Posted on 03/25/2006 4:12:16 AM PST by 13Sisters76
Those poor, poor perverts By Burt Prelutsky
Mar 25, 2006
I can nearly, but not quite, understand why some people object to capital punishment. After all, if they’re unaware that Thou Shall Not Kill is a bad translation of Thou Shall Not Murder, you can see where they might wind up believing that the execution of a serial killer is as sinful as the original crime. Of course I happen to think that, at this late date, there’s no excuse for a grown-up not having bothered to find out what the sixth commandment actually says. That’s especially the case if he’s going to carry on as if he has dibs on the moral high ground, and accuse those who disagree with him of being blood-thirsty thugs.
That said, what I can’t begin to fathom are the people who seem to have the same tender feelings for sexual predators that the rest of us have for our pets. Unfortunately, these aren’t the same mushy-headed simpletons holding candlelight vigils outside San Quentin. Instead, they’re judges and legislators.
Each time I hear any of these people discuss how many feet away from a school playground or a park some pedophile should be allowed to live, I’m reminded of those nuts in the Middle Ages who whiled away their days arguing over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. It’s as if I had just awakened in Oz to discover that my farmhouse had landed smack dab on top of a witch named Common Sense.
For what reason would any sane society ever release such a person from jail? The notion that kids are safe if the creep lives 2,000 feet away from where they play is perfectly loony. What about the kids walking to and from those parks and playgrounds?
Are we supposed to take the freak’s word that he’ll behave himself? If so, why not release all the bank robbers, making certain that none of them lives closer than two blocks away from the nearest branch of First National? I can absolutely guarantee you that robbers can control their desire to knock over a bank a heck of a lot better than perverts can be counted on to control their degenerate urges.
Only judges and lawmakers seem happy to ignore the rates of recidivism among rapists and pedophiles. Is there anyone else, aside from defense attorneys, who would argue that a man who’s raped a six year old child deserves a second chance?
Whenever I read about the problems of resettling these creeps and then trying to keep track of them until the day they die, I can only shake my head. Why should anyone be able to destroy the life of a child and the child’s family and ever be allowed to see the light of day again?
So far as I’m concerned, the only place they belong isn’t 700 yards from the nearest see-saw, but in a dungeon or in Hell. Next best would be having them live next door to a politician or a judge.
Burt Prelutsky has been a humor columnist for the L.A. Times and a movie critic for Los Angeles magazine. He is the author of Conservatives are from Mars (Liberals are from San Francisco).
Copyright © 2006 Townhall.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Find this story at: http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/BurtPrelutsky/2006/03/25/190899.html
Over time, I have come to oppose the death penalty (intellectually), but not for the reasons one might think...
First- it is never applied fairly. If it were, rich jerks like the Melendez brothers would be on death row instead of reading fan mail.
Second- the perps would get one appeal and then the morgue.
Third- they would NEVER get such a peaceful death as that offered by the needle. Bring back Old Sparky. They should face, at least, SOME of the pain and terror they afforded their victims.
Fourth- repeat child molesters and rapists should be on the list. These people cannot be "rehabilitated". They offer NOTHING of any worth to the society. They are less than subhuman and not worth our pity or time. Burn 'em.
There's only one good reason for not executing a child molester who hasn't killed his victim, and a very good one--the risk of execution if he kills his victim might deter him from killing the victim. For that reason, and that reason alone, I don't favor executing child molesters who haven't killed their victims. Jailing them for the rest of their lives, OTOH, is just fine.
I can nearly, but not quite, understand why some people object to capital punishment. ...
I'm a conservative but I object to capital punishment based on my place in reality. And it has nothing to do with any mistranslation of the Bible. I know the proper translation says "thou shall not murder.
And I am more convinced of my position since I joined FR less than a year ago.
I am against the death penalty and always will be until science, the courts and law enforcement officials can guarantee that an innocent will never be accidentally executed by our legal system.
That may never happen. So I suggest we join the civilized world and start working on how we are going to make a life prison sentence less desirable than the death penalty.
Many of us claim to be "pro life". Sometimes being pro life means being able to stomach allowing the most heinous of us to live because our desire to protect the innocent is the greater good.
This is not surprising in a society that tolerates the existence of disgusting organizations such as NAMBLA.
I agree.There was a time,in some states,when rape was a capital crime.I think the same might have been true of kidnapping.
In any case like that,if the penalty is death then the perp has a very strong incentive to kill his victim.It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.
I can see why parents of the molested children would kill the perps. if in the same situation I know I'd go after someone who I knew harmed my child. Consequences be damned.
As for the death penalty overall, I'm for it and so would many opponents if they or their families were horribly victimized.
Tax the shite out of them!
So you oppose the application of the death penalty, not the death penalty itself?
I understand that argument, but I think capitol punishment would save more kids than it hurt, and thus is preferable.
The punishment doesn't fit the crime. Lock them away forever, but no death penalty.
Plain and simple. Done, over gone. Never to hurt a child again. Makes sense to me!
If we had executions of child molesters 20 years ago, the McMartins, The Amiraults, and Kelly Michaels would all be dead.
The only problem is they wear all innocent.
Since child molestation is an area where emotion often trumps the facts, I oppose execution for child molesters. I think you'd have innocent people being put to death.
How about having a death penalty for just flat out murder first?
Then decide what other crimes to (re)expand it to.
Torture them first and then kill them slowly.
I disagree with your requirement for 100% risk free application of the death penalty. The death penalty has saved thousands of innocent lives in America alone by deterring criminals from murder and effectively eliminating murders who commit murder. To eliminate the death penalty until you are 100% sure in all cases that the legal system is perfect would result in the deaths of 1,000's, just like we saw in the late 60's, 70's and 80's. Victims are also innocent in most cases, and they will die if you require 100% assurance. Life has risks.
--and for the vicious bloody-handed types who post on these threads, my wife was once on a jury trial of a man who was accused of "child molestation" in a divorce case--took about fifteen minutes to aquit him--
Why add the risk of a malfunction in the legal system that might put me to death when it is supposed to protect me? A life sentence in a no-frills work camp prison is deterrence enough for me.
Why? Because the death penatly is a deterrant, much as the left likes to say it isn't. Executing criminals saves innocent lives and the statistices are quite astounding. I'm in favor of a stong appeals systems, and after conviction reviews of evidence just to be sure. But, I disagree with the concept that the "state" taking an innocent life is so bad that we let a 1,000 crimnals kill without fear lf losing their own life. The state refusing to do what is reasonably within its power to reduce murder, is also "taking inccocent lives".
I,I,I. Like most anti-death penalty people you have failed to think the issue through. You let your self-aggrandizement impair your judgment. Go home and grow up, and check back in--oh, say, ten years or so.
Overall, I agree with both of you. I do not want to debate it, most people on both sides of the issue have their opinions set in stone. Mine is too.
I have heard every argument pro and con that exists but it's important to me to express which side of the issue that I am on.
For those who would ask - Yes, that includes members of my own family as victims and yes, I would defend my family with deadly force.
"After all, if they’re unaware that Thou Shall Not Kill is a bad translation of Thou Shall Not Murder, you can see where they might wind up believing that the execution of a serial killer is as sinful as the original crime."
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/001102_ThouShaltNotMurder.html
This provides a good distinction between "Kill" and "Murder".
We are not "all men are created equal" when it comes to our legal system.
In just the last 25 years 80+ "criminals" on death row have been released because they were later found to be innocent of the crimes they were accused of. I can only assume that most of them were minorities and/or poor and had to rely on public "defenders".
A state-sponsored death penalty can give people an excuse for vigilantism. "Hey, this child molesting slime ball is going to be executed anyway, so let's just do it now!" I see this attitude nearly every day on FR. I want no part of it.
If the state executes an innocent the state becomes nothing more than a goverment-sponsored lynch mob. That makes us no better than Islam or the KKK. I want to believe that we are more civilized than the KKK, Muslims and Chinese.
Finally: grownups are allowed to think, reconsider and disagree without their "adulthood" being called into question, Hinckley Buzzard. Apology accepted.
When a thread is posted about child molestation, there are always calls for an immediate execution, not only execution but torture and a slow lingering death, with volunteers aplenty to do the deed. The man hasn't been tried yet but let's dispense with that little formality.
It's almost always a man but when a woman is the accused molestor we hear calls for pictures of her, before judgement is passed and an execution called for. If the woman is properly good looking, she will likely get a pass, with regrets being expressed that, "I never had a teacher that looked that good".
Child molestation is an awful crime and if molestors can't be cured and I believe they can't, they should be locked up forever to protect our children.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.