Stories in the newspaper yesterday were disheartening. After reading them, I had to conclude that full-blown sexual predators are everywhere, and doing something about them will be difficult.
The first story I found was about Canadian Col. Russell Williams, an elite pilot who was commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, the largest air force base in the country. In 2005 he was photographed with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. On February 7, 2010, he was charged with murdering a young woman who had been missing for almost a week.
That’s not all. Williams, considered a “shining bright star” in the military, has been charged with the murder of two women, sexual assault of two other women, and 82 break-ins. What did he steal? Women’s panties. An Ottawa newspaper reported that police seized more than 500 pairs from his home.
The charges have shocked the Canadian military. Retired Major Greg McQuaid wrote reports that helped Williams get promoted. McQuaid’s observation, however, is telling:
“I remember he had a very focused stare or look, and I was just reminded of that when this happened and they showed the photos of him and I said, there’s that look. I remember that look. It was like he’s looking through you at the back of your head,” McQuaid said.
To read about this incredible story, click on these links:
Canada top commander charged with murder, assault, on Philly.com.
The secret life of Colonel Russell Williams, on Macleans.ca. This story discusses psychopaths at the end.
Another story in the Sunday paper was about another sexual predator in the Catholic Church—this one from Brazil. A Polish priest, Marcin Michael Strachanowski, is accused of sexually abusing a 16-year-old former altar boy, and then threatening to kill the youth if he spoke of it.
According to news reports:
Judge Alexandre Abrahao Dias said that investigators found “erotic material sent to the victim via Internet to seduce him” and that the priest also took other youths to the parish house, “which he converted into a kind of erotic dungeon where he submitted them, often with the use of handcuffs, to orgies.”
To read about this case, see:
Polish priest accused of running pedophile ”˜dungeon,’ in the Montreal Gazette.
Priest charge cites ”˜erotic dungeon,’ on Philly.com.
The Canadian colonel is being prosecuted. The priest has been arrested, and the diocese of Rio de Janeiro didn’t cover up the incident. It immediately suspended the priest and expressed regret over the alleged abuse.
These guys have been caught. Given the nature of their crimes, if proven guilty, they’ll probably go to prison for a long time.
Ten days ago, a sex offender in California, John Gardner III, was sentenced to life in prison for raping and murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King and 14-year-old Amber Dubois.
California lawmakers are now considering a bill, nicknamed Chelsea’s Law, that would mandate life sentences for some child molesters and lifetime parole for others. It’s a great idea—but it will cost a lot of money.
After the first 10 years, keeping the predators in jail would cost tens of millions of dollars, according to a California corrections department analysis. But the Legislative Analyst’s Office, which provides fiscal and policy analysis to the California Legislature, puts the cost much higher—at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Read the article here:
California bill aimed at molesters would cost millions, on Google.com.
Last week, Lovefraud reported that the Supreme Court upheld a law to keep sex offenders in jail after their sentences are served. People who commit crimes like these deserve to spend their lives in jail. But is our society willing to pay for it?
This is an awesome discussion – everyone has put so much thought into their posts and I don’t know if there IS an answer, at the present time.
OxD, I’m with you on your rant! What DOES qualify as something heinous enough to warrant the death penalty? New Jersey has the death penalty in place, has convicted and sentenced to death violent criminals, and guess how many of these people have been euthanized? ZIP. NONE. NADA. ZERO. So, what’s the point of having the death penalty, at all?
This is not to say that I am bloodthirsty, but taking the lives of human beings after using them in whatever fashion is, in my humble opinion, deserving of SOMEthing.
The couple that was convicted of raping the underaged high school girl: man faces 30 years; woman faces 3-5 years. And, neither of these sick f*cks are saying, “Yes, I did this and it was wrong.” They’re STILL defending their actions as acceptable because, “…she was a…Party Girl…” Are you KIDDING ME??????
I joke about Spath Island, but there is a deep part of Buttons believes that it SHOULD be possible.
Spath Island. Drop them off with a bag full of produce seeds, 2 pigs, and some sunscreen. LEAVE THEM all on the island to fight it out amongst themselves, NEVER to drop off more supplies, medicines, etc. Let them sort it out and develop their own spathsociety without any hope or possibility of ever, ever, EVER escaping from the island. And, just to make sure that one doesn’t (Jurassic Park), have a couple of ships a couple of miles offshore to blow an escapee out of the water so that they can’t re-infect society.
Does anyone else believe that our current society is being LED by marketing/advertising, media, etc??? Where did all of this rampant spathy come from????
These are all tragic stories and, sadly, not only are there many more where those came from but even more that actually get away with it. However, where do we draw the line? The way to hell is paved with good intentions and this is a perfect example of it. This is the kind of thing that quickly takes on roots and becomes a crusade, a witchhunt, destroying far many lives than it saves. Should we have a flashback to the 80s and the California sex scandals in the daycares? Should I remind anyone how well that ended and how many innocent people were falsely accused, tried, convincted, wrongly imprisoned and their lives utterly destroyed? Just this morning I was listening to one such recent case (can’t remember the jurisdiction though) of a female school teacher who was accused of sexual molestation. Not only was he tried and convincted but she also lost her home, her career and, most importantly, custody of her children, along with her freedom. When it was all said and done, she was exonerated of all charges. Yeah, I’m sure that there are many who would advocate that this is small potatoes in comparison to the ones that could be “saved” – To those, however, I start by saying: abolish the Catholic Church and you’ll probably do away with 50% of all the sex predators out there today.
People only take sex crimes seriously when there’s a child victim, or an extremely brutal adult rape. This plays into the hand of most sexual predators, who groom victims into a relationship and then do their damage, as another Lovefraud post showed.
If you use grooming against an adult victim, then the criminal justice system won’t recognize a subsequent sex assault as rape. Sure, there are laws against date and marital rape, but law enforcement, prosecutors, juries, and judges are people, and when they believe rape myths, only sex crimes featuring kids or violence (or both) get anywhere in the justice system.
The absolute best place for sex predators of adults to find their victims is in a relationship. An eighth of married women have been raped by their husbands and the rate of sexual assault of “girlfriends” is similar. Parents can’t file restraining orders on behalf of their grown children, something which also plays into the hands of the sociopathic predator.
I believe that if you are going to have Jessica’s and Chelsea’ s Laws, they must be expanded to include adult victims, not just child victims. If the rape of a child carries 25 to life, rape of an adult victim must carry 15 to life. If you rape a woman who has been raped as a child, then since it’s revictimization of a person that was revictimized as a child, it should be punished as an extension of CSA.
In addition, not all sexual predators CAN be locked behind bars. The man who chats up women who have been abused or have other issues in their past to get in their pants is just as much a predator as the same man who does that to teenage girls, yet because their adults, “they should have known better.” Serial sexual harassers can be sued, but not arrested unless they are in a fiduciary or custodial relationship to their victims.
brian92680, it’s time the media as well as the rest of society take executions of these predators that prey on the rest of us seriously. No more closed executions and then reporters broadcast that so and so was executed on schedule at such and such a time, this is what they had for their last meal, this is what their last words were, this is who they talked to. SHOW US! What does anyone get seeing the hearse take the low life’s body away after they were executed? Time to show everyone in the USA … live, on TV … have them videoed for their last week of life. Show who they talk to, broadcast live what they are saying, what they think now that they got caught and only have a few more breaths to take down on earth. Show society the executions of these lawless creatures. Then and only then when the rest of these predators see what their fate eventually will be if they keep preying on society will be the only way we can curtail this evil. Want to play predator and think you’ll never be caught. Send them back to God and let Him judge them the way it was written.
After said executions, we should televise public opinions via panel discussions with the victims, legal system and the general public.
Why should any of these perverts care … they’ve never witnessed a live execution … and it’s obvious they don’t have their own minds to discern right from wrong … a who cares attitude. We have to stop thinking predators have this moral compass built in them. They don’t. So, let’s show them what their end could be if they don’t straighten up and fly right.
I believe if people saw live executions today of our predators on death row …more of these criminal mentalities walking free among us would naturally think twice about preying on law abiding citizens and breaking the law that binds us. What clearer picture could anyone get than to see public executions … live coming into your living space. It will send clear and precise message that our citizens are nothing to play with if you decide to live in a perverted way.
Great thought behind those posts, Brian, Solace and Buttons….even the 3-strikes law in california is being used to put away for life without petty crimnals. I totally support the 3-strikes law, but not for 3 misdermeanors.
Part of the problem is the DAs have too much power to either prosecute or not, or plea bargain things down. Get the perp to cop to a C- crime when they could have been prosecuted for an A+ crime, BUT IN A COURT. We are by law supposed to get a JURY trial, but the “let’s make a deal” poker-bluff way our courts are actually run is NOT JUSTICE.
The PEOPLE don’t get their day in court to get justice for the PEOPLE, the convict takes a reduced plea and sentence and DEPRIVES the People of THEIR JUSTICE. The DA is still “hard on crime” when he run for reelection, and everyone except the public WINS and goes home happy.
Wni, it has unfortunately been proven that even public executions as horrific as crucifiction were viewed as ENTERRTAINMENT specticles rather than a deterent to crime.
Public hanging actually had a “script” that was played by and most of the time even the person being hung would play along with the event, standing up and telling everyone in the crowd that they had been lead to the scaffold by “wild women and booze” and advising others to give up wild women and whiskey. There would be public and very rowdy and roucous gathrings at the creek to baptize the “guest of honor” at these parties.
In England when all execution was done publicly and the poor victim was dragged through the streets on a sled, head down, over the cobblestones, then hung until almost dead, then cut down, disemboweled, then while still living the body set on fire, then cut into 4 pieces plus the head and the pieces displayed until they rotted down, it still did not deter crimes.
Transportation to Australia which WAS horrible did not deter crime, so it got to the point that stealing a handkerchief was a transportation ticket, and if you stole 2 handkerchiefs you were hung (just til dead) so the prosecutors over there then would plead two handkerchiefs down to 1 and transport the poor person, But NONE of this detered crime.
Besides, don’t we kinow that psychopaths are NOT detered by fear? Especially of fear of getting caught, they are too smart, THEY THINK. I WISH public hanging would work to deter crime, but All the studies have shown it doesn’t.
AND, as far as capitol punishment goes, I don’t trust the justice system (that’s an oxymoron if ever there was one) to weed out the TRULY I9NNOCENT. Look how many people have been proven innocent decades later with DNA!
I can’t even imagine hanging ONE innocent person per decade, and it’s gonna happen a lot more frequently than that. A guy was just released recently after 35 years in prison for a Rape he did not do. What if he had been executed?
The various law schools that are running “Innocence projects” and using good evidence (not just technicalities) are PROVING INNOCENCE on these unjustly convicted men and women who would otherwise die in prison.
We’ve got some here in Arkan sas now, been in prison forf 17 years and one of them on death row that I, and lots of others, think were rail roaded and are totally innocent. There is DNA that someone else is the killer (the step father of one of the dead kids) How can you make it up to someone if you KILL them for a crime they didn’t commit?
The Gulag might be a good idea for prisons for VIOLENT criminals, but like one poster pointed out, a lot of violence is done emotionally or psychologically rather than physically.
No “right” answer I don’t think, only better or worse. But educating ourselves against the “psychopath next door” or IN OUR HOMES is the best thing we can do. Then NO CONTACT.
Oxy, proven by whom? Who did the surveys? Bleeding hearts that never were violated in their lives? Give me a break with the wishy washy mindsets in this country that never had crime touch them in their lives. Even the president’s wife, when accosted by criminals getting out of her chaufered limo one night in DC started the campaign “just say no to drugs”. That went over big, NOT!
As far as public executions, I never said that. I said to broadcast executions live to your TV sets at home. Not in the public square so folks can be entertained or make a public spectacle or mockery of the situation. Also, I know many have been railroaded and DNA must be the final fact proving factor of guilt. Finally, why isn’t the public screaming that these prosecutors and others who locked up innocent folks need to take their place in prison for the same amount of years they locked up an innocent person? Our country has rid itself of all/any checks and balances to ensure people in position of power do their jobs to the best of their ability, not just collect a paycheck and get recognition to sell their books.
We can debate this issue forever … and still, executions do take place in our country … so why not broadcast it to see if crime subsides.
Wini, our KIDS see so much “blood and gore” on TV right now that LOOKS SO REAL, how would a film of sticking a needle in the arm of a guy who then goes “peacefully” to sleep on a table DETER anyone from murder or violence? Besides in a supposedly just way (I don’t think it is) the guy is kept in prison for DECADES before he is actually “put to sleep painlessly” so that’s not going to deter anyone either. If it WOULD I would be for going back to turning them loose in the arena with lions set on them like Rome did, or crucifying them like the Romans did, but don’t think it works real good as a deterent. Sorry.
Oxy, that’s the problem, fools do imitate what they see today on TV/movies and have no clue there are penalties to their actions. The show or movie is over … and all is well with how it ended (good or bad) … action/cut … it’s make believe. Broadcasting executions shows the viewer the real penalty for taking someone’s life … taping them a week prior to their demise, getting their reactions, who they talked with (family/friends/loved ones) … film what these people’s reactions are to what is about to happen. The aftermath discussions from viewers, staff in the system, victims, family/friends of the deceased.
Big difference between TV/movies/books than the real deal affects of life and the devastation these people created living recklessly.
Besides, children are too young to view these executions, put them to bed early and allow them to view them when they are old enough to do so.
Dear Wini, I have to second Oxy on this. It was a weird feeling when I learned that when I did anesthesia I basically used the same ingredients that are used for “death by poison injection” (well we do not use potassium to stop the heart, and of course we do intubate and ventilate the patient afterwards) No wonder people are so afraid of operations.
Basically the audience would see the initial actions of anesthesia, performed by not so trained people ( I have seen once a documentary on death penalty years ago). And the ordinary public would not watch the whole pre- and after-talks, I assume (at least not the ones who SHOULD!)
In the internet on youtube you can already find lots of videos, also with the more “exciting” electric chair, including reactions of all the involved, talks and the like! And so far it did not deter people from crime! (I fear it will be the ultimate excitement of a N/P/S!)
Splatterfilms or “Chainsaw massacre”-type films are far more impressive! Or the videogames where you can EXECUTE PEOPLE YOURSELF and get winning points! It is all so sick! And usually people do not discern between “the real” and “fake”.
I personally am against the death penalty, but I am for locking them away for good if there is no chance of rehabilitation.