I'm with you. And I know you won't like to hear this, but the skew relates to Judeo-Christian ethics: that life is sacred and only God's to take while torturing someone isn't as bad... especially if they're a woman. Rape has only really been a crime if the person is your wife for a handful of years. It's only really this century we've started to think of children as not belonging to their parents. But I do think there's a sick, sick system when his incarceration would be shorter than hers... It should at least be a year for a year.
Well, it's not 'won't like to hear this', or rather, I don't believe in shying away from nasty things (though I sometimes need a holiday!). I'm pretty infuriated/depressed/distressed by my church's position at the moment on just about everything. To the point where I can't call it 'my church'. Catholicism is my spirituality, but I don't think I can lay claim to belief in the hierarchy remotely with our current Pope in charge. He'd toss the Dark Night of the Soul out the window if someone laid it across his desk and he thought a modern priest had written it. I never thought we'd get one that took his predecessor's work and decided it was way too crazily liberal...but that's another rant and probably not one that's a good one for me to think about at work, because no one needs me this infuriated while I'm designing water sites
( ... )
Someone who's been doing something like that for 2 decades isn't going to go "Oh shit, I didn't realize that was a bad thing!" and stop when a judge slaps his wrist for it.
Which is what this is, a slap on his wrist and a slap in her face.
I don't think 15 years is a slap in the wrist -- it seems light because he somehow got away with it for more than twenty years! What the hell? I'm pretty sure the people who made the law never envisioned it being the *only* thing that applied in a case like this.
I always thought kidnapping was potential life imprisonment, though. Maybe that's under some state law or federal law in the US or something.
15 years of free cable and punching license plates is a slap on the wrist compared to 24 years of being chained in a basement being routinely beaten and raped by your own father.
For what it's worth, the 15 years may be per charge. It is likely (if I understand it correctly) that there will be multiple charges, based on multiple individuals imprisoned, and based on the length of the imprisonment. It will at most be at the court's discression to allow these to be served concurrently. It is most likely I think, that his sentence may be into the 100s of years.
I'm kinda going to disagree with mordwen here. I don't think it's about devaluing the life of the woman so much as it is focusing on the helplessness of the baby. The philosophy behind that is that taking advantage of a child is more reprehensible, because they have no possibility of resisting. Of course, this begs the question of whether the girl (who was pretty young herself when her nightmare began) could have resisted, but the law presumes the younger the child, the greater the duty of care on the part of the adult - and the more egregious the failure.
There's just no good answer to any of it. My first reaction was, "Sentence the bastard to exactly the same term of imprisonment under exactly the same conditions," but I have this thing about eye-for-an-eye. It's not gonna help.
Frankly, I think if every penny he made working in prison went to the care of her and her children, and every asset he had was seized and administered for their benefit? Would be a start.
Frankly, I think if every penny he made working in prison went to the care of her and her children, and every asset he had was seized and administered for their benefit? Would be a start.
I would support that. I recall some fracas a while back where he was upset about his 'good name' being damaged, and my lack of sympathy was so solid it could have formed its own gravity well.
Personally, I think his cell should be bricked up and only leave enough room for a bowl of gruel to be shoved in. If he gets sick, they can pass him a couple of aspirin. Let him rot in the dark.
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I'm not a fan of the current Pope by a long shot, but I did hear today he's come out against pollution. At least that's one good thing.
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Which is what this is, a slap on his wrist and a slap in her face.
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I always thought kidnapping was potential life imprisonment, though. Maybe that's under some state law or federal law in the US or something.
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I'm kinda going to disagree with mordwen here. I don't think it's about devaluing the life of the woman so much as it is focusing on the helplessness of the baby. The philosophy behind that is that taking advantage of a child is more reprehensible, because they have no possibility of resisting. Of course, this begs the question of whether the girl (who was pretty young herself when her nightmare began) could have resisted, but the law presumes the younger the child, the greater the duty of care on the part of the adult - and the more egregious the failure.
There's just no good answer to any of it. My first reaction was, "Sentence the bastard to exactly the same term of imprisonment under exactly the same conditions," but I have this thing about eye-for-an-eye. It's not gonna help.
Frankly, I think if every penny he made working in prison went to the care of her and her children, and every asset he had was seized and administered for their benefit? Would be a start.
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I would support that. I recall some fracas a while back where he was upset about his 'good name' being damaged, and my lack of sympathy was so solid it could have formed its own gravity well.
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-m
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