Murderers are a breed apart, one thinks. Who in their right mind would take the life
of another person? Are they monsters?
Do they not appreciate the preciousness of life, any life. Yesterday, I had no sympathy whatsoever for
those who take way that most fundamental human right, existence.
What changed my mind?
An incredible film entitled, ‘Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His
Father’. It is a documentary that
chronicles the appalling confusion that followed the murder of a young doctor
by an ex-girlfriend. It is a film that
touches your heart on so many levels and you know right from the start it will
have no happy ending. However, there is
a scene where the victim’s father berates himself that he did not murder the
ex-girlfriend. He described how he
planned it, thought through the method, how he would carry it off. Instead of being appalled you, like me, will
find yourself also regretting he did not carry out the killing. On so many levels, it would have been
just. It would have saved yet another
innocent life, apart from his son’s, it would have left him incarcerated for
murder but undoubtedly it would have been the right thing to do. His anguish comes from the fact that he did
not commit a murder.
I reckon by now you are shocked that I am recommending
murder as a just action. Can there be
any justification for such a step?
Well, think about it. Imagine
someone you loved, God forbid, was horrifically viciously killed at the hand of
a sadistic killer. Conjure up not only
the unbearable loss of the person who makes this world joyous, but also factor
in that the one who snuffed out that precious life is walking around free. Perhaps you will even meet them in the
supermarket. You will have to wait from
1- 6 years (an average of four) before even the nightmare trial occurs. Every day they walk free upon the earth
while your loved one rots beneath it, lash upon your soul. The justice system expects you to be civilised
and await the cogs of justice to turn, to give them their sentence. Meanwhile you must weigh up if you can
swallow the impossible, endure what cannot be born, be patient and long
suffering.
Well, the honest news is you probably will do your best. No one likes vigilantes. Society requires laws. The framework that upholds civil society and stops a chaotic free for all. The even greater loss of life that revenge killing triggers. Just because someone takes a life does not justify a reciprocal action. The difficulty is those rational arguments will struggle with your own heart stopping pain. If it becomes unbearable you will crack.
Well, the honest news is you probably will do your best. No one likes vigilantes. Society requires laws. The framework that upholds civil society and stops a chaotic free for all. The even greater loss of life that revenge killing triggers. Just because someone takes a life does not justify a reciprocal action. The difficulty is those rational arguments will struggle with your own heart stopping pain. If it becomes unbearable you will crack.
In my local town, in N Ireland, a young grammar school boy
was playing in the school grounds when two older teenagers jumped the wall and
beat him so badly he was left permanently brain damaged. He had done nothing to instigate the attack,
no provocation, no history of ill feeling.
Just two vicious thugs who thought it would be fun to beat the uniformed
boy to a pulp. They were subsequently
sentenced to 6 months in juvenile detention.
A year later, the father of the severely disabled schoolboy met the two
attackers giggling as they passed him in the main street of the town. He went home and wept his pain, howled his
anger to the skies but took no revenge.
Would you be able to do the same?
Years ago a friend of mine was subjected to horrific
domestic abuse on the Greek island where we lived. When she left to find sanctuary her husband was so enraged he
punched me through my car window.
Filling assault charges in the local police station, availed
nothing. It would be years (and was)
before it would be heard in court.
Meanwhile my friend and my family were vulnerable to this local bully. Talking on the phone to my seventy-year-old
mother in NI she became very concerned about the seriousness of the
situation. She also was alarmed
that my young children might be targeted in his tactics of intimidation. She then announced that if he killed me, she
would be on the next flight to take him out.
I was amused at the venom in this tiny white haired ex-teacher who had
never even committed a traffic offence.
I took her statement purely as an expression of her love and
concern. So it was startling this
summer, when I found myself during a visit questioning her on whether she would
have indeed carried out the murder. My
now, eighty two year old mother confirmed that there was absolutely no doubt
about her carrying out the killing. She
was deadly serious! I found it
disconcerting because she is a warm loving righteous person. So, if such a person can contemplate murder
how many good souls rot in prison because the intolerable happened to them and
killing became an easier option that letting a perpetrator live?
If our justice system acted efficiently and promptly such
issues would rarely arise. The shocking
truth is that murder trials take years and in those years there are often more
deaths and more pain.
In Belgium, Marc
Dutroux was convicted for car theft, muggings and drug dealing.
This was only the start of his criminal career. He went on to the abducting and raping five young
girls. He liked to torture his victims
and keep them in cages in his home.
When convicted for this crime he got a prison sentence of thirteen
years. Unbelievably, he was released,
wait for it, for good behaviour after serving only three years. This despite his own mother writing to the
prison director to say he would continue to kidnap young girls if
released. Which, of course he did. Inevitably, he kidnapped, tortured and sexually
abused six more girls from 1995 to 1996, ranging in age from 8
to 19, four of whom he murdered. The
incompetence of the judicial system and the police in their handling of the
killer brought 300,000 people onto the streets of Brussels in protest. Despite the public call for judicial reform,
Dutroux was held in prison without trial for a further 8 years! He claimed he was part of an elite
paedophile ring involving judges, police and parliamentarians. Not bringing him to trial would obviously
protect those other shadowy characters.
However, he was a killer and how much can we trust this vile man? The delay was so long there was a discussion
that Dutroux might have to be released as his human rights had been denied
him. Okay, are you feeling murderous
yet? Imagine how the parents of those
violated, tortured children felt? To
rub salt in the wound, in 1998, Dutroux while was being moved from prison he
managed to escape police custody for several hours. Right by now even the gentle soul among you must be boiling in
rage about now? Fortunately, he
was caught and is back behind bars. His
wife is free. She who was told by
Dutroux to feed two caged girls in their home and their dogs, while he was in
prison. She decided to feed the dogs
but not the girls and they starved to death.
She now walks the streets of Brussels and those parents who have lost
their innocent children know it. Do you
begin to feel the red mist of rage descend?
Well, my point here is not to enrage you but to allow you to see that all
of us are capable of murder under the right circumstances. Whether that is driven by fanatical
prejudice, a desire for revenge, to protect those you love – the list is
endless. The worrying point is when the
good in our midst become murderers. Our
justice system (flawed as it can be), can handle a small percentage of vile
vicious killers (albeit taking forever to do it) and it can imprison those who
would take other’s lives (though the US tally of 2.4 million prisoners is extraordinary).
When the system is so flawed and incompetent that the victim’s relatives can
find no real sense of justice you have a system that instead of imprisoning
killers actually contributes to the making of more! The bad are ever with us, but when our judicial system makes even
the good and long suffering bad, what exactly is its point?
There are no easy answers.
Of course the law must be upheld.
Caracas, Venezuela is an example where ‘tit for tat’ gang killings have
tortured an entire city. In wars
killing becomes the main agenda and those whose joy is to hurt, control and
destroy come into their own. In a
civilised society the structure is upheld by two pillars reward and punishment. Those who take a life need to be severely
punished and it should happen quickly and efficiently. The legal system should not be allowed to
draw the whole business out into a veritable cash cow. The urgency of justice should not sacrifice
the right of defence. Even the guilty
deserve their day in court. But the innocent
need the reward of an effective court system that respects their rights
too. The dead victims and their
families too often end up bit players in a main show that crucifies them slowly
and methodically week after week, month after month and even year after year.
If good people begin to kill there is something very
wrong. Our legal system should be
designed to deal with those who break the law, commit a crime. It should not take the innocent and twist
them until they crack and become the killers the system is designed to take off
our streets.