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From time to time I will be putting forth ideas under the heading “The Ax Grinder”. These snippets will be a combination of pet peeves, moral objections, and suggestions, both original and overheard, for a more equable future.
I offer them up to you with the best of intentions, and HOPE that you might run with them, put them into your stories, talk about them with friends, develop the ideas further in comment and conversation, or refute them as you will.
I do not yet know how often I will publish these, but I think the time has come for the first one.
The Bible calls for “an eye for an eye” justice (or at least it did in the old testament), and while I am not a religious person, I cannot fault this concept. I would, however, like to take it a bit further.
On the radio today (Talk Radio is good for some things, after all), I heard someone espousing the idea that people charged with certain crimes should incur fines as well as prison sentences, and that these fines should be used, always and only, as funds to ameliorate the issues caused by the crimes.
I like this, but I’d take it further. I’d say, for example in the case of human traffickers, that once the person had served his or her time, he (or she) would be given a job by the state (go ahead, shudder) and that the a share of the income from that job would continue to go to fighting the crime. Sort of a crime tax.
Now, you may be asking, what if the person is truly repentant, and is now living in a changed way? (How can you tell one way or the other?) I don’t have an answer for this. Should a person be hounded for the rest of their life because of a crime they committed?
You may think that a person convicted of a crime against children should never get off the hook, and with predator registration, this is almost so (but sexual predator registration is sloppy at best).
So, I put it to you.
How can the state (whatever that means) insure the safety of its citizens, insure that the perpetrators pay more than just time, and yet be given a fair shake if they (eventually) deserve it?
Your thoughts?
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