12-14-2008, 09:43 PM
Gutenberg wrote:
There were several church arsons in Maryland a couple of years ago. It turned out to be drunken frat boys, but the very act of burning churches turned people against each other, at least until the perps were caught. They received probation. I thought they should have gone to jail. They burned the first church during a drinking binge and then burned two others to make it look like an anti-religious rampage.
Thank you. I certainly agree that the frat boys should have earned time behind the big walls. Although, under those circumstances, I think the right laws were in place but justice was not meted out in accordance with them. I really think we need to reserve some of our laws that apply a hefty enhancement to criminal acts because of pure hatred or political intolerance for cases in which that's truly the motivation. Clearly those boys were very calculating when they tried to cover their crimes, but their intent was certainly much different than that of those who do burn down churches or kill people to make political statements or to terrorize others. If we run the laws together too much or too often, they lose their effectiveness, and we also run the danger of having them abused and perhaps eliminated altogether. That's not a good thing, either.
Ah, memories of time spent studying crime and punishment.
