"Pyromancer" wrote in message
...

Sorry, but I disagree. Those who rape and murder multiple victims
deserve neither life nor rights. Those who hurl lumps of concrete at
trains and busses to the severe risk of injury transport staff and
members of the public deserve at the very least a public flogging and
confiscation of a large proportion of their personal wealth.

Humans are fallable and imperfect, as is the justice system. Your extreme
penalties would inevitably fall on those who were ultimately innocent - and
you could be one of them, remember. What makes us different from rapists
and murderers is that we have a uncomprimsiming respect for human life and
the quality of it, including theirs. Of course they should lose their
liberty, but not their life, nor their basic rights.

True justice requires an element of vengeance - so the victims (or their
relatives) can feel that the state has used its strength to inflict real
and serious suffering on the evildoers who harmed them.

Vengeance is an ugly, medieval concept. Where is your human compassion?
Where is your forgiveness? Where is the scope for rehabilitation?

- The fact that someone is being punished does not mean that your other
actions should not be proportionate. Someone in prison is being
confined as a punishment and/or for the public safety, not to act as
a punchbag (physically or mentally) for psychopaths (whether in
uniform or not).

Agreed - thuggish prison guards are the bane of any fair justice system
(see numerous worked examples across the world) - but so are cushy
prisons where the inmates get better medical care and better food than
poor but honest people living outside.

You should find out more about the justice and penal system in this country
rather than reading The Sun/Mail or wherever else you get this. I suspect
your views would be somewhat different if you did.

I am *not* saying that we should not punish wrongdoers. But we should
apply the appropriate punishment, and only the appropriate punishment,
in a consistent manner.

I'd agree with you completely there. Though I suspect we have very
wildly differing views on what counts as "appropriate".

You believe in almost limitless pain, suffering and torture for those who
are found guilty of breaking your rules. That sends a chill down my spine.
A human being with no humanity.

Rich