RAF Boss to be Released

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

BBC

Thoughts? I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with this - I don't think he should ever be released.

[rory_20_uk]

Ideally he should be shot.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I'm reading the Communist Manifesto as I post here...

If he has only served the minimal sentence, why would he have to be released? Also how can someone who commits nine murders be released within his lifetime?

[Crazed Rabbit]

Five life sentences, so he gets about 5.2 years per life sentence?

"A major consideration was the question of whether it could be feared that Christian Klar would commit significant criminal acts again," but the judges decided there was no evidence he would, the court said in a statement.

And actually making him serve out his sentence wasn't?

Stupid.

CR

[Seamus Fermanagh]

My first thought was "what in Heaven's name was the CO of the Royal Air Force being detained for?"

Then, after a quick scan at the OP, I realized both that my question ended in a preposition (poor form that) and the the RAF being addressed was what I always called Baader-Meinhoff.

Why that cretin should be released escapes me -- pardon the pun. Either you believe him to be a murdering thug, in which case you err on the side of caution and keep him jailed OR you believe him to be a revolutionary, in which case you must acknowledge that he lost his bid for power -- and the price for that is well known.

Neither view suggests this reject should ever need to see the outside of a cell again. On the other hand, if they'd really like to commute his sentence, I could suggest this....

Release him in the middle of the Eglund AFB swamps where our spec-forces folks train. Give him 24 hours and let the SEALS loose. If he can make it off the base he's free.

Then all we have to do make some popcorn and watch the predator footage.

[Papewaio]

Parole should not be easily available for terrorism, mass-murder, serial killers, serial rapists... essentially any who would attack the state and/or multiple people.

They should prove not only that they have reformed, but that they are model prisoners and citizens to be. Any black mark and nope, try next time.

Make an example of them and err on the side of caution.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Most of the former RAF members have been released already. None have relapsed, and this doesn't seem very likely. Society has changed enourmously, radical left-wing terrorism is gone. All the sixties/seventies red terrorism groups have disbanded themselves, except where it is tied to territorial claims (ETA, somewhat the IRA).
Plus the Soviet Union and East Germany have no use for Western ideologues and useful idiots anymore.

Either you believe him to be a murdering thug, in which case you err on the side of caution and keep him jailed OR you believe him to be a revolutionary

Or, the third option, you believe society to be wrong. Which a lot of people believed. The RAF shook West Germany to the core, tested it to the limit. I think that about a third of Germans at the time did not see this episode in terms of terrorist thugs versus a legitimate state. This anti-capitalist democracy line of thinking has virtually disappeared. Together, it should be noted, with a lot of anti-democratic sentiment from the right.

(On the downside, at least in the seventies anti-democracy usually implied one had read Marx and Adorno. Backwards. In a foreign language. Nowadays, anti-democratic usually means 'semi-literate internet populist'. O tempora, o mores...)

[Hosakawa Tito]

Five life sentences, so he gets about 5.2 years per life sentence?



And actually making him serve out his sentence wasn't?

Stupid.

CR

Convicted of involvement in 9 murders and serves 26 years = 2.88 per life taken. My God, people serve more time *3 years* for felony DWI here. I can't imagine that the victims' families can be feeling too pleased with this misguided decision.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Ideally he should be shot.

Twice, ideally while walking down the stairs of the Lefortovo...it is almost tempting to turn him over to the NPD for a weekend, no questions asked.

But releasing him?

[CountArach]

He shouldn't be released. He took lives and that is the worst thing that any human being can do.

[Louis VI the Fat]

it is almost tempting to turn him over to the NPD for a weekend, no questions asked.

I would say Germany has witnessed enough extreme leftwing versus extreme rightwing violence for the next thousand years. No need to turn him over to Nazis. Nazis have been the legitimisation for the RAF, Communism has been the legitimisation for the Nazis. Meanwhile, normal people are not heard over their exchanges of mutual insults and end up crushed in between.

How about we build a time machine, go back 150 years, and send all extremist Germans to Antarctica to wage their battles there?

[Kralizec]

Germany's history might make the actions of the RAF more understandable, but not less culpable and dispicable. Christian Klar doesn't deserve to be set free, and neither did the other RAF members who have been released these past years.
Recidivism is just one factor that ought to be considered. I don't think the people involved are going to reorganize the RAF, but the only reason they've dismissed violence as a means to advance their views is because they now realize that the opportunity (if it ever existed) has long since passed.
I've read that he was involved in the decision to disband the RAF in 1998, wich is a valid reason if true. The article I read didn't have details but I'm sceptical of how useful his help was, especially because the RAF had practically stopped operating about two years after the reunification.

PS: can anyone tell me if Der Baader Meinhof Komplex is a good film?