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Subject: 
Re: Misperceptions of America (Was: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Mon, 30 Aug 1999 03:50:09 GMT
Viewed: 
2113 times
  
Mike Stanley wrote:

Don't even try to
suggest that some loser thirteen year old who starts running with a
gang, steals cars, and then works up to killing someone can be
classified as an "otherwise normal" person.

And even if they are otherwise normal, so what?  I say someone just like
me but who has taken another human's life is substantially different and
needs special handling - like restitutive incarceration.

What I don't buy from Mike's opinion is that murder isn't sometimes
understandable.  For instance, I can imagine being a troubled thirteen
year old (I was) who is failing at school, but very gifted (I was), and
has a few misanthropic friends and no girlfriends while still having
raging hormones (me again), and is duped by youthful stupidity into
killing some particularly obnoxious peer (I didn't do this part).  Now,
you can take the hard approach and say that kid ought to be put down
before it breeds, and I can respect that, but I can also see how
properly handled, such a child could turn into a very productive member
of society who lives a life remorse for his early crime.

Does that matter?

What do we as a society do about that?

--Chris



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Misperceptions of America (Was: Conversation w/ a LEGO Rep)
 
(...) Yes, I am. Maybe you think it's a fault to judge other people by their actions. I don't. Let's see, what types of people do we have in prisons, for the most part? Murderers, rapists, child molesters, thieves, etc. Yep, scum. Maybe you think (...) (25 years ago, 29-Aug-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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