Editor's Blog Apr 12th 2012
Condoning Murder!
Notorious Mass Murderer Charles Manson was denied parole for the 12th and probably the last time. Manson was, together with so called Manson Family, convicted of seven murders in 1971. One of the victims was eight and a half month pregnant Sharon Tate, the wife of film director Roman Polanski.
Serial killers are nothing new, in America alone it is estimated that there are approximately 35 active serial killers at any one time. What makes them tick has been the preserve of psychologists from the beginning of the study of the mind.
How we deal with serial killers in the civilised world is a subject for much debate, some will say lock them up and throw away the key, others will say they must pay with their lives, while others are against the death penalty.
Whether you are for or against the death penalty, for persons who themselves have taken lives, tends to be a very personal opinion, which tends to raise temperatures when discussed.
I believe that, if proven without a doubt that a person has actively been selecting people and extinguishing lives, they have forfeited their right to live themselves. However, this leaves me with a dilemma.
There are people walking about that have killed in double figures and in some cases triple figures. These persons have of course killed not for any kind of personal gain or sexual gratification or whatever other motivation that makes a serial killer, kill.
I am talking about a very special kind of soldier, one whose sole purpose is to identify, target and kill on a very personal basis. Frowned upon and called cowardly for shooting and killing, normally with one shot at great distance, the army snipers of today have kill ratios that would put even the most prolific serial killers to shame.
So what’s the difference? Well for starters, snipers are normally selected after one of the most rigorous mental and physical tests devised, and anyone with the slightest hint of being a bit “radio rental” quickly falls by the wayside. Most snipers are very sane indeed, selected for their ‘above average’ intelligence and the ability to see the bigger picture on a fluid battlefield. They have the ability to stop an advance dead in its tracks.
I guess that the difference is that in a conventional war the social rules change. Normally it’s between armed groups and not someone who is killing defenceless random people, and this to both sides becomes acceptable. Once the war is over soldiers can go back into society and live normal lives, as normal as one can expect.
May I have been too hasty to approve of the death penalty for serial killers, when I approve of specialists on the battlefield doing what they do for the government?
Ed.
