Sex and Violence

Commentary

Richard E. Noble

Movie makers, journalists and novelists have known for a long time that people, and Americans in particular, have a great love for both sex and violence. But I think that Americans have a much greater love for violence than sex. I know that this sounds impossible understanding how everyone loves sex but let's take a look at the criminal justice system as an example.
At this moment there is a man who is being pursued for taking pictures of young, wild, willing, college girls who when randomly requested would pull their T-shirts up and expose their breasts to a film crew.
This guy is in big trouble.
In contrast to this fellow there is another young, aggressive scumbag movie maker who has made millions on the Internet marketing Bum Fight videos. This individual goes out and pays trifling amounts to poor, desperate, sick, homeless, alcoholic tramps to beat each other up. He takes films of the bums fighting and then sells them to other people around the U.S. who also enjoy this form of peeping-Tom type of abuse. He paid one bum to have the word BUM tattooed across his forehead. The bum with the BUM tattoo on his forehead was there in the courtroom testifying before the judge while the film makers giggled and laughed in their seats.
In a real trial, not one of those made for entertainment TV, this Bum Fights producer was declared crimeless. The judge actually stated that though he found this film maker immoral and socially parasitic, he could find no criminal law that had been violated. The man didn't even pay a fine and was not prohibited from pursuing his chosen career. He and his young co-producers were laughing and slapping hi-fives on their way out of the courtroom.
But I have an even better example - child molesters. The American Justice System, Doctor Phil and Oprah are all in agreement that a child molester is incurable. So that pretty much settles that.
There was a documentary film about a convicted child molester out in Arizona or someplace. He had been tried and convicted, he had completed his sentence and it was time for him to be released from jail. But he couldn't be released. No community in the United States would accept him. No employer in the United States would hire him. At last resort the state set up a trailer home in an isolated desert area, built a chainlink fence around it, and sent the man to live there - provided he would wear an ankle bracelet at all time identifying his whereabouts. They didn't say how this man was going to support himself.
On the other hand not too long ago on the news a woman was caught beating her little girl in a department store parking lot. The woman was apprehended, her child was placed under temporary custody while she awaited trial. I don't think that this abusive mother ever went to trial. In fact, she may have been on the Oprah Winfrey show with a group of other abusive mothers who told tragic stories about how they suffered from Post Partum Depression, uncontrollable or irrational anger, or some other horrible female malfunction. I think Dr. Phil was brought in to council these poor women who can't seem to stop beating their little children. It was truly tear-jerking. I almost cried - not for these abusive mothers but their poor children.
The woman, who beat her child in the parking lot, probably had to attend an anger management course and I am sure her child was returned to her custody. We certainly can't deprive a mother of her child here in America - even an abusive mother who beats her child and can't control her temper.
There have been cases where children were returned to abusive mothers until these mothers actually murdered these children. And fathers who beat their children are also at no minimum here in America. Often an abusive mother has an abusive husband who assists her in beating their children to death.
Usually after a parent goes to jail for beating or even murdering one of their kids, they will eventually be released from prison. If they are still of child bearing age, they will not be prohibited from giving birth to another victim. They will also be free to live in any neighborhood they chose. They will not be required to live behind a chain link fence, in the middle of a desert, or even wear an ankle bracelet. The criminal justice system, Dr., Phil and Oprah are all of the opinion that these type people can be rehabilitated. So, I guess that settles that.
This may be a radical idea and maybe it is a false idea, I really don't know, but I always thought that any type of social criminal could be rehabilitated. My wife tells me that I developed this misunderstanding from my Christian indoctrination early in childhood. But this does make me wonder, what other types of traditional criminal behavior are not curable? In more ancient times people were executed for any crime. Children in England as late as the 17th and 18th century were hung for stealing even trifling amounts from the merchants who employed them. Is this another conservative principle that we should return to, as with the state’s right to torture and abandon habeas corpus?

Richard E. Noble is a Freelance Writer and has been a resident of Eastpoint for around thirty years. He has authored two books: "A Summer with Charlie" which is currently listed on Amazon.com and "Hobo-ing America" which should be listed on Amazon in the not too distant future. Most recently he completed his first novel "Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother" which will be published soon.