Freedom's Fidelity

Friday, January 16, 2004

Crime and Punishment for Animals

I certainly don't support prison rape. It is an obvious (as well as ignored) problem that continues to flourish in our correctional system. Being raped in prison is almost taken for granted these days. My support of the death penalty waivers at times too. I have no moral objection to it per se, but I am a bit uncomfortable with the accuracy of its application. Way too many mistakes are made. But then I read stories like this:

With her boyfriend racing to find help, the thugs dragged her kicking and screaming "like an animal, like a piece of furniture" along the overpass and down a set of stairs. "They kept dropping me and with no regard whatsoever that I was a human being, mother, a daughter, a sister," she said.
Finally, they reached the worst hellhole of all, a filthy hut that she described as "a foul place that smelled so bad that not even animals should be made to be there."
The gang of immigrants from Mexico and Central America raped her for hours, punctuating the attacks with threats that they would kill her when they were done.

All of a sudden I'm glad that there is prison rape, it makes me wish for an official sentence of prison rape, followed by the death penalty actually. It makes me want to call Marcellus Wallace's boys and have them come over with a blow torch and a pair of pliers so they can get Medieval. They deserve nothing less. If this happened to me or someone I knew I'm pretty sure that I would find a way to get some money (or a bunch of cigarettes) into the prison to the meanest sons of bitches possible to make their life a living nightmare, that they can look forward to re-living it every day. Because that is what the victim goes through as described in her heartwrenching letter.

Each of the perpetrators has or will received approximately 20 years. Yeah, that's it. They should be locked up for life. This was the savage act of animals, there is no doubt about their guilt and the gang rape could have lasted much longer than the tormenting three hours it did. The only reason it was cut short, and her life likely saved, was because the police showed up. These creatures had three hours to think about what they were doing, three hours for a pang of human compassion to cross one of them, three hours for one to at least stop it and suggest booking the scene. Not one of them did.

Why do we let people like this out of confinement ever? A second chance? Cause they could be rehabilitated? No way, not with what they did. It was an inhuman act, they've forfeited their right to live amongst the civilized. I don't want to hear about second chances and rehab, for animals like this it can't be done. Perhaps it is "society's" fault, perhaps it is our own collective failing that creates these monsters so it is our obligation to fix them. The problem is that we don't really know how to effectively fix them, leaving few practical choices. When an animal does something like this it gets shot because, as tragic as it is, we don't know what else to do. We don't do that here in the United States though, so I have to rely on other criminals to give them what they deserve. I sincerely hope they do not survive prison.

posted by Paul  permalink | |