Who Watches the Watchmen?

I had a conversation sometime ago regarding a man who beat and threatened his wife. He was placed in jail here in Singapore for 2+ years. After serving his time - he went back and beat up his wife again. And of course was was sent to jail again - this time for 5.

My friend opinionated that the wife-beater should have received counseling, anger management sessions, and should not have been sent to prison. He's a human being too and has rights. To an extent. I can see his point of view. Perhaps he should have received more counselling or getting psy treatment. But at the end of the day - the law should protect the weak and defend their rights.

For example - in Australia - there's a serial child rapist - known as Mr Baldy. He's committed a number of heinous crimes with kids. Occasionally he gets caught - put in jail - sent for counseling - then he is released and reoffends again and again. He claims to be totally innocent and has done no wrong. After his release, the State will pay for his accommodation and the police will protect his whereabouts and hide his real address.

If I was king of the land- I'd have tar and feathered the fucker before impaling him in public long ago. My friend is very glad I am not king.

We are living in a fallen world. There are evil men out there or men who are out of control. If our watchmen, the Govt/the Judiciary/the Police do not punish them - then who else will? In the Bible - it is written :

Romans 13:3-4 (New International Version)
3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.

The Govt is supposed to be there to protect us. It is not there to turn the other cheek. It is not there to show compassion to a child rapist or murderer. It is not there to hold hands and sing kumbayah with terrorist or rioters.

But in today's crazy world - esp. in the Western World - the Govts are weak on crime. Instead of carrying a sword to punish the evil doers - they carry "Hug Me" badges. And it seems to be societies where there is no sense of personal responsibility, sense of shame, or honor.

Today, bankers who bankrupt their company and ruin the lives of their shareholders - walk away with multi-million dollar handshakes. In the past, they would gone into a room and hung themselves. In today's society the same bankers can later start a new life and begin afresh - with no restitution to the pensioners they ruined.

And I read about this - in Austria - a father imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and raped her - fathering 7 children.

The mayor of the town, instead of cowering in his office in shame - is out on the street - beaming like a fuckwit and boasting that:

"Sankt Poelten (the rapist's town) has never been in the spotlight like this before, and I hope to use this opportunity to make good contacts with the media for the future."

@#$%!!!!! WTF??? WTF????!!!!!! Goddamn it. Who the hell elected the idiot - the reincarnated citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah???

The rapist defended himself - "I had a very difficult childhood," Fritzl told the court. "My mother didn't want me. I was beaten." His attorney, Rudolf Mayer, added that a "man who put so much effort into keeping two families cannot be called a monster," urging the jurors to "keep emotion out of this.

His shrink wants us to believe that his difficult childhood made him the person that he is. He's just as much a victim as the victim.

The shrink and lawyer are people in need of a good beating.

Mayor Stadler's efforts to use the occasion to promote tourism in Sankt Poelten may be emblematic of Austria's inclination to evade the uncomfortable questions raised by the Fritzl case. It came to light just two years after Austrians learned of a surprisingly similar case: that of Natascha Kampusch, kidnapped at age 10 by another engineer and kept in a purpose-built cellar prison for eight years before she escaped in 2006. The form of incarceration wasn't the only thing the two cases had in common: not a single social worker, police officer or government official has taken any responsibility for the failures that enabled either crime.

Prior to his alleged crimes, Fritzl had been arrested three times in connection with sex offenses — he was never charged in the cases of attempted rape and public exposure, but he served a sentence for a rape conviction in the late 1960s. (He was also acquitted for lack of evidence on a charge of arson related to insurance fraud in the 1980s.) Yet when Fritzl told police that his daughter had joined a cult, they apparently believed him, despite the fact that he was a convicted sex offender and that there was no evidence that such a cult was operating in Austria. Fritzl also claimed that the three children he and his wife were raising in the house above the basement prison had been dumped on his doorstep by his runaway daughter — an unlikely account that also went unquestioned.

Elisabeth Fritzl had been abused by her father as a child, and at 16 she ran away but was returned home by police. When social workers came to the house, they spoke only to her father. Later, when she was kidnapped, the police launched only a limited investigation, and no official suspicions were raised when, three times in two years, Fritzl approached courts seeking to adopt or be recognized as the foster parent of the three children he claimed had been left on his doorstep in cardboard boxes. 

Many officials, all the way up to the Chancellor, have insisted that the Fritzl case is an isolated affair, although one of the chief investigators in the case has expressed a belief that there may be other cellars in Austria where captives are being held.

Fritzl is expected to be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison, but he will most likely be sent to an institution for the criminally insane, where he will probably spend the rest of his life receiving therapy and counseling, in circumstances far more comfortable than those of high-security prisons normally reserved for repeat sex offenders. And then, as Stadler hopes, the press pack will remember Sankt Poelten for its pear brandy and its wine, and its new nightclubs and gourmet restaurants.

That's all folks!!!! No one is to blame here. Its all society's fault. Look away now. Nothing to see here!!!

Bullshit.

We're living in a world that wants to divorce cause and effect, a world with no consequences, a world of false tolerance and compassion. It won't work.

Modern Society is a fragile thing. A lot of it depends upon trust. The Trust and Kindness of Strangers. In the past, we used to depend upon the help of the Village, the Clan, the Family etc.. In today's modern society, that support is gone or weak. So we place our children in day-care, we send our children to school to be taught by strangers, we commute with strangers, we work largely with people we have no biological links with, we walk our streets trusting that the person walking next to us won't knife us in the back and rob us, we sleep unarmed trusting that the police will keep us safe from robbers etc.. We leave our 2nd most valuable material possessions - the car - unguarded in public. We trust the bank to keep our money safe. We trust our superannuation fund to keep our pensions safe. We place our faith and hope in strangers to do the right thing.

But what happens when they fail. Who gets punished? As you can see-  - the people who caused the problem get rewarded. No one get punishes.

The Guardian that holds the society together is the Government whom we the citizens elect. The Government serves to punish people who commit injustice. It serves to met out punishment to offenders. It serves to protect us from people who do not follow the rules and harm their fellow stranger. If the Govt., the Judiciary, the Police do not fulfill that vital function - what else is there except a call for anarchy?

Its interesting that the Govt seeks to remove weapons and other means of defense that law abiding citizens can draw upon. But if the law does not serve the public, if it does not protect even women and children - who does it serve? Then what moral imperative prevents law abiding citizens from taking the law into their own hands or even to protect themselves when violent men attack them?

Sometimes back two sisters were raped and murdered by a released convict. He was placed next door to them without their knowledge. It was part of the State of Victoria's plan to rehabilitate criminals. The idea is to give the convict another chance at life. The Minister of Justice and the Premier defended the move - "Longer Sentences don't deter crime." Funny, how these criminals are never placed next door to the politicians' or judges' families but always next door to some poor unsuspecting woman or family.

It seems the justice system serves the cause and rights of the individual criminals and some twisted version of a post-Christian idelogy. As for the community and the innocent - they are a faceless entity.

Yet at the end of the day - its a failure of the government. In our case we live in a democracy. The people vote for the government that they want. But perhaps if the society is twisted and corrupted or filled with soft-hearted idealists - then what sort of politicians are they going to vote for?