Should People Take Justice Into Their Own Hands (partocular case)

[sapphi_snake]

trashleg said:

i see our discussion had a big effect on you.

i know what those boys did was beyond wrong, but killing children is also wrong. it was right for them to be detained in comfort, something that was lacking in their lives in the first place. the main point of their imprisonment was to keep them out of society, so they were no longer a threat. I don't believe that torturing them or keeping them in a bare cell is necessary. They have no freedom, and they'reaway from society. That's what imprisonment is, right?

After all, there is evidently something very wrong in their minds, and after thinking about it for a few days (since we spoke about it), I've realised that its a good thing, them being given access to some normal childhood things. After all, wouldn't deprivation from that just make them worse as they grew older?

What I DON'T agree with, however, is their release and new identities. Jack Straw actually endangered the lives of many UK citizens when he grante them new identities. VIgilante attacks on individuals thought to be Jon Venables have occurred, and what happens when someone is wrongly murdered for having a build/accent/geography similar to the predicted ones of these men?

I don't think that the guilty boys should have been killed, by the government or anyone else. But those children are now men, and the past remains the same... the fact that the government were so worried about attempts on their lives just goes to show that the story, nearly 20 years on, is still very much in people's minds, and people are still angry.

That story still makes me so so sad.

In my opinion they should never have been released. They should've spent their whole lives behind bars (and no comforts and luxuries, like TV or workout either). There are situations where compassion is not a good thing, and sometimes it's better when you lack it entirely. Administiring punishment to such individuals is such a time. It's about obtaining justice for the victims, and for society as a whole.

If anything, these two are better off now than they would've been had they never committed this atrocity.

The fact that they were abused isn't an excuse. Most people are abused in some form. Very few act like they did. They choose to kidnapp, torture, mutilate and kill a 2 yar old boy. No one forced them to do that. They deserve no compassion.

As for the identity thing, you're right. Besides that, people have a right to know who they're dealing with. One of them was convited last year for possessing porn movies of infants. Nobody in his/her right mind would allow kids near these guys if they knew who they were! They shouldn't be making all these "rehabilitation" experiments on the expense of law abiding citizens.