Friend's niece has gone missing

[Shaka_Khan]

I didn't realize this thread started last year. I was blown away at the sudden tragedy.

The news has been airing things like this for a long time. It's about time that we figure out a way to prevent this from happening again. Right now, I can think of giving every kid a whistle or a mace. Make people be aware of any suspicious activities, such as a stranger waiting on the road or following someone for too long. I know these things don't happen often, but it takes just one tragedy to ruin it all so people must watch out at all times. Do schools educate children to watch out for strangers like they did before?

[Beskar]

I didn't realize this thread started last year. I was blown away at the sudden tragedy.

The news has been airing things like this for a long time. It's about time that we figure out a way to prevent this from happening again. Right now, I can think of giving every kid a whistle or a mace. Make people be aware of any suspicious activities, such as a stranger waiting on the road or following someone for too long. I know these things don't happen often, but it takes just one tragedy to ruin it all so people must watch out at all times. Do schools educate children to watch out for strangers like they did before?

Over here, you cannot even go near a child that is yours without "paedophile" alarms ringing around everywhere. So if you ever come here, do not even go near a child, get a bargepole and push them out of the way.

Let's say hypothetical example, you are walking down the street and you see Lemur with little-Lemur, and you say hello, and you sort of bend over and wave at little-Lemur. Before you know it, Lemur is grabbing his child away from you, police appear out of no where, handcuff you, and stick you in the partyvan and you end up on a sex offenders register and branded "Paedophile" from the press. This is the culture/environment/impression given off by the media and peoples overzealous 'protection'.

[Myrddraal]

R.I.P

It's not much, but her website invites visitors to light a virtual candle. Perhaps this would be a good way for .org members who are isolated from the family and the area to pass on their condolences. You can do so here:
http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/...l=eng&gi=Amber

[KukriKhan]

LA Times reports that the guy arrested for another rape-murder also confessed to killing Amber. He'll do life without parole.

With his head bowed, Gardner admitted Friday to Superior Court Judge David Danielsen that he strangled Chelsea and stabbed Amber. He also admitted to attacking a female jogger Dec. 27 in a rape attempt at Rancho Bernardo Community Park. The victim managed to escape Gardner's grasp.

[InsaneApache]

Something for the family. Not much but something.

[edyzmedieval]

The death penalty is flawed for two reasons, the inability to correct mistakes, and moral ickiness of the state taking the life of one of it's own citizens. A life sentence solves both of these.

That said, I'm not a namby-pamby worshipper of the idea of rehabilitation. There are some people who are just too dangerous to ever be released from prison, and the criminal detailed above is almost certainly one of them.

There's no way someone like Amber's murderer will ever rehabilitate. It's just impossible. He killed two girls and tried to rape one who fortunately escaped.
Neither does a life sentence do anything. For some people prison is luxury.

[Myrddraal]

There's no way someone like Amber's murderer will ever rehabilitate. It's just impossible. He killed two girls and tried to rape one who fortunately escaped.
Neither does a life sentence do anything. For some people prison is luxury.

Life sentences keep them off the streets. What do you achieve by killing more people?

[KukriKhan]

Life sentences keep them off the streets. What do you achieve by killing more people?

About $120,000 (2.5 times my household gross income, before taxes) saved in prison maintenance costs per year, per perpetrator. Gardner is a 31yo white male, who already has cost society over 2 million dollars cleaning up after him, with a life expectancy of about 60 more years. 60 x 120K = 7 million, 200 thousand USD not spent warehousing an unrepentant, unremorseful, unrehabilitate-able human.

I share Subotan's "...moral ickiness of the state taking the life of one of it's own citizens...", but, if serial, chronic paedo's are truly un-fixable (which up until this moment I would have disagreed with in principle, but bowing to the words of penal, psychiatric, psychologic, and statistical experts) : I'm willing to squint my eyes, hold my nose, and pull the trigger.

[Subotan]

There's no way someone like Amber's murderer will ever rehabilitate. It's just impossible. He killed two girls and tried to rape one who fortunately escaped

I'm not saying that this guy can be rehabilitated. I highly doubt that he can, and by all means, he should be locked away until the end of his days. That is effectively a death penalty, but with the added bonus of it being A. Correctable (Even though he confessed, it is still possible that we have the wrong guy, See: Timothy Evans), and B. Morally Justifiable.

Neither does a life sentence do anything. For some people prison is luxury.

Such an ignorant statement can only come from someone who has absolutely no understanding of what prison is like. The justice system grinds you up and spits you out a shell of a man, regardless of whether you're guilty or not.

About $120,000 (2.5 times my household gross income, before taxes) saved in prison maintenance costs per year, per perpetrator. Gardner is a 31yo white male, who already has cost society over 2 million dollars cleaning up after him, with a life expectancy of about 60 more years. 60 x 120K = 7 million, 200 thousand USD not spent warehousing an unrepentant, unremorseful, unrehabilitate-able human.

I remember reading somewhere that it's often just as, and sometimes more expensive, to execute someone, as you have to go through a tortuously long legal process, whilst the culprit languishes on death row. It certainly doesn't save a huge amount of money.

I share Subotan's "...moral ickiness of the state taking the life of one of it's own citizens...", but, if serial, chronic paedo's are truly un-fixable (which up until this moment I would have disagreed with in principle, but bowing to the words of penal, psychiatric, psychologic, and statistical experts) : I'm willing to squint my eyes, hold my nose, and pull the trigger.

I still think it's wrong. It brings the state, and by definition the nation down to the same level as this monster.