"A lynching is an execution, usually by a mob, without a trial."
www.ushistoryplace.com
We have all been taught that lynching is awful, illegal, and not what legal law-abiding people do. Lynching is emotional and reaches down to into our primal instincts. One of the classical examples of lynching was the stoning of Stephen in the Bible. Unjust, tragic, and sad, of course, unless you were one of the Hebrew lynch mob, then according to them – it was entirely justified. Has lynching ever been a deterrent to certain types of behavior? Possibly, it has – mainly because it is not filtered through the justice system and the lynch mob gets instant gratification whether the victim is guilty or not. Lynching inspires fear while good laws inspire confidence and order. So why is Mike Thomson, a law-abiding citizen, even pondering this dark subject?
I guess it's because of the image of a creep staring at me from the front page of The Loudoun Times–Mirror of Leesburg , Virginia – located 5 miles from the idyllic village of Paeonian Springs. In an article published on April 20, 2005, Sarah Ingles reports the conviction of David Robert Miller Jr. of felony child abuse and malicious wounding. In the trial, Miller was accused of using a cigarette lighter and branding an 'X' on the twenty-three month old son of his girlfriend. The motive of this according to the Times-Mirror article was that he was a rap musician and branded the boy with the 'X' because – he claimed – that 'X' was his rap nickname.
I read this article and guess what? My emotions crawled down into my primal level and I started thinking about how the twenty-year sentence was too easy for this piece of trash who will probably be on the streets in less than 9 years if not sooner. My mood intensifies as I watch three stories about abductions of children in Florida on MSNBC. Then an amber alert flashes on the screen about the abduction of a twelve year old somewhere in the Mid-West. I think, why are we having such a large epidemic of child abuse, child abduction, and child sexual abuse?
Finally coming to my senses, I realize that the police and representatives of our legal system are doing the very best they can to locate, apprehend, and convict these criminals doing dire harm to our nations children. On TV, you see average citizens joining manhunts helping to locate our stolen children. A moment later after thinking these comforting thoughts about concerned citizens, I'm back at the primal level again… the emotions keep coming in waves. Reason is having a difficult time prevailing.
From what I've read, child sexual predators and most child abusers don't change their ways. Let out of prison they will still seek relationships, employment or housing that puts them in proximity to young innocents.
Despite my primal level feelings about these people, we can't lynch them, so what do we do? My solution is very simple, but it will drive criminal apologists nuts! It's not long, nor very complicated, and only contains two simple remedies. It's called the Mike Thomson's Two Strikes You're Dead Law:
- We brand sexual offenders and others who prey on children – "criminals for life" and put electronic bracelets on them after they're released from jail on a first offense.
- If there is a second offense – they're executed – legally – for the good of society and a necessary stopgap to the loss of our nation's children.
We take strong measures so that scum such as Daniel Robert Miller Jr. of rap music ambition will never, never, reach for a cigarette lighter to brand a child, ever again.
I look forward to any reader opinions who can offer better humane and rehabilitative correction measures than I have outlined above. I don't buy the theory that these people will get their due from other prisoners once in prison. That's a cop-out. Concerned citizens must get their righteous anger up and do something about this epidemic, NOW!
Find your local, state, or national official at this website,
www.congress.org, and voice your opinion on how to deal with this epidemic. All it takes is a click. Get 'er done! I highly recommend you mentioning
Mike Thomson's Two strikes you're dead law... which is all inclusive - it does not give exception to teachers, priests, or pop-stars...