Brickbat: Eye for an Eye

Free Grunge Textures/freestock.ca

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced Ali Al-Khawahir to be surgically paralyzed. Al-Khawahir stabbed a friend 10 years ago, when he was 14, leaving him paralyzed. The victim is demanding about $270,000 in restitution. If he doesn't get it, Al-Khawahir will be paralyzed as well.

Comments

[invisible furry hand]

Charles Oliver has once again SF'd the link, damn him

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.co.....abia.html/

[Fist of Etiquette]

Brickbat: Linkertarian Entitlement

Hit & Run commenters believe they are OWED correct links and 6 AM brickbats.

[Ted S.]

Correct links means not linking to 24/7, either.

[darius404]

Yeah, that annoys me.

[Zakalwe]

You know who else used to make editing mistakes on Hit and Run?

[jimmy jean]

hen he was 14, leaving him paralyzed.http://www.vendreceintures.com The victim is demanding about $270,000 in restitution

[PS]

But how much can I make in a month on the internet, JJ?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Jimmy Jean, Jimmy Jean Incorporated.

[PS]

And in a way I'm yearning
To be done with all this measuring of truth.

[invisible furry hand]

heh, saw him live at the Sydney Opera House a few months ago with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and a kids' choir. He's come a long way from this

[PS]

Yeah, I sort of stopped paying attention when he mellowed out in the 90s, but you can't be an angry young man forever.

[Taggart]

When liberals and libertarians talk about how the U.S. has the highest incarcertaion rate in the world, they should keep in mind it's partly because we DON'T do this kind of thing instead. I don't know. Provided there is a fair trial by jury and civil protections (which I realize there are not in these countries), maybe a system based on a choice between restitution and retribution would be much preferrable to a system based on incarceration.

[Redmanfms]

Ummm, what?

[Ted S.]

There are a lot of other places that don't do this sort of thing either and don't have high incarceration rates.

[Acosmist]

And the demographics are...

[Heroic Mulatto]

The majority of US incarcerations are drug-related.

In Saudi Arabia, the penalty for drug trafficking or possession (of any amount) is death.

[GW]

See, incarceration problem solved.

[Rich]

On a somewhat related note, what do you think of tattooing "IT" on the forehead of a convicted identity thief?

[UnCivilServant]

Sicne they do their work online much of the time, won't help.

[Rich]

Cutting off their fingers, then?

[Virginian]

In principle, I am not opposed to these kinds of punishments. The way I see it, you can have three main types of punishment: compensatory, retributive, or incarceration.

I see compensatory as the best system, with certain forms of retributive punishment being superior to incarceration. I do not think, for example, that five lashes with a cane is worse then five years in prison. I think incarceration should be used very rarely, essentially reserving it for those who constantly reoffend, or for those who pose a danger to others.

The issue I have with the news item is that the criminal was a juvenile when the crime was committed. But he has the option to pay compensation. So I think the Saudis execution of drug traffickers is a far worse abuse of the police power. Not that this is laudatory by any means.

[Matrix]

I believe that for property crimes and the like, the guilty party should pay full replacement or restitution of damaged/destroyed/stolen property plus 20% above it to the victim and additional fees to courts and others to cover the cost of investigating and prosecuting this. The debt to the victim cannot be cancelled unless the victim agrees.

So if you smash a car window, you have to pay to get the window replaced, have the shattered glass removed, and pay 20% above this amount to the owner of the vehicle for the inconvenience.

And if the victim has to miss work or some other appointment to sort this all out, the guilty must pay that compensation as well.

[Rich]

There's that "blood from a turnip" thing, though.

"You'll have to get clean, go to school, get a job, and spend the rest of your life paying back the entity that provided the restitution money."

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Take it out of their welfare.

[Rich]

WHAT?! And condemn them to a life of crime?!

[creech]

"An eye for an eye" has always been emblematic of the libertarian principle of restitution in equal proportion for the offense committed. No "two years in prison" for smoking a joint while black and no $100,000 fine for defrauding investors of $10 million.

[16th amendment]

One thing the middle east does right is executing mental insane people. Way I see it: (1) If you're a bit crazy the fact that the environment coddles mentally insane people keeps you from keeping yourself in check and you go on a shooting spree like in Aurora, (2) I'm sure 99% of people who claim insanity is just trying to get away like the Aurora shooter or Jodi Arias.