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New York, 4:55 AM
Mon Nov 16
19 posts in the last 24 hours
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But to watch two newsmen and journalists on primetime television equate murdering an innocent doctor in cold blood in church and murdering a serial child rapist is beyond wrong. Because what it does is it equaes these two crimes, which I cant agree with. It also gives the dumbest minority of people in America - those who support O'Reilly and his elk - a moral ground for murder. Again, if moms and dads would seek retribution in murdering their child abusers - no issues. But I know its not that simple and this language is icky on multiple levels.
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One thing I know is that O'Reilly is never the good guy; if he's coming off that way, something's rotten.
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If you are not in the courtroom, you do not have a place in judging someone else's guilt.
Don't agree? work to change the law, or move somewhere that still believes in mob justice.
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Although the studies on recidivism are somewhat varied, the one thing that we do know is that he was convicted of child molestation. Its not really crime after which I want to grant a do-over.
I know that there are many in here that don't believe in Capital Punishment under any circumstances, but I am not one of those. I would like to see Capital Punishment instituted for child rapists. I don't think it would deter many of these people from doing it, but it would certainly stop the ones that were executed from doing it again.
With this particular crime, it does make a difference whether the person does it once or a hundred times throughout their life. Child molesters are wired the same way as serial killers in that they have no mechanism to overcome their compulsion to repeat the crime.
So, I guess you can put me in the Geraldo camp on this one. I am not a vigilante and I don't condone it, but I won't feel bad if this guy meets his end with street justice.
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But first, I would like to kick the offender's teeth out and maybe use a blunt instrument to extract his testicles out.
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But first, I would like to kick the offender's teeth out and maybe use a blunt instrument to extract his testicles out.
Eesh, I hate sentiments like this. Look, raping a four year old is a terrible, terrible thing to do. No argument about that. But as Chill says above, pedophilia is a compulsion that people did not ask for, nor are they, for the most part, able to control it. The failure here is that this man wasn't somehow identified previously and attended to by the state.
Pedophilia is a disease of the mind like any other. While these sad men and women should be kept away from the general populace, wishing a "long, miserable...rest of their natural lives" on someone who is severely mentally ill is reductive and primitive. These people need our help, not our perpetuation of a terrible cycle of violence.
06/30/09
Prisons are pretty much a punishment-oriented consequence of being found guilty of a crime. I have seen scant evidence that prisons are trying to really rehab their prisoners.
You have a fine argument that they are mentally ill; but if that is truly the case, shouldn't they be in a mental institution?
06/30/09
Case in point: Jeffrey Dahmer was found by the state to be legally 'sane.' Because, I guess, killing and eating 17 young men is the height of sanity.
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Your Dahmer point is interesting to me as I am from the Midwest and vividly remember the news on these crimes. Could Dahmer just have been truly evil and not insane?
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How about we encourage some ass with a paedophilic predeliction do a little introspection and *get himself some help* rather than sitting around suggesting the government just didn't get to him on time, isn't it a crying shame, but oh, well.
Have you spent much time around a 4-year-old? I mean, like a lot of time. There is nothing like the innocence at that age. No grown human being, no matter how damaged or chemically deficient, gets a pass on violating that.
I value human life, but if someone is and will be dangerous to innocent babes in this way, then I don't put that person in the same category as most of the rest of humankind. Yes, I can comfortably say I think that child is worth more than that paedophile. Why are we afraid of just accepting that there's the possibility of a lost cause? Or at least that it's not either a) within our earthly power to fix that or b) necessary
Some things are despicable acts. Period. Some people don't deserve the opportunity for earthly redemption. Sometimes the damage done is greater than can ever be repaid.
Funny, in my "real" life I'm known as a perpetual optimist about people's ability to redeem, but at some point you just have to cut that cord. Frankly, I'd rather lose a paedophile than a four-year-old.
06/30/09
Also, let's give society a giant "F" for letting down its children - from foster care abuse to child poverty to this.
They're our most vulnerable members and we let them down big time.
Shame on us all.
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Also: gun laws, etc.
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"That would be as morally wrong as what Earls did-to take Earls' life. You can't do that."
WTF? I might be missing something, but it seems he's equating vigilantism with something that he unequivocally believes to be morally despicable, which makes this analysis make sense if the words "do not" are inserted.
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And it's obvious that Rivera wants the man to die.
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David Earls raped a FOUR year old and is serving one year in prison. I wouldn't exactly cry a river either.
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But then again, I'm not for the death penalty.
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Excellent!
06/30/09
John Cook, your next mission.
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Get to it.
*Too much?
06/30/09
Posters on here have fantasized about various offenders being raped in prison, castrated, etc.
Sympathy ran very very high for the woman (I can't recall her name) who shot her child's rapist in court. Let's not be hypocrites.
06/30/09
wishing someone's death is bad all the way around but going on a TV show after Tillers murder and basically asking people to kill someone is different.
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