PMS Witch: You know, I sometimes think that people have no brains at all. They cannot analyze a situation, cannot see the cause and effect, until it impacts them personally. Most Canadians wander around from day to day, not realizing the terrible impact that the Young Offenders Act has had until some young smartass hurts THEM or a member of their immediate family.
The media is partly to blame for this. They bombard us with bad news, terrible tragedies, and crimes against humanity like they were somehow part of a script that left untouched, un-embellished, would be boring to the uneducated masses. If people truly had a sense of community, everyone in the mall would be completely outraged, and the little buggers would be hunted down and given a severe beating, which is the only deterrent that would have an effect.
Kids know that they can't be touched, and adults know if they touch the kids, they will be charged or Social Services will step in. Kids are wandering the streets and public places of the world like packs of wild dogs. Dogs, restrained and well-kept in their own back yards, are man's best friend. Let a bunch of dogs run loose, and their familiarity with mankind makes them deadly. They know enough about "man" to not be afraid, but they also resort to survival instincts when in a pack - food being the primary driver.
Sure, kids in "packs" are probably well fed, and they probably have parents at home talking about how they really don't like the friends their kid is hanging around. But there are instinctive elements in mankind that flare out of control when in a "pack". One such instinct is to pick on the weak and helpless.
Have you ever watched TV shows on the renegade lions that stalk the African plains? They are all males, and they are all pumped. They kill for the sake of killing. They kill lion cubs, injured animals, slow animals, and ones that are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's brutal, but it's nature at her finest.
And there have also been studies done with relocation of male elephants. Young, male elephants in a herd without an "older" male elephant to keep them in line do the same thing that the lions do - they kill anything that is in their path. They just spend their time hunting and killing. Not something we would expect of elephants, but apparently it is documented. They kind-of go beserk. As soon as an older, stronger male is introduced into the herd, the young males stop their rampage. Weird, eh?
You might have a problem with my comparing people to animals. But try as we might, we haven't been able to obliterate our survival instincts, nor have we been able to rid the human race of the fascination with crime, the fantasizing of crime, and the acting out thereof.
Controls ARE needed, and when controls are removed, humans are no better than animals. When the perpetrators are given "protection", it becomes a license to engage in more crimes or worse crimes. Give kids a rope and they will hang themselves.
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