Thursday, March 22, 2012

Our Contempt for Judges Increases

The ridiculous two-year sentence gifted ( yes, GIFTED ) to boy's hockey coach and self-confessed lifetime pedophile Graham James serves only to increase again the contempt that many ordinary Canadians feel for our Judges on an increasingly frequent basis.

It appears to me that Justice Catherine Carlson gave what amounted to mere lip-service yesterday to the heinous nature of Jame's actions before waxing poetic about how the embarrasing scrutiny James had endured granted her leeway to be lenient to Graham James in his sentencing.

Based on his past convictions, Graham James likely won't even serve one full year of incarceration for the hundreds of molestations he committed against the two victims of this case, Theo Fleury and Todd Holt. Throughout the trial, the two victims suffered through repeated re-victimization and the humiliation of having what happened to them publicized across the nation's media, yet it was only Graham Jame's humiliation that Justice Catherine Carlson seemed to truly have care for. What did she say again? Oh yeah, something along the lines of being concerned about the humiliation of the so-called 'intense media scrutiny' James had undergone throughout his trial.

Perhaps there was scrutiny, but the only interviews and photos I ever saw were of his victims. Graham James was allowed to hide his face from the public, avoid the media, and with Justice Carlson's assistance, avoid having his sentence televised, which would have allowed the world to see what this perv looked like.

Yes, the World. It appears that would be a good thing, because although Graham James had been banned from coaching boys FOR LIFE in Canada, he has been able to continue meeting and grooming young boys in Spain and Latin America for years. Does that sound to you like the actions of a 'reformed' pedophile? Supposedly grooming them for hockey, but... Was Justice Carlson so clueless as to believe that?

Outrage against lenient sentencing has been increasing amongst ordinary citizens ever since the liberal progressive theorists gained ascendancy in the 1960's and changed the Justice System (which had been concerned with concepts like justice and punishment of crimes) into a Legal System where justice took a back seat to legal-technicalities, rehabilitation and other groovy social engineering concepts. Whenever this subject is raised, the bleeding hearts confuse the issue by whining "but punishment doesn't work as a deterrent."

Well listen up: It's not deterrence we want. We Want Punishment. We want the rotters thrown out of society where they can't hurt people any more, dammit. Forty years of "rehab penal theory" has done NOTHING to reduce recidivism. Don't you get it yet? If they're in jail long enough not to offend again that's Good Enough for the rest of us.

Thinking about my contempt for this sentence and for the judge who gifted it to the criminal, it occurs to me that I know very little about Justice Carlson's career or previous judgements. They may have been good ones. She might be proud of her record. So perhaps It is an ideological problem that has put her out-of-step with the rest of us. How else is it that so many of our supposedly intelligent Judges decisions offend more and more ordinary citizens???? That's the truth at the core of this rant: it is out of step with the rest of us. I'm thinking of starting a weblog that just lists stupid dumbassed judgements and stupid dumbassed judges who make them.

I think there'd be lots of entries.

As for scrutiny, It's remarkably hard to find photos of judges online, otherwise you'd see your puss up here too Catherine. Your decision to keep the television cameras out of your courtroom sure saved you that little disgrace, didn't it? I have to settle for posting Graham Jame's new look in your stead.


Link: Sun News: "Two Years for Graham James" Link: Wikipedia: Catherine Carlson

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