Will Durianrider go to jail? The lawyers are paid, the charges are laid.

there were banking delays there were
bureaucratic delays there were illegal delays there was paperwork that had to be send by email and some paperwork that needed to be signed in blue ink and sent in the post but then one day all the delays are done and the lawyers get paid the charges get laid and the world keeps on turning to my knowledge durianrider will now be facing three criminal charges in a court of law just one of those charges if he's found guilty of it to my knowledge may be imperfect a normal prison sentence would be one full year and that would be one full year in a jail in Thailand and from the accounts that I've read prisons in Thailand are pretty tough I've read accounts of people who slept on the floor and he slept on the floor with the rats people who woke up in the morning and saw you know baby rats with their mother living inside their shoes people just going crazy with the daily horror of having to deal with the mosquitoes and the extreme heat and not having access to a fan or air conditioning or any of the comforts you may be used to if you're vacationing in Thailand at the Bangkok Hilton of another kind I wouldn't wish that on anybody it's serious stuff it's no laughing matter and you know I sympathize with those who are trying to make this into a drama into a comedy into entertainment on the internet but the bottom line is people donated money to this because they thought it was the right thing to do they cared about the future of veganism they felt that veganism today needed to have leaders who were more respectable than what we've got and I think in terms of the followers in veganism also I think many of the donors were hoping this would wake up some of the people who were still slumbering some of the people who were still so diluted because I still see those videos I still hear those voices I still hear the voices of people who went to Chiang Mai who were maybe in Chiang Mai at the same time I was or in the weeks after I left people who've managed to keep their heads in the sand and avoid dealing with the really difficult ethical and political questions that were raised by the controversy that I was an unwilling participant in in in Chiang Mai one year in jail is no joke I think it's no joke if you're in the United States or Europe but it's definitely no joke if you're in Thailand we've all seen durianrider boast many times and he boasted about this in the middle of making his threats against me we've seen him boast many times that he was not afraid to go to jail well he'll get to prove that soon enough to my mind he'll have two options he can either stay in Thailand and face the charges and again as I've said in this channel I really do believe that everyone is innocent until they're proven guilty it's completely possible that he'll manage to maintain his innocence that he'll spend the time going through the court system and in the end hope you found not guilty it's entirely possible stranger things have happened in a court of law or it seems to me he'll choose to run he'll become a fugitive within Thailand he'll flee that country and he'll never be able to return to that country because of the criminal charges pending against him and the circumstances of his flight and I think in many ways that might be more devastating for him because Thailand is become a huge part of his identity Chiang Mai's specifically obviously means a lot to him it's where he feels important it's it's the center of his world as he's constructed a bunch of other things I could talk about in this video I don't know what to tell you I don't take any joy in this I guess I do take some small measure of joy in just proving wrong all of the stupid self-righteous mean-spirited people who offered me advice on my legal case advice that was based on their uncritically watching videos durianrider himself made in response to this and let's be clear durianrider didn't just defame me and slander me he never stopped defaming me and slayed him he's continued to make new videos about me defaming me slandering me misrepresenting what happened just a few months ago in Chiangmai misrepresenting what he did when he did it why he did it and you know defaming insulting and misrepresenting me how anyone could be so foolish as to take his videos as a factual description of what the situation is now to then offer me legal advice people like Jeff Nelson veg source did exactly this Jeff Nelson wrote to me these long emails telling me about his experience in the court system and why he thought I shouldn't start a lawsuit he started with a civil lawsuit in Australia dealing with durianrider giving me all kinds of advice I never asked for and in response to that advice appointed him as a look it sounds to me like you've never watched my videos on this you've only watched what durianrider had to say about it and you were not paying close attention to what I actually said about what situation is it would not have taken a genius to figure out from the information that I presented that the charges were criminal charges this is also why the title of the video and the fundraiser talked about sending durianrider to jail I'm not kill it scenes this is not about me selling diet books this is not about my reputation as a yoga instructor or fitness group this is not comparable to those earlier cases at all okay this is a situation where a crime was committed in Thailand and it does not take a genius to figure out that is ultimately the Thai authorities who will be responsible for putting someone in jail or deciding not to do so now the other incredibly stupid comment that several people including some highly educated people someone I won't name with a very expensive university diploma from was at Cornell University in the US number of people who consider themselves wise wrote to me saying oh well if their criminal charges that then it should be free it shouldn't cost any money I'm sorry I don't know what low-grade you know detective movies you've been watching we think that pressing criminal charges doesn't cost any money if you want to present evidence in a court of law in Thailand at a minimum you have to take that evidence and translate it from English into tie and that translation has to be properly notarized it has to be legally deemed valid has to be verified as valid I've now been to that in more than one country even when I was in France I had to have my own birth certificate translated into French and then notarized to prove that you know my translation of my birth certificate wasn't false or inaccurate or misleading so they're very particular legal processes to prepare evidence to present to the police to present to a court in any country when you've got a language barrier involved beyond that you guys all know I don't live in Thailand I'm not a Thai citizen so if I want to have a lawyer in Thailand take that evidence translate it notarize it presented to the police presented to several different government authorities do you think that happens for free the combination of stupidity and self-righteousness from all of these very public voices that chose to denounce me on this issue without even listening to what I said in my own videos about what the situation is I don't know I guess the memory of that will will stay with me forever I don't know what does this mean what does this mean for the the present and future of veganism it's it's hard for me to say it's amazing it's a miracle that we raised over six thousand five hundred dollars in I don't know less than 48 hours for this cause very very few people lost interest in or lost their support changed their mind about supporting it in the months that followed there's a window of time of a couple of months when you could have gotten a refund and a couple people did maybe three people I forget the exact number but very very few people asked for their money back and those who did ask receives it now it's too late money's already been spent it's already gone on to the lawyers and so on transaction is in the past tense you know this very clearly showed that there is you know significant minority within veganism who looked at this disaster who looked at the ethical issues involved and said we can do better than this we should be better than this how are we gonna get there and I hope this is a positive part hope this is a positive step towards all of us getting there but of course I have misgivings about of course I have doubts of course I mean you know I hope that people were not just donating money out of a mean-spirited thirst for drama I hope they weren't donating money just stead of wanting to see somebody suffer probably hopefully something more properly it's it's a little bit of mean-spirited you know haha they're probably some negative impulses there too behind the donations and people sportiveness when I talked to one of the mainstream journalists about this have been interviewed one of the things I said was look you know if this was happening within a communist movement or within a right-wing movement or something you wouldn't even be having this conversation with me you just said well you know they're a bunch of crazy left wingers or they're a bunch of crazy right-wingers sometimes they threatened to beat each other up who knows sometimes there are these kinds of struggles for ego or leadership what have you it's the fact that this went on within a movement that's devoted to not even killing mosquitoes in some people's interpretation a movement that much more prominently he's devoted to saving the lives of snails and scorpions of you know refusing to hurt a fly it's that mixed message of non-violence compassion saving the planet caring love etc it's the contrast between that and the hyper fragile hyper egoistic beauty weight loss you know the banality and brutality of of the message that was mixed up with threats of violence on the other side you know that's that's what makes it tragic comic you know there's so much potential here I mean you know obviously I see this whole thing as you know these people flying the Thailand and they might as well be in Hawaii they just have no meaningful contact with with what Thailand is or what it's about you know has lost potential in so many ways but obviously you have a mix of artistic people athletic people intellectual people political people you have this common ground of this you know profound and frightening challenge for the 21st century of ecology animal rights leading a meaningful life you know in a world where literally that the North Pole is melting the clock is ticking for all of us sort of apocalyptic you know fever you know gradually creeping around the world and awareness of the seriousness the ecological issues facing us and in another sense there's a there's a very different way in which people wake up to the seriousness of the ethical issues facing us and the contrast to that is get thin get beautiful get famous on the internet make money from your Instagram from putting on a bikini hyper shallow hyper fragile and then this whole business of defamation and violence you know it's a strange cocktail and like I say if this had happened in a left-wing movement or a right-wing movement I think people would just shrug their shoulders and say what did you expect but this is an opportunity for all of us in veganism leaders and followers you know cooking show enthusiasts and street activists everyone every every strip this is an opportunity for all of us to look in the mirror and say what did we expect can't we expect better shouldn't we demand better and how are we gonna get from here to there and yeah it's that you know there's no joy of my heart to say it but this never was a scam this was an entirely sincere legal process and if anything it's somewhat scary for me to think that one day I might be visiting durianrider when he's in jail