Wasn’t sure if this should go in the funny pictures / videos thread but suspect it’s probably safer here.
Overall, it does not seem to be very difficult to illegally enter and stay in the country.
You can stay anywhere illegally if you have an adequate “support network” (or have lots of money, in which case you could just live in the Savoy for the rest of your life with no questions asked, but that is not going to be the case in this context). In the UK at least, you cannot get a proper job like that. A colleague of mine, petrol station business, told me recently they have to check passports and they find a ~50% fake passport rate among overseas workers. So one has to make a living at some lower level, and that probably varies between countries.
I like the idea that staying in the Savoy protects you from debt. 
It would certainly protect you from becoming rich
Every day is a school day, especially when it comes to ancient English history.
Many years ago in England, one could be imprisoned for debt. A creditor could appeal to a court and if the bailiffs got their hands on you it was off to debtor’s prison. Release was upon repayment of the debt, though if one went into prison with insufficient funds to pay the debt then it was unclear how one was expected to remedy that situation whilst in prison, especially as you had to pay for the dubious privilege of being there!
I think the presumption was that, at least over relatively small debts, many people defaulted deliberately when they could in fact pay and the system was designed to discourage this. Many of us these days who have dealt with slippery characters who try to avoid paying what they owe can see the logic behind this assumption.
My hunch says that debt stopped being an imprison-able matter sometime in the late 19th century. Whether this meant that debt was previously treated as a criminal matter rather than the civil matter it is now, I’m not sure. The fact that a debtors’ prison was distinct from an ordinary prison suggests it may not have been quite that simple.
You couldn’t be arrested for debt on a Sunday and you were also safe (at all times) inside the Liberty of the Savoy. This obviously pre-dates the (very luxurious and expensive) hotel of the same name but there were apparently a number of inns which did a good trade with those seeking refuge.
Graham wrote:
Many years ago in England, one could be imprisoned for debt.
Like being a witch I suppose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
Graham wrote:
Many of us these days who have dealt with slippery characters who try to avoid paying what they owe can see the logic behind this assumption.
Does the converse follow? These slippery characters who tell you it will cost you X, then give you an invoice for 10 x X? GA maintenance organisations spring conveniently to mind. 
Off_Field wrote:
Wasn’t sure if this should go in the funny pictures / videos thread but suspect it’s probably safer here.
I understand the intention of this video’s title (weak police and all) but I find the video quite sad. Particularly the pointless violence shown by this guy makes me wonder how sad one’s life has to be to become like this. The police on the other hand I find remarkable. They tried to arrest him and instead of escalating the situation they de-escalated and retreated, and then go on to get him when things have cooled off. In the US the guy would be dead. I do worry about the safety of the police officers as they are obviously not prepared for this kind of behavior. Maybe they should get tasers?
I suppose this took place at some kind of refugee container camp. Obviously these camps are not a solution. Stuffing lots of people together with nothing to do in triste container compounds is problematic. Just an observation, not hinting I’d have any solution.
Snoopy wrote:
Maybe they should get tasers?
In that video there wasn’t really any need for Tasers. We maybe have a different idea of expectations from police. But I would expect three police officers to be able to detain and arrest an effectively unarmed man. The other, single non police officer chap was able to stop the guy and get him restrained, then the police who stepped in managed to let him slip. I think that’s a pretty sad state. Leaving him to go and cause damage seems pretty weak.
Snoopy wrote:
In the US the guy would be dead.
That’s a pretty wild statement. Which I think totally false. There’s a good chance he would have stopped has he been facing a sufficient deterrent, also I’d expect a few police officers to be able to detain an individual.
Makes sense as well. They shouldn’t have let him slip once he was on the ground. Maybe he was under some substance influence?
