There's a disturbing meme of vigilante action against child molesters emerging. Today, 20-year-old Stephen Marshall of Cape Breton murdered two registered sex offenders in Maine before taking his own life in Boston. This eerily echoes last year's murder of two registered sex offenders at their home in Bellingham, Washington by Michael Anthony Mullen. Mullen showed up at the men's door in an FBI cap to warn them that other people on the offender list were being targeted by a vigilante, then shot them. (A third roommate with a record of sex crimes against children was spared only because he wasn't home at the time.)
Then I learned that a new movie from Focus Films, Hard Candy, has a similar theme.
This is not the answer.
Killing abusers isn't going to end child abuse any more than gunning down or blowing up abortion doctors stops abortion. If anything, it arouses sympathy for the bastards. For instance, the daughter of one of the men killed by Michael Mullen insisted her dad didn't deserve to die for crimes committed against her and other children 17 years earlier. There are far more pro-active ways to combat abuse and its aftereffects - ones that won't land you in jail for the rest of your natural life. Become an activist, advocate, or support worker! If you're angry enough about sex crimes against children to do something about it, then we need you to be free, alive, and productive.
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4 years ago
4 comments:
Alright, alright! Dad and I already said we wouldn't kill him! We're not promising that we won't make his life a living hell if given the opportunity. ;)
Heehee. I wasn't talking about YOU! I know you're not that reckless! :)
I agree that vigilantism isn't the answer. There was a piece about this on the CBC last night, in relation to the public sex offender registries in the US and the hopes that Canada's will not be made public in the future. I think this is a good thing. As the PM said, leave it to the police, because you're right, murdering the bastards doesn't solve anything.
That guy was only 20! He had an entire lifetime ahead of him, and he wasted it on a coupla pervs. That's very sad. ;(
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