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| Michael P. Fay | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 30 1975 St. Louis, Missouri |
| Charge(s) | theft, vandalism |
| Penalty | four months in jail S$3,500 four lashes of the cane |
| Parents | George and Randy Fay |
Michael Peter Fay (born May 30, 1975) is an American who was caned in Singapore on May 5 1994, for theft and vandalism despite pleas from the United States government and press for clemency.
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Michael Fay was born on May 30, 1975, in St. Louis, Missouri. His mother Randy divorced his father George when he was eight. In his childhood, Michael was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, a fact that his lawyer would later claim made Fay not responsible for his actions.
Although Fay mostly lived with his father after the divorce, he later moved to Singapore, where his mother and stepfather Marco Chan lived. Michael was enrolled in the Singapore American School.
Singapore\'s The Straits Times newspaper in 1993 was full of stories about car vandalism in Singapore. Unknown individuals, although they were thought to be residents of the HDB flats in which 85% of the local population had been living, went after their neighbours\' cars with hot tar, paint remover, and hatchets. Taxi drivers complained that their tires were slashed when they let people off. In the city center and the condos, where the better-off 15% of the local population and foreigners live, people keyed cars, making deep scratches, and threw car doors open denting the cars next to them. One man interviewed by the Times complained that he had had to refinish his car six times in six months. In the fall of 1993 a vandal took red spray paint to six cars in a garage off Orchard Lane, making the vandalism highly visible. The next night someone sprayed a line of red paint right through the official seal of a judge\'s car, left out on the street by his son who had forgotten his key.
The police eventually arrested a 16-year-old suspect, Shiu Chi Ho (also known as "Andy Shiu"), from Hong Kong. He was not caught vandalizing cars, but was charged with driving his father\'s car without a license. After questioning Shiu, the police had several expatriate students from the Singapore American School, including Michael Fay, questioned and later charged with more than fifty counts of vandalism. Fay pled guilty to vandalizing the cars in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Singapore Vandalism Act, which was originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, he was sentenced on March 3, 1994 to four months in jail, a fine of 3,500 Singapore dollars (US$2,214 or £1,514 at the time), and six strokes of the cane. Shiu, who pled "not guilty", was eventually sentenced to eight months in prison and twelve strokes of the cane.
Fay\'s lawyers appealed, arguing that the Vandalism Act provides caning only for indelible forms of graffiti vandalism and that the spray-painted cars were cheaply restored to their original condition. Although the appeal failed, then Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong commuted Fay\'s caning from six to four strokes as a gesture of respect toward then U.S President Bill Clinton, who had made a request for clemency on Fay\'s behalf. (Shiu\'s sentence was also reduced from twelve strokes to six after a clemency appeal to the Singapore President.)
The official position of the United States government was that while it recognized Singapore\'s right to try and punish Fay with due process of law, it deemed the punishment of caning to be excessive for a teenager committing a non-violent crime. The United States embassy in Singapore pointed out that the graffiti damage that Fay made on the cars was not permanent, but caning would leave Fay with physical as well as long-term emotional scars.
U.S. President Bill Clinton called the punishment prescribed by Singapore as extreme and mistaken, continuing to pressure the Singaporean government to grant Fay clemency from caning. Two dozen U.S. senators signed a letter to the Singaporean government also appealing for clemency. After Fay\'s punishment was carried out, the United States Trade Representative said that he would try to prevent the World Trade Organization\'s first ministerial meeting from taking place in Singapore.
Following Fay\'s sentence, the case received wide coverage by the U.S. media and dozens of reporters were sent to Singapore to cover the case."Singapore Hosts Some Most Unruly Guests", American Journalism Review, August 1994. The New York Times had several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy in the United States with protests. Newsday wrote about a person who claimed to have witnessed a graphic public caning event in Singapore, despite the fact that Singapore does not practice public canings. Some commentaries treated the Michael Fay affair as a clash of civilizations between Asian values and the differing view of human rights common in liberal western cultures.
Public opposition of the caning within the United States was uncertain as opinion polls produced by different news organizations contradicted each other. Nevertheless, a significant number of vocal Americans were in favor of the caning, reasoning that Singapore had a right to use corporal punishment if it chooses, or that their own country did not mete out severe enough punishment to criminals. The Embassy of Singapore received numerous calls strongly supporting Fay\'s punishment.
The media coverage of the case continued for several months.[citation needed]
The Singaporean government did not appreciate the U.S. government interfering with the way Singapore carried out punishments within the due process of law.
The Singapore government felt that if the United States viewed caning of juveniles as a human rights issue, then it should actively try to stop the caning of other juvenile offenders in Singapore other than Michael Fay. The Singaporean public also felt that compared to the seemingly lax penal system in the United States, their harsh penal system made their country very safe.[citation needed]
It was additionally argued that Singapore, as a sovereign state, was not obliged in any way to base its actions on the will of the American public or government. As for the U.S. Trade Representative saying that he would stop the World Trade Organization’s meeting from taking place in Singapore, some questioned the relation between judiciary proceedings and trade. The American public and media criticized Singapore intensely during that period.
The Singaporean press also saturated its coverage about Michael Fay. Initial news about the arrest of the expatriate vandals made front page, to the extent that other more serious crimes received much less coverage on Singaporean newspapers.
Fay returned to the United States to live with his father. He did several television interviews and there was even talk of a book or movie deal which did not materialize. In 1994, Fay suffered burns to his hands and face after a butane incident."Michael Fay," People Magazine, December 26, 1994, p.60"Drug Rehab For Teen Caned In Singapore," Chicago Tribune, September 29, 1994, p.14"The Nation," USA Today, September 29, 1994, p.03A He was subsequently admitted to the Hazelden rehabilitation program for butane abuse. He claimed that sniffing butane "made him forget what happened in Singapore.""Teen Punished In Singapore Has Drug Habit - Michael Fay Was Sniffing Butane," Times - Picayune, September 29, 1994, p.A24 In 1996, he was cited in Florida for a number of violations, including careless driving, reckless driving, not reporting a crash and having an open bottle of alcohol in a car."Q&A," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 13, 2003, p.B2 Later, in 1998, still in Florida, Fay was arrested for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, charges to which he confessed but was not found guilty"Boy Caned in Singapore Makes News Again," Christian Science Monitor, April 9, 1998, p.18 because of technical errors in his arrest."Drug Charges Dropped," Asiaweek, June 29, 1998, p.1
"Weird Al" Yankovic described Fay\'s caning in the lyrics of "Headline News", a 1994 song parodying "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies. Bob Rivers did a satirical take of it in "Cane \'Em Good", another 1994 song parodying Devo\'s "Whip It."
Saturday Night Live did a sketch parodying Fay\'s caning, with Emilio Estevez guest-starring as Fay. The humorous premise of the sketch is that Fay\'s caner is an affable American, who explains that "professional caners" aren\'t able to find work except in countries like Singapore. He carries on one end of a pleasant conversation with Fay while delivering the strokes.
Fay\'s caning was also mentioned in the Notorious MSG song "No Good Muthabitch" in 2007.
In 1994, the Professional Wrestling Promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling had a "Singapore Caning Match" involving The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer lost and got caned by Sandman after the match. Since then, the Singapore Cane has been one of the most popular professional wrestling weapons.
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