Aneirin
Posts: 6121
Joined: 3/18/2006 From: Tamaris Status: offline
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This is yet another case of a person who elected to do something criminal and did not think a) he would be caught, or b) he was not aware of the consequences for his actions or even c) his foreigner status might help him if he was caught. Surely he knew what he was doing was wrong, even if he did not know it was criminal, an understanding which might have been gleaned from other places where he night have acted similarly without consequence. But it is simple, his actions were criminal, he broke the law,and has been caught and must face the consequences of his actions. Now the issue of physical punishment, caning for example, it has overtones of school age punishment from an older time, but perhaps graffiti is seen as a school age crime, so the punishment in this case fits the crime. But perhaps an example can be drawn from that little Island off the English coast, the Isle of Man, which had in place the punishment of birching, being flogged with a broom of birch twigs, this I am told was reserved for petty crime of which graffiti came under, but with the knowledge that birching was used, youth pecadillos were very low on the island, something which has now changed since the corporal punishment of this type was banned. But of corporal punishment, flogging, birching, caning etc, perhaps due to their status as a humiliation punishment they would be more effective at directing wayward people to the right side of the law than custodial punishment which costs tax payers more than the crime does. Perhaps if more countries adopted this method of punishment for petty crime, we might even have less of it because the fear is there. So, a person may carry physical scars, but what a fitting reminder and deterrant for others.
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Everything we are is the result of what we have thought, the mind is everything, what we think, we become - Guatama Buddha Conservatism is distrust of people tempered by fear - William Gladstone
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