Execute child molesters

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).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Find this story at: http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/BurtPrelutsky/2006/03/25/190899.html

I object to capital punishment based on my place in reality

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 have to agree with you.

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".

My opinion is not "set in stone". To the contrary, I was very pro-death penalty just 3 or 4 years ago. However, this reality we live in forces us to make tough choices. We claim we want to protect the innocent and disadvantaged but the poor and minorities are at a distinct disadvantage in obtaining an adequate defense against any crime, including capitol crimes.

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.

I lived in Kansas at the time the Death Penalty was brought back.

A young woman was raped, sodomized, and killed by a pervert, BECAUSE he KNEW there was NO Death Penalty in Kansas, instead he got the "hard 40", 40 years without parole. He admitted this and plead guilty, and asked for the Hard 40.

Now go explain to this young woman parents, if Kansas had a Death Penalty before this happened this young woman would still be alive!!!!!

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.