Sniper Gets Sniped Tonight
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- lukus_W0
I think this kind of thing involves a weird kind of paradox.
To be able to commit something like this, I think the person has to be seriously mentally ill. It's obviously not normal behaviour. If they relish or enjoy it - that too has to support the idea that they're mentally ill and fucked up.
But the idea of punishing someone for a crime like this is crazy. I don't think there are any forms of punishment that can teach someone who's mentally fucked up a lesson.
I think the only logical reason to use punishment in this kind of case is because the act of punishing the perpetrator might act as a deterrent to others - but in serious cases like this, normal healthy people don't need a reminder that it's wrong.
The only way to deal with it is to either rehabilitate (which may be impossible in some cases), or to exercise some kind of damage limitation to stop them doing it again.
I guess killing them is the easiest form of damage limitation - but I think viewing it as punishment is dangerous. It confuses the real motivation behind capital punishment which seems to be more about finding easy solutions to get rid of social undesirables.
If you examine it in these terms, capital punishment becomes a form of garbage disposal - and on the most basic level I think this is too barbaric for a society that wants to be known as civilised.
- index0
— "It confuses the real motivation behind capital punishment which seems to be more about finding easy solutions to get rid of social undesirables."
— aka Third Reich
- Orbit0
Put aside the fact that this person may or may not be 'mentally ill'. Surely the point is that the punishment should make a clear and unambiguous statement to everyone else that killing is wrong.
If you kill a killer, then you are undermining the moral certainty. You are fragmenting the statement "Killing is wrong" into two statements "Killing is wrong" and "Death is a valid punishment".
Its very easy for deranged, deluded, sociopathic individuals to justify random acts of murder to themselves as some kind of justice, so the death penalty actually enforces the strange frame of mind of a would-be killer, as opposed to detering it.
The only punishment for this kind of thing is life-long hardship and deprivation in prison, and for that life of hardship to be used as some kind of anti-marketing material.
- meok0
Denzel has a new movie role coming up..
- lukus_W0
@orbit:
I agree - but then, I suppose the counter argument is that keeping someone in prison is extremely expensive.
Personally, I can't imagine that individuals who are capable of committing this kind of extreme random violence will (or can) take any notice of deterrents; while the rest of society already knows it's wrong.
Although this might make me sound like a wet liberal - I do think the only solution is to tackle the social and environmental factors that encourage this kind of behaviour. I'd imagine one of the largest factors is poverty. People who have are born into families living in poverty are also the most socially disadvantaged. People who are socially disadvantaged grow up to feel marginalised. It's a chain.
If we want a society which is more healthy - all sections of society need to be looked after. I think it's as simple (or as complicated) as that.
I guess the main problem is that it's a difficult change society. Orchestrating any kind of meaningful change would take a long time. Not so many politicians want to invest in programmes that won't bear fruit for decades - after all, they want to be re-elected.
But the problem's only going to increase for as long as the poverty gap increases and sections of society are left to fester.
- detritus0
an eye for a village, a tooth for an unborn child.
- mikotondria30
If murder is wrong, then the orchestrated clinical putting to death by lethal injection by a medical 'professional' is also wrong, and so they too must be put to death. Repeat until the only people left are me, people i like, and sufficient industrial and ancilliary workers as to enable my lavish and wasteful technology-and-drug-driven fantasy lifestyle to continue, lawless and unchecked, but nevertheless moral and peaceful, for another 50 years or so. After my mdma-based death, please feel free to go as MadMax as you like.
- calculator0
"The Death Penalty Information Center study found that death penalty costs can average $10 million more per year per state than life sentences."
I guess this is an anti death penalty study? If it's true, WTF? I could buy a hammer for 10 bucks...
*stir, stir
- formed0
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/2…
NY Times, but you can find the data all over the place
- The Death Penalty simply does not work, period! Just a form of revenge.utopian
- lowimpakt0
the idea that the death penalty "sends out a message" to future criminals is false.
trying to use a rational message to affect/effect an irrational behaviour doesn't work.
therefore, the death penalty is a load of wank.
- hedge0
William Shatner interviewed the victims this week.
I remember when this happened. I was always wary about sketchy looking vans parked somewhere isolated.