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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (106761)	7/21/2003 6:32:05 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

<<a misguided 17 year old. Or 16 year old. Or 15 year old....> You're on a slippery slope, there. Can't find any clear dividing line, for who is and isn't a child. Who goes into Guantanamo cages for life, and who shouldn't. The youngest at Guantanamo is 13.> True, it's a slippery slope. It's a bit like pornography. Hard to define but I know it when I see it. Similarly with "children". A cute little 3 year old girl throwing a stone [as ours did] and breaking a car window, costing me a few hundred$$ is different from a 17 year old 80 kg fully-grown young male smashing a brick in the head of a white truck driver inadvertently getting stuck in a riot or at some policeman trying to maintain civilization. The 3 year old didn't need a reprimand, just needs to be shown what throwing a stone does to a car window and get some explanation so she understands the harm she has done. There was no intention to damage, just the enjoyment of throwing a stone, which I undoubtedly had taught her at some stage [perhaps throwing a stone into some water to make a splash]. The 17 year old needs execution as an example to other vicious, murdering, self-absorbed wannabe alpha males. I would put the dividing line at puberty rather than at an age. A 14 year old 'girl' can be a nightmare of cynical violence [as some guy found in NZ when she smashed his head with a hammer]. They KNOW what they are doing. But there need not be a dividing line. There can be gradations and various remedies from a discussion to execution. "Children" here know that they can do stuff and get away with it up to the age of legal culpability and they are enjoying the privilege. They are used by older criminals to conduct the crime so that there's no consequence. <wiser people than you and I, have spent a great deal of time coming up with rules and definitions > Maybe wiser and maybe not. I'd say not if the "child" word is used to describe the 17 years x 80 kg head hacking thug. Mqurice