Execute Ken Lay? (Enron)

Rehabilitation pfft. Just line them up and nerve gas them. Or test new drugs on them. Or sell their major organs.

Whatever suits the government that includes the pain of the criminal and the benefit of the state.

Nerve gas death = fun to watch
New drugs tested = Useful medicine for the people
Organ Harvesting = loads of people saved
 
Cleric said:
Rehabilitation pfft. Just line them up and nerve gas them. Or test new drugs on them. Or sell their major organs.

Whatever suits the government that includes the pain of the criminal and the benefit of the state.

Nerve gas death = fun to watch
New drugs tested = Useful medicine for the people
Organ Harvesting = loads of people saved

I hope you're joking.

MjM said:
As someone who's related to a relative who has been in prison maaaaaany times, rehabilitation doesn't work as it is now. Granted, he didnt kill anyone, but every time he goes back in, serves his time, comes out, does it again. Its not uncommon.

I do think the rehabilitation system we have now needs some improvements, but I still think it's the way to go.
 
tomsnowman123 said:
I hope you're joking.

Why would I be? Criminals are nothing but a burden on the state, this way they can be of some use.
 
MjM said:
A system that sucks/doesnt work isnt worth using.

It needs some changing. I support the Green Party and their view on this.

Cleric said:
Why would I be? Criminals are nothing but a burden on the state, this way they can be of some use.

Um... how is watching them being nerve gased to death helpful?
 
Well it makes me laugh. Invoulountary defecation/urination is just too funny.
 
Cleric said:
Well it makes me laugh. Invoulountary defecation/urination is just too funny.

I'm sorry, but I find it disturbing that you would laugh at someone who is being killed by nerve gas. I'm not sure a lot of Americans would want to watch that over American Idol.
 
tomsnowman123 said:
I'm sorry, but I find it disturbing that you would laugh at someone who is being killed by nerve gas. I'm not sure a lot of Americans would want to watch that over American Idol.

You shouldn't even dignify his comments w/ a response. Its just a lame tangent.
 
Yeah I find it distrubing someone watches American idol, so what?
 
.Shane. said:
So, to reiterate, the sum total of suffering caused by Ken Lay is greater than the individual suffering caused by people who we've executed, thus, after the appropriate appeals, I think we should execute Ken Lay.
No, just take all his money and force him to be poor for the rest of his life.
 
tomsnowman123 said:
As far as I know, American Idol doesn't involve taking anyone's life away.

I does much worse then that, it eats your soul. Face it, by normal standards I am very disturbed person and I should probably locked up in some mental institution. But screw normal, the way I see it the world is a hellhole just getting worse each day. I have thus discarded my morals, ethics a long time ago.

Nice guys finish last.
 
I oppose the death penalty under any circumstance. Even for this Enron-beast; with the blood of thousands on his hands.

Unrelated: If these crimes were committed in a country that can enforce the deathpenalty; I think these dispicable crimes qualify. But still I am against the death-penalty.
 
You can always quit you know. ;)
I quit well before you posted that. You were being:

~ Inconsistent: you complain about lawyers as being a waste of money, then they became essential to your scheme.
~ Illogical: prison doesn't currently stop people from reoffending, so let's just set them free to reoffend again at will, with NO constraints whatsoever.
~ Ignoring questions: so many now, gonna have to catch up.
~ Disregarding where others were coming from: let's forget this, because you like to think that cyberspace allows us freedom from courtesy in conversation.

You may find dealing with such behaviour to be fun, but I don't.

And I think there might be something in your eye or you're trying to be kinky, cos you keep winking at me all the time. Weird.
betazed said:
You tell me their purpose! Because I am at a loss.
I notice you just ignored El Mach's post right beneath yours. Here it is again:
El_Machinae said:
In my opinion, the purpose of the Criminal Justice system is to reduce the incidence and severity of crime. It does this in three (sometimes competing) ways. It gets the authority to remove rights from citizens under the principles of self-defence.

The three methods of reducing crime are:
- as a deterrence: the threat of punishment will stop some people from committing a crime. On a personal note, this often works for me, and is one reason why I don't break some laws
- for rehabilitation: if a criminal can gain skills or motivation required to no longer be a criminal, then rehabilitation will reduce the likelihood of rehabilitation. Those who advocate harsh punishments for criminals often have rehabilitation as a goal ("teach them that crime doesn't pay")
- for protection: some people are dangerous, and if they are not incarcerated, they will attack or harm society. While they are locked up, their power to harm is reduced. Even if they cannot be deterred or rehabilitated, there is value in locking them up.
Quite right sir!
betazed said:
if their purpose was to make sure that there are no repeat offenders then they are a miserable failure (look at statistics).
You are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Because some fail through the poorer parts of the system and reoffend, let's chuck the system out? Illogical. What about increasing the standard of rehabilitation programmes that do work? Surely that's better than doing absolutely nothing to rehabilitate at all.

What about the successful rehabilitation cases? What about the protection offered to the public during their sentence? What about deterring others from doing the same? Your masterplan contains none of this whatsoever. It's a shambles.

Here's a study a friend of mine was involved with about reoffending. You'll see that prisons need not be darkened cells that leave people to stew. They can both protect the public from people who have seriously renegged on their social contracts with others AND bring about a 'reform' in individuals, through a number of strategies.

Once more, your plan contains none of this whatsoever.
 
El_Machinae said:
I've always thought that we need more severe punishments for white collar crimes, merely as a deterrent effect.

That's never a good justification. Should we execute the next person who speeds to deter speeding? Sure, it might reduce speeding, and that in turn might even save lives, but is it just to kill a person for stealing? The highest sentence we should ever use should be life in prison. You can't execute someone for murder and then say "oopsie" if you find out they were innocent. (Yes, that was totally offtopic, kind of the point)

El_Machinae said:
Right now, someone can get get 14 months for stealing $12 million, $6 million of which is stored overseas in protected bank vaults. Simple cost/benefit says that 14 months in jail for $6 million ain't so bad.

Hmm. Okay, you provide the person with (cheap) food, water, (cheap) shelter, and medical aid, but deny them anything else until they pay back all the money they stole. They should be kept on probation as well, to make sure that even if they do get their hands on something to entertain themselves it gets taken away. Keep that up for a potentially indefinite period of time and I think they'll pay up.
 
Birdjaguar said:
No, just take all his money and force him to be poor for the rest of his life.

We can't. Not by a long-shot.

Welcome to the world of Cayman Island bank accounts. The guy likely has millions tucked away. While he'll never be a leader of industry again, he can retire in comfort - if he chooses.
 
Hmm. Okay, you provide the person with (cheap) food, water, (cheap) shelter, and medical aid, but deny them anything else until they pay back all the money they stole.

Well, that could also be considered inhuman. Some people will steal (and lose) millions. After a criminal conviction, they're incapable of generating income to ever pay back the debt. If you seize all assets after conviction, they will never endeavour to make any extra income (beyond the exempt amount) - we see this all the time with lawsuits that seize $10 million from a fellow; he'll never make more than $800 a month, because the rest is garnished (so he doesn't try)

Now, I certainly think that the punishment should scale with the un-recovered assets, and I'm probably not advocating the death penalty. I just think that there should be more of a deterrence element (after one conviction, they'll likely not be capable of committing the same scale of white-collar crime anyway)
 
El_Machinae said:
Now, I certainly think that the punishment should scale with the un-recovered assets, and I'm probably not advocating the death penalty. I just think that there should be more of a deterrence element (after one conviction, they'll likely not be capable of committing the same scale of white-collar crime anyway)

It's ironic in a way that business-owners that make an honest go of it and have to declare bankruptcy probably face more barriers for starting up a new venture than white-collar convicts. At least in some countries.

cleric said:
I does much worse then that, it eats your soul. Face it, by normal standards I am very disturbed person and I should probably locked up in some mental institution. But screw normal, the way I see it the world is a hellhole just getting worse each day. I have thus discarded my morals, ethics a long time ago.

Did Ken Lay make you lose faith in humanity? ;)
 
Back
Top Bottom