A Well Regulated Militia . . .

[Janik]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Brunho wrote:

It's come up recently in regard to notorious Canadian killer Karla Homolka. She now has three kids of school age. How does she explain to them (as she will certainly have to) that she did 12 years for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of two schoolgirls?Oh, and the rape and death of her own sister.

How will they respond to this? Good god.

She's the Barbie of the 'Ken and Barbie killers' right? I watched a show about them. You Canadians are soft on crime!

That was an immense fuck up, rather than being soft on crime, wasn't it? Basically a fundamental flaw from systems that encourage plea bargaining, allied to a ingrained sexism that assumed the woman in such a killer pair could only be at worst the passive partner.

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

These are self-evidently gun owning families. The blame will be laid at misuse rather than the object itself, won't it?

Yes, this is always the case.

The narrative is always one of "tragic accidents".

[Amor de Cosmos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Janik wrote:

It's come up recently in regard to notorious Canadian killer Karla Homolka. She now has three kids of school age. How does she explain to them (as she will certainly have to) that she did 12 years for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of two schoolgirls?Oh, and the rape and death of her own sister.

How will they respond to this? Good god.

She's the Barbie of the 'Ken and Barbie killers' right? I watched a show about them. You Canadians are soft on crime!

That was an immense fuck up, rather than being soft on crime, wasn't it? Basically a fundamental flaw from systems that encourage plea bargaining, allied to a ingrained sexism that assumed the woman in such a killer pair could only be at worst the passive partner.

Not to mention the original police search missing incriminating video evidence that would have made any plea bargain unnecessary. It was indeed a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

[Guy Profumo]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Toby Gymshorts wrote: Forgive me, Guy, but I don't understand how we're disagreeing here.

That it's moot.

[Toby Gymshorts]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Ah, fair enough. That wasn't all that clear. I think we've always been on the same page on the issue of guns.

[Incandenza]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

ursus arctos wrote:

These are self-evidently gun owning families. The blame will be laid at misuse rather than the object itself, won't it?

Yes, this is always the case.

The narrative is always one of "tragic accidents".

Even worse is when it's presented as "God calling her home" or something like that.

[Janik]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Guy Profumo wrote:

Forgive me, Guy, but I don't understand how we're disagreeing here.

That it's moot.

Oh, right, so your bringing up of the British cases was about highlighting the cultural difference? In which case, yes.
As you were.

[WOM]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Amor de Cosmos wrote: Not to mention the original police search missing incriminating video evidence that would have made any plea bargain unnecessary. It was indeed a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

My wife makes a lot of this point, too. I disagree. Without the benefit of hindsight, what cop would have thought to remove a light fixture and search around above the ceiling work? And what cop would have thought there were incriminating VHS tapes to begin with?

[WOM]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Janik wrote: That was an immense fuck up, rather than being soft on crime, wasn't it? Basically a fundamental flaw from systems that encourage plea bargaining, allied to a ingrained sexism that assumed the woman in such a killer pair could only be at worst the passive partner.

Exactly. The cops had no real idea of what they were dealing with. The assumption was that she was the beaten/coerced spouse of a psychopath. Nobody would have guessed at her level of complicity (leadership?) and that the VHS tapes existed.

[Janik]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

I couldn't find a way of phrasing the apparent police belief during the investigation that she may have been part perpetrator and part victim (mostly because it felt dirty even suggesting that in a 'how wrong could they have been?!?' kind of way), so thanks for finding the right words for it, WOM.

[Janik]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Searching on her, I see that her name and full address, and by extension that of her family, have just been exposed. Presumably that is why she was uppermost in people's minds. This seems to me like a bad thing to have happened.

It also goes to WOM's original point of her telling her kids of her past. If they didn't know, they will have to be told soon as otherwise someone is likely to lay it out for them in a decidedly non-sympathetic way. Which would be very, very wrong, of course, as they are in no way responsible for their mothers conduct.

[WOM]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Brunho, are you working your way through the Hard Copy boxed set again?

Janik, yeah, she was 'found' again last week. The press will hound her forever. The pursued her to Guadeloupe a couple of years back just to write an article called, basically, "How We Found Karla in Guadeloupe".

There's no pressing news value. 'We' just can't get over her and 'the deal' she struck. And 'we', Canadians-wise, generally aren't like this. But with her....

[Janik]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

A thoughtful article about the issues raised, both now and in the Canadian psyche by the original case. Possibly from an unlikely source for a sympathetic take on such delicate issues.

[WOM]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Nice timing. I just finished reading that article about two minutes ago.

[Janik]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Shall we apologise to ursus now for the Around three to four per cent of the children exhibit psychopathic tendencies at an early age, she says, but that’s no predictor of outcomes. “They could all grow up to be lawyers or investment bankers—or some other profession where not having a heart is an asset.” line?

[Amor de Cosmos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

WOM wrote:

Not to mention the original police search missing incriminating video evidence that would have made any plea bargain unnecessary. It was indeed a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

My wife makes a lot of this point, too. I disagree. Without the benefit of hindsight, what cop would have thought to remove a light fixture and search around above the ceiling work? And what cop would have thought there were incriminating VHS tapes to begin with?

They wouldn't having been looking for tapes specifically, but presumably they were looking for something. Maybe I've watched too many TV 'tec dramas, but looking inside a pot-light doesn't seem a stretch.

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Janik, I very much appreciate the sentiment, but there is research supporting that particular point.

It is also manifestly the case that not all lawyers (or bankers) are heartless.

[Janik]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

You compensate for the lack of a lack in other ways, presumably...

That really needs a winky thing, doesn't it?

[Amor de Cosmos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

There's no pressing news value. 'We' just can't get over her and 'the deal' she struck. And 'we', Canadians-wise, generally aren't like this. But with her....

Aren't we? Or are you being sarcastic?

Maybe we don't like to think we are — hence Christie Clark's government introducing legislation to prevent Robert Pickton from profiting off his memoir. (There's irony in this, but this isn't the occasion for it.) But, on a per-capita basis, were well up there when it comes to serial killers.

Serial killers, by country.

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Only if you didn't have 14K+ posts.

Law (at least in this country) is a much more diverse profession in terms of the roles available.

[Janik]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Amor de Cosmos wrote: There's no pressing news value. 'We' just can't get over her and 'the deal' she struck. And 'we', Canadians-wise, generally aren't like this. But with her....

Aren't we? Or are you being sarcastic?

Maybe we don't like to think we are — hence Christie Clark's government introducing legislation to prevent Robert Pickton from profiting off his memoir. (There's irony in this, but this isn't the occasion for it.) But, on a per-capita basis, were well up there when it comes to serial killers.

Serial killers, by country.

Depends whether the 'we' is the predisposition of Canadians towards becoming serial killers, or the attitude of Canadians on the proper balance in retribution/rehabilitation of criminals. I read it as referring to the later concept, with the idea being that Canadians are not generally given to believing people are irredeemably evil.

[WOM]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Amor de Cosmos wrote: There's no pressing news value. 'We' just can't get over her and 'the deal' she struck. And 'we', Canadians-wise, generally aren't like this. But with her....

Aren't we? Or are you being sarcastic?

I meant that typically we don't follow around ex-cons, vigilante-like. Once people do their time, Canadians tend to live and let live. I can't think of anyone else who was hounded like this. But then, I can't think of anyone quite like her in any comparable way.

[Amor de Cosmos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

Ah, OK.

Yeah, there's a retributive factor at work. Bernado's in jail for the rest of his life, but she got off relatively lightly — says conventional morality. She'll probably be harassed forever.

[WOM]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .

I think that's it, too. Most people know she did her time, but certainly not the right time. And if the price she pays now is a few pitchfork-wielding mobs, oh well...

[ursus arctos]

A Well Regulated Militia . . .