Posted by Racer on July 25, 2005, at 22:41:58
In reply to Re: stated purpose » Nickengland, posted by JenStar on July 25, 2005, at 18:28:55
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> I think to every rule there is an exception; to every rule there is a special clause. It's near impossible to develop civility rules that govern the entire hoard perfectly. And in a case like this, it seems to me there is ample evidence of malintent from the venom seen in some of those posts. I'm not sure that when such motives are present, that giving slap-on-the-wrist blocks is fair to the community as whole. I was also frustrated to see that other posters who posted under duress, sort of reeling from the after-effects of the onslaught of posts, received PBC's. Somehow the system doesn't seem perfectly set up to deal with this kind of issue...
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> JSI just heard on the news tonight that there is another child murderer in Florida. This one is a seven year old boy who beat his six month old sister to death. There was some discussion about his potential punishment, which naturally led to the 13 year old who was sentenced to life in prison a few years ago -- because life was the only possible sentence for the offense of murder in Florida.
My point being -- besides not all that sharp *g* -- that it's very, very hard to create a standardized set of rules that makes sense in every case. Years ago -- before I learned to keep my mouth shut more often ;-) -- I was discussing the proper sentence for a battered woman who killed her abuser with a friend of my mother's. I was saying that such a woman wouldn't deserve a harsh sentence -- and my mother's friend took that to its rather obvious conclusion: "so, uh, maybe we shouldn't put her in prison at all? Just let her go? After all, she's unlikely ever to kill again..."
The Andrea Yates case kinda says it all, in my opinion.
Anyway, I think that Dr Bob really has made every effort to keep things fair here, to be seen to offer the same punishment for the same offense every time. I'm just not sure I agree that that's the best way to go about it. There are times -- like with "so" -- where perhaps harsher and more lenient sentences might be best for the community as a whole. More lenient in the cases of those here who slipped due to outrage, and more harsh for someone who really did state that his/her intent was other than benign.
poster:Racer
thread:531449
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050716/msgs/533534.html