Sentencing

jessicae

Member
So what did he intend to do? Tickle it?
I don't see how being in a rage mitigates matters?
If a person's rage is so bad they can't control whether they kill a baby or not then I'd suggest they remove themselves from being around children perhaps?
 

wolfwood290

New member
Acting out of control is a recognised mitigation. I would of agreed with mental health help but sticking him in a prison for a long time wouldn't actually do anything. Well, annoy him more and have him be a threat to other inmates perhaps. Depends on your views of what the justice system is supposed to be really and then we're back to a much earlier page in the thread.

I wonder how many of these sentences are down to case law too? Been a while since I studied it but the impression I got was that judges don't really have much leeway with sentencing.
 

DiannePearce

New member
Well he wouldn't be living next door to you. Doesn't that count for something?
That's surely one use of incarceration isn't it?
So the people that are dangerous or criminal aren't free to continue to be so around people that are law abiding and safe.
 

LindseyB

Member
Something yes, but its a small part of what I feel the prison system is for. I'm pretty big into the whole rehabilitation thing. If you view prisons as somewhere to dump people who have broken the law to seperate them from everyone else and leave it at that then you run the risk of having prisons like the US. Personally I never want that to happen.
 

JackSchitt

New member
Fair enough.
No idea, I don't know him. The only thing I know is he has an anger problem and so long as he has it is a potential danger. But I do also know that anger problems can be helped and can have a variety of causes. Without knowing his history and why he reacted the way he did I'm not comfortable casting him aside as a waste product. Maybe my age makes me an idealist, but it takes a lot for me to dehumanise another person.
 

RatulK

New member
It takes a lot for me to dehumanize a person too.
Attacking a baby and killing it will pretty much do it though. A guarantee to be honest.
 

sheynah

New member
Fair one. I focus more on context though. In this case the fact he has anger problems mitigates it for me. Trying to think of a different example and all I've got is stuff like the Taleban. Do a lot of bad crap and I have no qualms with the whole killing them thing, but I also accept that its not just a case of mental fundies. When you live in a crappy place an extra few bucks a day could mean the difference between your family eating that day or not. Or suicide bombers. Still a terrible act, but if its a kid who's been brought upbelieving its his duty and doesn't know any better I won't condemn them as a person for that.

Not the best examples but I've been asleep most of the day and my brain isn't cooperating.
 

sweeeeet

Member
Not really. He's not living next door to you either and when he's released you're not going to be informed. You don't know where he'll end up. In 10 years time he'll be living next door to someone having spent 10 years in prisons if he serves his full sentence with little to no access to the treatment he clearly needs.

In 10 years time we're back to square 1. Dangerous people should be removed from society. But they should also be given the treatment they need.
 
Even with all that - it was over a century and a half ago, My GF's grandmother remembered the famine (she said Quakers were good people and they gave you soup), the penal laws had been repealed under the emancipation acts mostly by 1793, the splitting of land was permitted under Irish law but forbidden under English and Scottish leading to the subsistence farming practiced in Ireland, Irish farmers were not forced to split parcels. Catholics born here of Irish decent have had the same chances as me, so when they whine about the famine (or as one guy told me Irish have suffered worse racism than black people), it's very hard to take them seriously.
 

damnitsmegan

New member
Yes ,the Quakers seem to have been the only English people who made much effort to help.

I'm intrigued to know just how old your girlfriend is if her grandmother can remember the famine! I'm about your age, and my family has been here for seven generations since the famine.

The penal laws weren't fully repealed until the 1840's or 50's. I forget the exact dates, but I remember that it was during the Duke of Wellington's administration. Of course, their effects were deep-seated by then.

I've never lived in Scotland, so I can't really comment. There does seem to be a massive amount of sectarian bigotry up there (and I've had a taste of it from some of my own Scottish relatives.) That's the main reason why no-one in their right mind wants the Old Firm to join the English premier league, whatever the moneymen want.

As for 'whining' about the famine, it was a massive human tragedy and shouldn't ever be forgotten. Trying to compare the degree of racism suffered by different people in different countries does seem like a completely futile excercise to me.
 

Sillyminnie

New member
My GF is 47 (I am 50), her mother had her when she was in her 40s, Her grandmother had her mother late too, though on reflection I wonder if her grandmother was repeating something her own mother had told her.

By 1829 Irish Catholics could be Judges and Lawyers, sit in Parliament, but Jews and Atheists were still banned until the late 1850s.

By whining about it I mean claiming some hierarchy of authorty because your ancestors suffered in it, rather than getting on with your own life.
 

smilexxxxxxxx

New member
Can we not just agree that the famine was bad and that any of the people who hold any responsibility for making it worse are gone.

Arguing about the potato famine when there are famine's going on right now just seems a bit messed up.
 

Pudge

New member
In my world a person gets 1 chance to use the substance influence excuse.
After that they know what they get like under the influence and so accept the results when they get wasted.
 
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