On the Front Lines
May 25, 2010 by admncc
Yesterday at lunch, I overheard an interesting conversation. Two ladies were talking about a local news story (a 22-year-old mother whose 3-year-old son died while attempting to climb a bookcase in their house). This was part of their conversation:
Lady One: “She is a baby killer.”
Lady Two: “I know. All baby killers need to die.”
Lady One: “All baby killers, pedophiles and rapists need to be placed out on the front lines in Iraq.”
At that point, I wanted to ask the first lady what the rationale was behind her statement. I mean, does she assume that we’ll continue to see mass casualties overseas. Does she think bad people should be sacrificed in a brutal manner? Why did she lump those three kinds of lawbreakers into the same category? And what does the war have to do with it?
Personally, I don’t have an issue with capital punishment when extreme crimes are involved. And in my opinion, what goes around comes around and those horrible human beings will be punished in one way or another at some point. But that’s not even the debate here.
However, there was one interesting part to her comment. Years ago, many viewed the military as the place for people to go when they’ve been in trouble with the law or couldn’t do anything else with their lives/careers. Maybe that’s how she feels. However, from what I’ve seen, all branches of the military have worked very hard to get past that stereotype and start recruiting top-notch individuals, through officer training and financial assistance programs.
Perhaps these ladies were just ranting and maybe I should have engaged them to discuss while we should be putting evil on our front lines. But it seemed like a much better topic to discuss here. On a related note, I’ve read about several states who want to implement color-coded license plates for registered sex offenders. That would probably make it open season for them to get harassed. Or would it be rightfully so?
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Those sound like extremely shallow comments. I’m curious, too, as to what they really meant.
As for the color-coded license plates, that seems a bit extreme.
BTW, Congrats on your marathon! That is quite an accomplishment. I bow to you, O Master Distance Runner!
I’m on the fence about the color-coded plates. Yes it is extreme, but what they did, provided there is no question of doubt that they are guilty, is also extreme. The problem would be open season on those color-coded plates. Color-coded plates will not deter a sex offender, therefore, the only purpose of those plates would be to warn others and in theory that’s good, but in reality I think the consequences would be dire…which may be the intent behind the plates by our gov’t: leave it up to society to deal with them.
Lady one and two have likely had some tough relationships, so I’m not going to criticize them…
But, you’re right. It is very difficult to get into the armed forces with a criminal record. That’s a good thing. But I find it interesting that they think our armed forces, the defenders of liberty, should be the dumping ground for our worst offenders. Does that tell us what their opinion is of the rest of our criminal free, 100% volunteer military?
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with NeoConDon. The armed forces should not be a dumping ground for criminals. And I think that color specific license for sex offenders would only encourage violence towards them.
Those women seem dimwitted to me and clearly don’t know much about what’s going on. (Not that I’m an expert, but I also don’t go making comments like that.) I looked into the case that I think you’re referring to online and the boy, it turns out, was living with an abusive parent. It’s sad to see a tragedy like this. Apparently the boy had suffered second-degree burns last year. The mother was also arrested for assaulting her husband. Jeez.
As a rape victim AND survivor, I would love to see my rapist get harassed and insulted and know what it was like to be me for a split second. That’s the anger inside of me though. I think that while I would love to be the one to see him ridiculed for what he did to me (and mentally did to me for 8+ years), I think it’s really up to God and karma and all that cosmic mumbo jumbo. He’ll get what’s coming to him whether or not it’s a color-coded license plate or years down the road he’s convicted because he WILL do it again. I think that if anyone deserves to have color-coded license plates that it should, at the very least, be child sex offenders. Parents should be allowed to know and should be able to say get away. These cars should be allowed to be identified if they’re lurking around schools and playgrounds. When I set out to press charges against my rapist, my original idea was to make it so he had to register whenever he moved and he had to be on a microscope for the rest of his life. However, now that I’ve learned and grown up a little bit, I know he will suffer down the road. (My dad was an abusive drunk while I was growing up and now he’s a washed up loser that’s on drugs 92% of the time. He’s losing his house, his truck and has even lost hours at work. Pay back is a bitch.)
Hold up – I have 3 boys and I can TOTALLY see them climbing a bookcase! The probably HAVE tried to climb a bookcase, I know they have tried to climb on their dressers using the drawers as steps. But, I don’t know the details of this case.
The front lines thing is an insult to our American soldiers, I think.
Heaven forbid someone say something other than “God bless the military….” The statement was clearly nothing against military occupation of the world to secure energy for the Homeland, though perhaps it should have been. She was saying that these selfish detriments to society should be forced to repay their debts through valor, unrealistic as such an idea may be.
Speaking of which, here’s a test of justice for you. When a criminal is incarcerated, he is given a sentence that is deemed appropriate as payment for his crime. If he has repaid his debt to society, he becomes a free man and any restraints on his freedom are unjust. Simple logic requires that if he hadn’t yet repaid his debt, he should be dead or still in prison. How can he continue to be charged with wearing some sort of scarlet letter for a crime that no longer holds a lien on his freedom? It’s just a sick game.
Ah, but since we have devolved into a world of reckless, frivolous emotion over reason, these sorts of arguments no longer ring true in the ears of the populations.
I agree with you, Tristan. When the crime is paid, the crime is paid. I would have to imagine that these plates would be a part of a plea deal, or exist for early parole. I think the problem with the violent sexual offenders that are repeat offenders lies with our system. Should they ever be allowed out of prison? Are the sentances enough? Is child molestation grounds for the death penalty? Can we hold the judges accountable for poor sentancing practices?