Penalty for a Things We Find Reprehensible

Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 10 months ago to Philosophy
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I was listening to a docudrama in the background while I worked this evening. There was a story of this women who disappeared and was presumed murdered.

Some guy made YouTube videos with his voice and image distorted saying he had done this and other murders. http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/archives...

This was very upsetting the family.

The police tracked him down and raided his home. They quickly determined it was all a sick joke. He had never done anything violent. He was a mind-mannered married man with kids, who had one sick hobby.

The docu-drama announcer said he was convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison, but as a first-time offender will only serve two.

I understand why providing false information about a murder investigation is illegal, but the penalty seems insane. If the police determined after only hours that it was all a sick joke, it doesn't seem like this lie did that much harm. It's sick in the extreme to the friends and family of the victim.

MY POINT IN ALL THIS: People have a hard time separating things they don't like from things that the gov't should use force to stop.

When I heard he'll be out in ONLY two years, it crystalized this problem for me. It probably explains why the gov't can get away with violent raids for suspected gun violations or suspected marijuana distribution. People personally hate gun-nuts or pot-heads and think gov't force is an acceptable expression of their hatred.


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  • Posted by freedomforall 10 years, 10 months ago
    In some ways it appears that its establishing that activities outside the norm will be punished severely by government whether the punishment is appropriate to the crime or not, and in some cases without any injured party.
    Justice should be about making an injured party whole, if possible, or to attempt to repay their loss at the expense of the one who caused the loss. Prison sentences alone never accomplish that goal, nor do fines which reward government parasites more often than not.
    We don't see much good judgement in the 'justice' system imo.
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  • Posted by mminnick 10 years, 10 months ago
    Then there are other people who do jest just sentences the other way. The child rapist who received 30 days, the killer who gets 15 to 25 and who is out in 10. Sentences like that are not just, just as the sentence for the sick joker are not just the other way.
    The justice system is a system, but it is not just. It is however a system that works a majority of the time as opposed to some others that don't work at all.
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