h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today they're going to execute Timothy McVeigh. While he is an evil man, the pomp and circumstance for his execution is downright barbaric. I'm not sure how anybody could support the death penalty after today.

I share your dismay at what our countries are doing at a governmental level.

Today two young men were set free after eight years. They had tortured and murdered a young child of three, and they were ten at the time. The Governmental Member in charge of making the decision of liberty went to see one of these two men in 1999, and judged him to be a very "personable and well-adjusted" adult. Through the two subsequent years, the populous has ignored the situation (as populations will: we only see what the News Agencies want us to see, even in the UK), and it's only been in the past month that we've come to realise that these two teenagers are being allowed their freedom.

Last year, many innocent people were badly injured in the Media's attempts to manipulate newspaper-buying patterns. It seemed to be fashionable to "name and shame" those who abuse children - but Freddy next door wasn't capable of realising that the picture of Jack the Stripper was noticably different from Ted at Number 9. This year, the media has decided that they're going to publish pictures of the two boys as they were, along with software-altered images to show them as they might be now. Not to mention any addresses any scouts may have told them.

Arpeggio has written a rough guide to APD (Antisocial Personality Disorder), and it seems from reading this that the boys were beyond help at age 10. But they were reported in one newspaper (thank Crunchie for an unbiased reporting) as being unhappy about leaving the institution. Another paper noted them to have sat in class disecting flies, trying to suffocate others, and trying to kill themselves.

So why didn't we pick this up ten years ago, before one child's death? What about eleven years ago, before the kids were seven and beyond help? Those kids needed healing, and no one's admitting it now. No one's shedding a tear of empathy for the children that became monsters.

x x Fenny

*Before you turn away in disgust at my double-sided vision, spend a minute to look at my page and read my Toleration Disclaimer. I can be irritatingly "one world, one people", and I know it's irritating.

I forgot to clarify:

The media are trying to ensure that the two boys are recognised, because the populous probably want to see their faces, and will buy their papers. The Government probably isn't unhappy about these two men being released from prison and no longer using up Taxpayer's Money.

"...it seems that the boys were beyond help at age 10. But they were reported to be unhappy about leaving the institution." This is a common trend in people who've spent more than half their life in an institution. The paper seemed to imply they were scared and did not want to. Why are we making them?

"Another paper noted them to have sat in class disecting flies, trying to suffocate others, and trying to kill themselves." At least the self-mutilation/suicide attempt is a cry for help. I believe these two kids did and still do need help.

The trend is for the Government to open an enquiry, when it suits Public Opinion, which will look at how it was possible for (for example, child abuse) to be missed during every Social Health Visitor check. I don't anticipate any "How did we miss that APD" enquiry.

Governments for the people? Who'd miss them?

Hello,

I think what's disturbing to me is how our social conception of justice and prison is changing. It used to be that the feeling was that prison was to reform the criminal and once they had served their time, prisoners were welcome to reenter society. Now, we have people saying they want to lock people away and throw away the key, mandatory sentences for crimes, people talking about needing executions for a sense of "closure." And there's the absurd justification that such punitive measures are supposed to be deterrents for what are commonly known as "crimes of passion" for a reason (not many murderers stop to calculate the potential jail time ahead).

The problem is that the system has failed at some levels. It's failed to offer inmates basic protections and guide them to real reform. It's failed at identifying the harmless and the harmful prisoners, so it locks them together. And it's failed at reigning in the restrictions of even the most basic rights afforded to prisoners (as guaranteed by our Second Amendment), as every politician increases penalties and police powers to be tough on crime. As a result, we now have a tenth of the population in overcrowded prisons (mostly on mandatory drug charges). And, you don't get reform, outgoing prisoners don't get new lives and jobs, and to no surprise there's a higher recidivism rate which leads to more calls for draconian measures and even mob-like riots.

I heard about the Paedophile Riots last time I was in England. I seem to recall reading that a confused mob attacked a Paedatrician, because they didn't understand the word. Sigh.

Yours,
Jake

One more thing. We've had similar problems here, except our confused and antisocial kids steal their parents' guns and shoot up a school. The conventional response is to blame movies and video games. Sigh.

The other conventional response (I've heard via news articles) is to blame roleplaying games, the hobby of the Devil. Thank God, not a response that has yet taken hold here in England.

x x Fenny (roleplayer and not Satanic worshipper)