I find some psychopaths and criminals fascinating. I was that kid who got out books on serial killers from the library. I read all about Ted Bundy and the Boston Strangler. I admire Hanibal Lector as I see him in films.
The murderer currently in our nation's news is quite uninteresting, though (irritating, but uninteresting). There's something pathetic about someone so desperate to be studied or looked at as a special case. He has put himself on display and seems to almost sit on the stand smugly saying, 'Aren't I fascinating?' when he's really just someone you'd meet and say, 'Wow - he's a bit of a dick.'
Obviously a dick to the point that he's unstable and not fit to be amongst people. My resident law-graduate says there's not much hope of him getting his manslaughter conviction, which comforts me.
As is now the focus of the trial, all of this may well have been hammed for the benefit of his defence, which hinges on his being narcissistic.
I read someone's take on why the 'provocation' loophole should be closed up. Seemed logical. I like to think there are no circumstances under which someone could provoke me to murder them.
Prisons seem to be filled with people who have some kind of mental illness or trauma inflicted on them, so you can to an extent feel sorry for a lot of them. You could make an extreme case for them all being victims. It's this logic that makes me agree that we shouldn't have a death penalty. But, if someone can't control themselves to the point that they're a danger to other people, they should certainly be in jail.
To me, that's the purpose of jail. It's not so much a punishment for criminals as it is a safeguard to society. We have a kind of delicate balance where we have to trust that other people will respect our basic rights. Laws can only go so far in ensuring this, so we have to believe that people around us have empathy and control.
Anyhow. I digress.
In short, send him to jail. For a long time. But don't write a book about him. I'm sure if anyone did, he'd offer to sign copies of it from his jail-cell and write the foreword himself.
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Ultimate - a synonym for 'supreme'?
Cassie's little brother finds good pages to link to.
This page is funny. This entry is funny especially because I have played Ultimate and I am white! And, come to think of it, my team was pretty much white too.
