by Cracked Pleasures » Fri Jan 23, 2009 9:02 pm
So Belgium has a next tragedy. A man with psychiatric history murdered 3 infants and 1 staffmember in a daycare center.
While I agree this is tragic and wish to out my sincerest condolences to the families of the victims, I am equally troubled by public reaction to this event.
Within the few hours well over 1000 people reacted to articles, asking for the most barbaric punishments. Ranging from regular death penalty (which by European law is forbidden, little do those people know Belgium can luckily not reintroduce the death penalty) to hanging on the town square, burying the criminal alive, let him rot without food in a basement, ... and more such primitive punishments.
I find it embarrassing to see few people know about the legal justice system and why we have this system, I find it worrying most dont even want to know about the history of our system. The system exists to protect regular people from wrong judgements. Maybe the day they face courtcases or accusations themselves, those people who all shout for public hanging will be happy the current system with a fair trial exists, rather than lynching the killer on a town square. While showing little understanding of the justice system, so many people just want to see blood flow and want revenge rather than an honest trial. The outings such as "people with psychiatric history must be locked up" are equally worrying, hopefully none of those people will ever need a psychiatrist, they may be happy that the justice system does not lock up people preventively without reason then.
Also, cliche, a lot of people say it is the governments fault! Of course, our prime minister himself handed the weapons of murder to the killer, and set everything up single handedly! In all seriousness, how can a government, no matter how dictatorial, prevent events like this? People react emotionally, which is understandable, but statements such as blaming the government are just outed without even thinking twice about what they are saying. But reacting emotionally is normal, however asking for medieval sorts of punishment worries me. Is this civilisation then when the public opinion calls for barbaric punishments as soon as they have the opportunity? The murder is tragic, there is no need to use it to out a desire for torture. And so many people ask for the death penalty while European law even forbids this, can people not research before they speak out?? I am very uncomfortable with these reactions outed by the mass out there, but well, of course lets finalise by outing my condolences again to those who lost a loved one in this tragic event.
Keep it flaming your desire, always rising higher - Aim for stars and hit the sky
(Echo & The Bunnymen - Evergreen, 1996)
Capital punishment = murder
THE PASSION OF LOVERS IS FOR DEATH (Bauhaus, 1983)
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