

[davidn3600]

13. Some misogyny coming out over this as well

Some of the hate you read on this when you read it you sense some deeper issues going on. They either think she's guilty because she's a woman or she's not guilty because she's a woman. The European media also likes to focus on her sexual history.

Some non-Americans also want to punish her for being American. They view this case as another example of a young American going overseas and behaving badly and then escaping justice. And then they let that override the facts of the case.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. I thing the reverse is more significant.

"Some non-Americans also want to punish her for being American"

Probably true, for some value of "some", I think there are rather more Americans who are assuming she is innocent because she is American.