I know I should feel sorry for someone who's been beaten up, but...

[MayaAngelsFromTheRealmsOfCool]

...when that someone is one of the thugs who killed Stephen Lawrence, and he's been beaten up in prison, I kind of don't. At all. And if he were sent back to that prison now I'd think: Oh well, tough, innit?

I know that logically it's unethical, but...y'know.
It's like when Gaddafi was killed (obviously his crime was on a far larger scale). Someone who's brutalised other people...I find it hard to work up any sympathy.

Anyone else feel this way?

Yep, I'm a regular little Pollyanna, me.

I hope he gets a serious battering in there. He recovers, then another battering...and so on.

imnot sure i think'murder is murder'

i feelmorehatred towards the killers of Stephen Lawrence/ Ian Huntley/ Vincent Tabak than I do for people who have killed through involvement in organised crime for example.

I feel differently about the crime depending on the motive

nope I think that is VU. Noone should have to live in fear of physical or mental violence and that is in fact the reason for locking up that segment of our society that we believe cannot be trusted not to commit violent crime.

Locking people up or even beating them as a punishment for crimes is VERY last millenium thinking. I mean why did they commit the crime in the first place? Is it their fault that they did so? Or was it some quirk of their mental make up which is itself a product of nature and nurture? Will beating them up help their victim in any way? So on and so forth.

No entropyglitter it was their fault they did it, do you seriously think that murderers should not be sent to prison if they did it because of 'some quirk of their mental make up'

WTAF!

Entropy

I don't condone vigilantism, especially by fuckwitted morons who aren't intelligent enough to know the difference between a paedophile and a paedatrician. However, I don't waste my time feeling sympathy for any thug who has previously beaten someone up/murdered someone and then got beaten up themselves.

Using the OP's example, I think the assault was wrong and the perpetrators should get punished for it but I can't find any sympathy for the person who was beaten up.

YANBU.

I am wholeheartedly against the death penalty, but in a few cases where it's been used I've felt absolutely nothing.

The only time I start to waver is if I think of the men as little boys, like my little boy, and what must have happened to them to make them so evil.

I would never be happy or pleased that someone else had been beaten up whatever the circumstances.

There's a difference between being happy and pleased and feeling nothing though. Like CheerfulYank, I'm the latter, I simply feel nothing.

I think perhaps one of the reasons that people feel glad about hearing of this beating is not just because these men murdered Stephen Lawrence but because of the arrogance, contempt and hatred they have shown towards Stephen's family, the law and the state in the 18 years following his murder.

I don't wish pain on anyone, but I am not particularly sad to hear this has happened.

(he must have hated being beaten up by 4 black guys though )

' And if he were sent back to that prison now I'd think: Oh well, tough, innit?'

If him being sent back to that place made it more likely that he would be beaten up then it would be totally wrong for that to happen (if the increased risk is known about). HMPS has a duty of care to keep people inside safe from harm as far as possible, no matter what their crime.

No sympathy here, he is evil!

I will save any sympathies I have for the Lawrences...who have endured 18 years of hell.....

amber I think people should be taken out of society in order to keep the majority safe.

I dont think people are to blame for their personalities any more than they are to blame for their IQs or appearance. Why is lacking intelligence completely forgiveable and not considered the fault of the individual but lacking some other brain function such as empathy is unforgivable?

If someone is mentally unwell (and I think we can agree that anyone who is willing to commit murder must in some sense be mentally unwell) they deserve treatment not punishment.

entropy I think some people are just bad....simple as that.

They take pleasure and enjoyment out of causing fear, harm and hurt to others. That is very difficult to treat...

They make their own choices....and so deserve to pay the consequences for those choices.

if you think that these men committed murder because of some mental defect,then your other point of view doesnt stand up- that they have not reoffended in 18 years therefore they are not a danger and should not be locked up- if they have an untreated mentaldefect that has lead them to murder in the past- they are still a danger.

The fact is though- they have no mental defect. They are racist and violent; they BELIEVE that black people do not have to be treated like people. They do not think they have done anything wrong.

Education and rehabilitation may have been useful at the time of the offence. Not now.

They have lead lives, had families/children, jobs, careers, holidays. Stephen Lawrence has been denied that, and his family have been robbed of seeing their son grow into a man. Because those racists killed him.

Yes they should be punished
Its not an eye for an eye - if it was an eye for an eye-we would be stabbing them and leaving them on the pavement to die

Well said bejeezus

I detest this idea that you can't control your actions. The number of people who genuinely can't through mental illness is very small and we should not judge the whole of society on a minority.

They were not mentally ill, they are the product of hate.

Telling people they can't control themselves is takign away their responsibility for their own actions, and the VAST majority of people are 100% responsible for themselves.

Apart from the fact they werent adults. People change a lot (grow up) between 16 and say 21 your brain changes substantially particularly with respect to managing emotions etc.

When you say someone is just 'bad' or 'evil' arent you saying that there is something wrong with them that makes them different from us normal people with the ability to control our rage/hatred (even when we were teenagers)?

serenity are you one of those people that thinks that all that fat people need to do is exercise a little will power? Do you not think that if people could do that then they would? Can you accept that for some people denying themselves gratification either from food or from violence is much harder than for the average?

It is easy to be responsible for your actions if you never suffer extreme emotions or depression or if you find it easy to ignore your inner demons. That doesnt really help the people for which that is not true. And neither does 'punishing' them.

Neither if those posts make sense- both men carried on offending after SL. 1 is currently in prison? There was no maturity or change.

I watched a very interetsing programme about Psychopaths a while ago. Research is showing that potentialy their braisn are wired differently. However not all psychopaths kill, in fact only a minority do. One of us might have this part of put brain missing, wouldn't know without a scan.

V interesting but overall it doesn't make any difference why they kill tbh, they still do and thus need to be segregated from society.

But they haven't repented/ shown any remorse

They do not think they have done anything wrong

Not because they are mentally ill

But because they do not think it is wrong to kill black people

One of them re-offended the other seems only to have been done for drugs. It was my contention that the ONLY reason for locking someone up is in order to keep the rest of society safe. That justice and punishment are outdated concepts.