Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Brian
Begg-Robertson gently breathed:

Oh for God's sake, listen to yourselves! You just harden people like that by
giving them the birch. We have whole areas of the country where the gun is
king and people cary them knowing that to do so shortens their own life
expectancy to mid 20s if they are lucky, and you expect them to respect the
birch. Kids these days are savages. Lock them up, throw the key away,
pretend that it will make them better people. It wont!

I can't really follow what you mean here - are you saying that as they
don't respect anything, we should lock them up forever, or that we
should just give in and ignore them, or something else?

Carrying a gun isn't the same as actually being shot - because everyone
thinks "it won't happen to me". Same way thrill-seeking teenagers take
silly risks because they assume the "bad stuff" always happens to
someone else.

If those caught doing anti-social things were quickly and painfully
punished, *and* if detection rates were improved so that said thugs knew
they would eventually get caught and dealt with (this being the
difficult and expensive bit that most Daily Wail types forget about),
then I believe we would see a change.

As for "making them better people" - I never have subscribed to the idea
that you can reform people. People can choose to reform themselves, and
when they so choose the results can be amazing. But it has to come from
within someone, it doesn't come from outside, no matter how many
"oppertunities" or facilities you put in place.

--
- DJ Pyromancer, The Sunday Goth Social, Leeds. http://www.sheepish.net

Broadband, Dialup, Domains = http://www.wytches.net = The UK's Pagan ISP!
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