GolfHos

LINK (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbjuviemurder0107sbjan07,0,5681303.story)

outraged and incensed?

More like sad for humanity.  :sad3:

That is so *fudge*ed up.

Michael.Myers.surrenders

alas, humanity is vastly overestimated, and always has been


here's just another example from today probably less painful but more prolonged.
http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/10567327

Great day for children everywhere.  :sad3:   Here are two stories from today's local paper. Sadness and despair indeed.

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/13563916.html

St. Paul mom who locked kids in bedroom is charged
Police found feces smeared on the bedroom walls, no sheets on the beds and the woman's 2-year-old crying in a urine soaked diaper. Officers were called after a neighbor found the woman's 5-year-old daughter walking around the parking lot without shoes or a coat.

http://www.startribune.com/local/13558891.html

An Anoka man faces more than 10 years in prison when he is sentenced today for beating his girlfriend's newborn after the 5-pound boy came home from the hospital a year ago on New Year's Eve..........Cloutier, who is 6 feet tall and 220 pounds, initially claimed he tripped while carrying Carter Regnier and the boy hit his head on the floor. Another time he said that Carter's black eye was caused by a falling baby monitor. He later admitted losing his temper after the baby's continuous crying.

Unbelievable.

 :sad3:  *bunghole*s.

Question - Did this sort of stuff always happen but now in the interwebtubular era we just hear about each and every occurrence?  Or has the country/world completely gone down the *feces*ter in the past decade or two?

I would say a little of both.

ditto the fro

Holy crap.  Most.depressing.thread.ever.

I just read about this one too.

Police: Dad Threw 4 Children Off Bridge
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jc9E7RRBYrk0zhFlkZfLra35mVhAD8U2HDA80

Not to get all P&R about things, but ... if a sane adult cannot restrain the desire/urge/impulse to kill an innocent and defenseless child, that adult has nothing to offer to a civilized world, IMO, and should not live after conviction.  I say that not to trivialize other heinous crimes, but to underscore how particularly repugnant I find homicide perpetrated against children and how irretrievable I find the perpetrator.

Not that I disagree, but does the fact that the perp in the original story is a 12 year old change anything?

Sure.  I was commenting more on the other stories linked in this thread.

I don't really know what goes into the decision whether to try a minor as an adult.  If he does get his trial as an adult, though, I would endorse life as the harshest penalty.  I just can't see a 12-year-old as being indistinguishable from an adult in a homicide context.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about similar things over the last couple of decades; I lost a sister 20 years ago to a stalker ex-boyfriend - back before law enforcement was classifying anyone as a stalker.  In this case, he was convicted of first degree murder and received a sentence of life in prison.  At the time, this meant being first eligible for parole 17-1/2 years after incarceration.  A year later, the state of Minnesota changed the minimum time served to 30 years before parole eligibility.  Minnesota does not believe in the death penalty.

I'm not sure where I fall on the issue of the death penalty.  Death or life imprisonment?  I'm not really against the death penalty, save the fact that the stakes are pretty effing high.  I don't believe that it is acceptable for the state to kill someone wrongly accused.  What about for cases where there is no doubt about the offense and the offender?  Where do the lawyers draw that line?  Sorry in advance, Clive, if you have an answer to that one.

My sister was 17, a child to some, and certainly quite innocent.  To me, the relative innocence of the victim does not change my opinion much, though crimes against the truly innocent, young children as well as the aged, get my blood boiling.  Ultimately, to me, regardless of victim and circumstance, I would prefer that murderers never taste freedom again.  Period.  Whether this means the death penalty or life imprisonment does not matter so much to me.

First Degree, Second Degree,...  I don't care whether there was premeditation.  If a crime is classified as murder, the person does not breathe free air again.  Someone who commits murder has broken the cardinal rule of a civilized society: you don't kill someone.  The stakes are simply too high to let them into society again.  Feel badly for what the criminal has had to endure in their life.  Fine.  Try to help them.  Fine.  But don't let them out. 

And, yes, I am a serial comma abuser.