When "the law is an ass".

The title of this post is, of course, a quotation from Charles Dickens' well-known novel Oliver Twist.

Would that it could remain as a novelist's turn of phrase . . . but very sadly, it proves true time and again in this sick, twisted world of ours.

In England, five pre-teen and teenage thugs tortured a twelve-year-old girl. They "kicked their victim, set off fireworks near her legs and ripped off her underwear during an hour long ordeal - even recording it on mobile phones". One of them then "took a running kick at her as she lay on the floor."

You'd think they'd receive salutary punishment for such monstrosities, wouldn't you?

Think again.

These cretins "escaped jail because the JPs said they were bound by guidelines issued by politicians over the sentencing of juveniles. Instead the gang, which included two girls, were given supervision or referral orders which means they will be monitored by the probation service and youth workers. The yobs will each have to pay the girl £150 (about $300) compensation."

This sickens me to an extent that I really can't describe without using profanities ill-suited for a blog like this.

If I'd ever behaved like that as a teenager I might not have survived to adulthood . . . because my own father would have reasoned (rightly) that it was his fault for letting such a monster loose on society, and it was up to him to correct his error.

I consider myself very fortunate to live in a part of the USA where most parents would feel the same way. If any teenagers here were to behave in that way their own parents would deal out to them - at the very least - the thrashing of their lives: and if they didn't most of the rest of the parents nearby would force them to watch whilst they acted in loco parentis for the good of all of us. Furthermore, if any damnfool limp-wristed liberals tried to object and laid charges, there isn't a jury in this part of the world that would convict the adults of any crime under such circumstances. We have more sense here. I daresay the local cops wouldn't even manage to identify or locate the culprits. Gee, gosh, darn, what a pity.

I'm simply aghast that the once-great, once-proud British nation could descend into such legalistic stupidity. Such morons don't deserve to be a part of our society. Period. There is no place for them.

It may already be too late to teach them what it means to be an upright member of society. They may by now be so set in their evil ways that they can no longer change. I hope I'm wrong, for their sakes . . . but as a prison chaplain I've seen too many behind bars who learned early and very young that 'might makes right'. Very, very few of them ever succeeded in changing once this concept had been set into their pre-pubescent consciousness. They lost the capacity to function as human beings and became animals. Once that happens it's almost impossible to change it.

As for the parents who cared so little for their children that they allowed them to grow up to behave like that . . . they should share the punishment due to their sons and daughters.

Do read the article at the link, dear friends. This is what happens when political, social and psychological ideologies overwhelm common sense. This is what happens when parents abdicate their responsibilities to schools, counselors and 'The State'. This is what happens when children are 'spared the rod' and allowed to run rampant, without supervision or discipline. This is what happens when the family breaks down and children have to form their own structures, but don't have the experience, wisdom or understanding to form good ones.

Don't let it happen to your children. Please. Or your daughter may end up the traumatized victim of such monstrous cruelty. Or your child may end up in and out of jail for the rest of his or her life . . . as I have little doubt will happen to most, if not all, of the five cretins mentioned above. It's probably too late for them.

And that may be the saddest thing of all in this whole tragedy. Five wasted, useless lives - that need not have become like that at all, if only their parents had cared.

Peter