In Prison since 1982 for Stealing $9

Social security would be ok but likely the guy has been hardened from all the years in the clink so he’ll probably be back there pretty fast since nobody will hire him with his record. Plus what other life do they know.

I agree, locking him up was ok but the length does seem excessive.

That’s with a grain of salt in the way back machine though. Bigotry and racism aside, there were serious issues with crime in the 80s due to the crack epidemic. The laws changed to respond to them…time was still seen as a deterrent then.

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At the risk of setting you on another rant about the incorrigible masses, I suppose high inequality and lack of a social safety net don’t encourage crime in the slightest. :cactus: :cactus: :cactus:


Btw I’m moving this to Open because it’s not about human rights in Taiwan.

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I have an idea: it rhymes with funny. :money_mouth_face: :face_vomiting:

In one case his campaign received a contribution from the perp’s family. I’m not sure if it was that particular one. He may have been letting these guys out for cash.

Whatever reasoning was behind what he did, the pardonings were wicked.

God that’s terrible.

I won’t disagree that that has something to do with it. If you want to argue that the guy in question was carrying out muggings because of “social inequality and lack of a social safety net”, then I’ll say you have a point, but not much of one. For every Willie Simmons, there are 100 other people who experience the same factors and don’t go around bashing folk over the head to steal their money. And in every country with low “inequality” and good “social safety nets”, you’ll find a rate of crime high enough to be irritating to the law-abiding majority.

My point was merely that threatening draconian punishments, in and of itself, doesn’t have much of an effect on crime, because human brains don’t really work like that; and criminals, almost be definition, have less awareness than most of the natural consequences of crime. I wasn’t trying to take in the whole body of observations of Criminology.

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I personally think caning is a much more effective deterrent than prison.

I mean, if I were to get caned for stealing 9 dollars and had to spend months in the hospital healing for the injury, I would seriously not want to do this again. But for some people, particularly habitual offenders, jail doesn’t hurt them, and they are so institutionalized that they are better off in jail.

Caning someone to within an inch of their life, and then sending them to the hospital for treatment at government expense is much cheaper than have them spend several years in jail at government expense.

I’m sure with technology they can find ways to inflict extreme pain on someone without causing any permanent damage.

Sounds lovely.

I completely agree that jail tends to make things worse. And up to a point I can see where you’re coming from. For some people caning does actually seem to work. However I would object to the caning thing for the same reason I object to executions: somebody, some person, has to do the caning, and is brutalized by the process.

And yes, I’m sure there’s a technological solution to inflicting extreme pain. Apparently the Spanish Inquisition were pretty inventive in that regard.

Like I said, with technology there will probably be some way for people to inflict extreme pain temporarily without causing permanent damage or brutalizing anyone. At least for executions the Nazis found a way to do this without causing PTSD…

Maybe order the guy to wear a device that would inflict mild (but not debilitating) pain for a period of time.

And if he refuses…?

I reckon the Japanese had it sorted. Order the convict to execute himself.

It’s kinda like those ankle monitors they put on you… and I’m sure they can hold him down and put it on… or something.

erm … wot? I’m pretty sure the people involved in Nazi-style executions were out the other side of PTSD and frolicking on the beaches of Hell.

I’m sure the snowflakes on the left would be all for that.

Screw that… You mug someone three times you should be executed.

If he were hard up and stole food from grocers that’s fine, but he has/had no respect for others’ lives and therefore doesn’t deserve his.

They made sure they got killed by Yugoslav partisans.

Again, the snowflakes would never allow it.

Indeed. A lot of mass executions during the later stages of the war - when the Nazi empire was thinly extended - went pretty much unnoticed and undocumented because they were carried out by locals. The Nazis were big on outsourcing and virtual assistants all them years ago. Trailblazers, they were.

The “$9” and the “racism” angles the media has decided to take on this to prostrate themselves on the altar of social media has prevented the discussion of whether he would be in jail if he was a guy from a wealthy family who could afford legal council.

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