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Retribution for rioters: Vancouver v. Britain
Despite all the tough talk early on:
... two months after the Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver, not a single rioter has been charged, despite dozens of people who turned themselves in and confessed after photos and videos were posted on the Internet.
In the UK:
The riots that swept across London and other British cities this week have already resulted in more than 1,700 arrests, with some rioters already convicted and serving jail time.
5 comments:
And the message is ?? The Vancouver riot was likely a once-in-a-generation thing something like electing a NDP government; the participants realise their stupidity and do not re-offend. British hooligans, however, seem to be beyond self-correction and the mother of parliamentary govt. is giving proof to the idea that democracy carries the seeds of its own destruction.
True. The Van and UK riots aren't exactly equivalent, except maybe for the arson, vandalism, thuggery, looting and mindlessness.
Still, it is a disgrace that our "authorities" are so completely ineffectual that they can't get around to dealing with even the most obvious and self-admitted perps. That sends a terrible message - it's a prescription for more of the same.
Indeed, continue rewarding bad behaviour and you get more of it. I predict that if we continue in the same vein of not arresting and prosecuting such offenders, we can expect to experience the same as the UK in time.
I agree that unrepentant perps should be punished, but how can you improve upon the violator, having seen and repudiated his own base behaviour, going free to "sin no more?" When I realise my mistakes I learn from them and I don't appreciate preachy busybodies heaping their idea of appropriate punishment on me for something that I've already compensated for. This is the conservative ideal in crime and punishment - behavioral modification by epiphany.
If someone torched, vandalized and/or looted my property (by "mistake"??), I wouldn't be satisfied with just the perps' claims of repentence.
My conservative ideal in crime and punishment is police apprehension of suspects, a court finding of guilt, actual punishment to suit the crime, payment of damages and then, the icing on the cake, the perp's "epiphany".
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