crime

On Villain Stories

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I’ve written about villains before after complaints about The Walking Dead. This post was also partially inspired by The Walking Dead. This Sunday’s episode showed the back story of Negan. SPOILERS FOLLOW

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Negan was a villain in an earlier season of the show. He killed two of the good guys. One of those was one of the original, much loved characters. This death was also in the comic. Eventually, he was defeated but rather than kill him they locked him up in their community jail. The story has now flashed forward six years. The show has slowly made Negan less of of a villain. He bonded with a kid and then saved her at one point. He was allowed to escape from the jail so he could infiltrate the new villain group to take them down from the inside. He killed the new villain. His is very much a redemption story. I have read some of the comments on posts about the episode telling the story of Negan before he was a villain. In addition to the normal “is this show still on” comments from people who want to show they are way too cool to watch such things there were complaints about Negan getting a redemption arc. People are mad that the character who killed people they liked gets a chance to be redeemed. They think it isn’t possible that someone who once murdered someone could ever be redeemed or given a second chance. (see more on second chances here)

There have also been recent complaints about the new Hunger Games book being about President Snow when he was younger. People are mad that there is a book that shows a human side of someone who did terrible things. They don’t feel like a villain should get a backstory, especially one that shows they were not always bad. I’ve seen the same complaints about the idea of a Cruella De Vil origin story. The theory behind all of these complaints is a bad person is a bad person and will always be a bad person forever and ever amen and no one should care why they are a bad person. I disagree.

I think it is important and interesting to understand what turns someone into the villain. In fiction, it is a better story if the villain has depth and you understand why they are doing what they do. I have enjoyed seeing Negan go from Big Bad to antihero. I liked seeing the story of how he went from who he was in normal life to who he became in the zombie apocalypse. I think it was interesting to see how President Snow was as a young man and what happened to turn him into who he became. I am interested in watching Cruella(and not just because I have a crush on Emma Stone). Villain stories are more interesting to me than hero stories. Heroes and happy endings are boring. I like complicated characters who might be a little(or a lot) bad.

This thinking is also prominent in the real world. If someone commits a certain crime many people believe there is no redemption. Look at Michael Vick. People were mad that he was allowed to play football again. People are mad whenever he is not treated like a criminal who should never have god things happen to him. We want to send people to prison and keep them there. We don’t believe in redemption or rehabilitation. Bad people are bad people forever and ever amen. We don’t care about what might have led them to commit the crimes. We don’t want to spend any money or effort as a society to try to change anything. We are fine to continue to let people grow up in bad situations and then lock them away forever once they commit a crime. We don’t want to hear abut mental health issues. That’s just an cop out, An excuse to avoid prison.

I think our real life aversion to redemption and lack of sympathy for anyone who commits a crime bleeds into our feelings about fictional villains.

A History of Tater on Second Chances

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LA over on Waking up on the Wrong Side of 50 posted today about second chances. Since I had no real post today and I have written several times on second chances, I thought I would collect them in one post so you can read them at your leisure.

My post on Michael Vick getting a dog.

My post about Sean Spicer at the Emmy’s

My post about Josh Hader’s tweets

My post on Ray Lewis

My post on the difference between Ray Rice and Michael Vick

My post on Manson Family pardons

And a general redemption post

Be Vigilant, But Be Better

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There have been more reports of cars being broken into in my neighborhood recently. There was a reported sexual assault in my neighborhood recently. Obviously, people are concerned and there was a post on Next Door about what the community can do to help. There were some obvious answers:

Lock your doors: car and house.

Don’t leave valuables in the car.

Be out and about more in the neighborhood at various times so there is less time when the thefts can happen.

Be aware of what is happening around you.

Call the police about suspicious activity.

The last one is a good idea if used properly. Unfortunately, this is not the case. One person already commented that their neighbor called the cops on them for sitting in front of their own house in a friend’s car. I posted a rant before about a post on Next Door where a woman said she called the police on a guy for basically walking while black. I see post after post where people are calling the police because someone is walking around the neighborhood selling something or putting flyers on doors. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, “suspicious activity” means being outside while not white. We’ve all seen the videos of white people calling the cops on lemonade stands, barbecues, etc. Can we really trust the community to call the police only when necessary? I know I don’t.

Be vigilant, but be better. Stop using the police to rid the neighborhood of people “not like you”

Tater Talks Crime and Punishment…Again

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silhouette of a man in window
Photo by Donald Tong on Pexels.com

 

I’ve written several times about the concept of prison and rehabilitation. I wrote about it in the context of Michael Vick, John Hinckley and others. I am a believe in the idea that we have to believe in rehabilitation. We have to be able to forgive people and give them as second chance in life. There are very few crimes I would consider unforgivable. The justice system is flawed and sometimes corrupt as is any system that is run by humans(so, all of them).  The number of people who have been wrongly convicted is way too high for me to ever support the death penalty again. Many people disagree with me.

 

Every time there is a news article about someone being released from prison there is an outcry from the public. How could we possibly let this person out of prison? They can’t possibly be rehabilitated! They should rot in prison! They should have been executed! Now, if this is the victim or the victim’s family, I completely understand this attitude. What I don’t understand is this attitude from people who know nothing about the case except what they read in the paper. They hear someone will be released from prison and, knowing nothing about the case, yell and scream and post comments about how terrible it is. It doesn’t matter how long they have been in prison. Many people believe that prison means you are locked away forever. That you have no hope of rehabilitation and will commit another crime the minute you are released. If you happen to have been wrongly accused? Well, bad luck for you, but you likely became dangerous by living with all of the other criminals so you should stay behind bars as well.

 

Some people are happy if someone never sees prison. Someone is shot by the police during an arrest and people applaud it. We don’t need a trial. If someone is being arrested they are obviously a bad person and don’t deserve to live. Why not do away with the justice system and just execute all law breakers on the spot? If we don’t care about the wrongly accused and don’t believe in rehabilitation why bother with trials and prison? Just give all the “good” people a gun and go back to the wild west. Just shoot those people walking down the street, knocking on doors because they look different than you and are likely casing the neighborhood for future crimes. Shoot the guy who talked to your kid so is obviously a predator. We don’t need a justice system if no one will ever change. Prison is more expensive than bullets, right?

A Scary Day in the Life of College Tater

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Occasionally, when there is nothing fun to write about in current times, I try to think back to any interesting stories from my life. I generally never find one because I’ve been generally boring my entire life. This morning I did remember a scary day from my college years.

My junior year in college I was a resident janitor at the Baptist Student Union. I traded mediocre to bad janitorial skills for free rent in the basement apartment in the building. My memory of what happened before that day is fuzzy because that day takes over my entire memory of the events, but I’m pretty sure earlier in the week a car had been stolen from our parking lot during our weekly service. I know we were doing penny wars during that time and the jars of money were sitting out that night. It’s possible the people involved in the stolen car saw the money and decided to come back another time. Now, we move to the other time, the event I remember vividly.

My roommate had gone home for the weekend. I was alone in the building and in my apartment in the basement. I heard what sounded like glass breaking and went out in the hall to investigate. I saw a brick in the floor in the classroom across the hall and multiple shadows outside the window and one shadow coming through the shades. I got back to my apartment as fast as I could without alerting them to my presence, called the police and sat by my door with a baseball bat. I’m not sure how long all of this took place. It seemed like it was hours, it was probably less than one hour. I sat by the door and listened to footsteps outside my door and above me on the main floor. I was sure at any minute someone was going to bust through my door. There was no sign of a police response.

I finally went back to the phone and decided to try to remember the number of the people I knew across the street. I’m not sure if I ever remembered their number. I was scared and it was hard to think straight. For some reason, I did remember the number for the fraternity next door I had been to some parties there my first two years in school and knew some people who lived there. I called over, told them what was happening and asked if they could see if the police were around anywhere. They did more than that. When they heard what was happening, they grabbed things that could be used as weapons and headed over to help. The people in the building fled at that point. Eventually, there was a knock at my door. I didn’t answer until the person identified themselves as my friend from across the street. I left the building to find the police were finally there as were my friends and several frat guys from next door. The police had apparently driven through the parking lot, thought things looked OK and left. Who knows what might have happened had I not known the number of the frat house next door. I do know that I don’t recall being that scared again.

If I remember correctly, the people involved were arrested after they crashed the car and fled while leaving papers(report card, maybe?) with their name on it in the car.

Some of the stories from before and after the event might be wrong. I’m old and forgetful.

Tater’s Friday Off Thoughts on Crime and Punishment and Other Random Things

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I was out early on my Friday off to run some errands and to take my phone in to the Apple store because it was having issues charging. All of my other errands went smoothly, but the Apple store did not. I got there a little before 10 and they had someone outside the store checking people in. I was one of the first to  be checked in, but no one called my name while others from the line received help. When I went up to inquire about my spot in line they tried the whole “all those people had appointments” line but stopped when I told them I knew that was not true. They finally admitted that they screwed up and didn’t have me in the queue at all. Even with that, they still didn’t put me at the top of the list when they added me back in. I lost almost an hour at the store for a 10 minute fix and the worst part was I didn’t have a book. That was a rookie mistake.

Crime and Punishment: I saw a post on Facebook recently about the fact that Tex Watson has a parole hearing coming soon. In case you don’t know, Watson was a member of the Manson family and has been in prison for over 40 years. There were comments from people who just couldn’t believe that he would possibly get parole and mention of the fact that Leslie Van Houten was granted parole, but “thankfully” the governor reversed the decision. This follows all of the recent had wringing over John Hinckley being released from the hospital 35 years after shooting Ronald Reagan. Now. I don’t know any of these people personally so I can’t say for sure that they would not be a danger to society. I do know that any inmate with Van Houten’s crime and record after incarceration, but without Manson’s name attached, would be out of prison already. The same might be true for Tex Watson. Van Houten was 19 when she committed the crime and under the influence of Manson. Since she was incarcerated she has received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. Tex Watson has been ordained as a minister. I’ve written hereabout redemption for Michael Vick and here https://theycallmetater.com/2015/04/23/redemption-isnt-just-for-coupons/ and now we can add the Manson people to the list. Is it fair to deny them parole just because their cases are famous? Is it fair to decide that prison is not for rehabilitation, but just a place to lock bad people away and never let them out? I don’t think so.

Crime and Punishment, School Edition: There were several fights at a local high school this week. When reported, people were in the comments(I know I should never read the comments) saying they hoped the people involved were arrested and charged with assault. I’m amazed at this attitude. How many of you who are my age remember the fights at school that didn’t result in arrest and criminal charges? How many people out there were involved in a fight at OCHS and are glad they didn’t result in a criminal record?  There does need to be punishment, but why the rush to add criminal charges to a kid for getting in to a fight? Why can’t we just do suspension, detention, Saturday school, etc and hope to help them mature and reform instead of just branding them as criminals and giving up?

Randomness: The Orioles lost the wild card game because their manager was too stupid to use their best relief pitcher. I am now moving on to cheering for the Cubs and for the Nationals to be humiliated. Hopefully, we can make it through the rest of the playoffs without a moron throwing a beer can at a player. Watched another new show last night. Timeless was an interesting take on time travel and how changing events can have unintended consequences.

That’s all folks.

 

Redemption Isn’t Just for Coupons

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One of the big news stories these days is that doctors are saying John Hinckley’s mental illness is in remission and that he should be released. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity after attempting to assassinate President Reagan in 1981. The government opposes this and from posts I’ve seen online, apparently, a good portion of America feels the same. Now, I’m not Hinckley’s doctor (or anyone’s doctor for that matter) so I can’t say for sure he is no longer exhibiting symptoms of mental illness, but I do have a problem with the idea that he should never be released. There are likely numerous people who were convicted of murder since 1981, were not mentally ill and have since been released. Why is Hinckley different? Is it because he shot famous people? Is it because we don’t believe the mentally ill can be helped? Or is it that we overwhelmingly believe that no one should be released after these crimes and we speak up on this one because it is in the news? I think it is the latter. We don’t believe in rehabilitation and redemption(except in the case of coupons)

Some recent cases:

Large numbers of people believe Michael Vick should never be allowed to play football again because he was arrested on animal cruelty charges. They don’t care if he has changed, knows what he did was wrong and never plans to do it again. He should be punished forever!

Large numbers of people think Ray Lewis should never have been allowed to play football because he was involved in an altercation which resulted in someone being killed(not by him) and he was stupid and ran and tried to protect his friends. It doesn’t matter that everything about his life after that indicated a complete change in the way he lived. He should be punished forever!

I also see some of this in responses to the numerous news reports about people being shot by the police. There are a large number of people who imply that the people shot deserved it for breaking the law. I blogged about that  here last year in reference to a police chase gone bad.  The feeling is that they broke the law so they no longer deserve to live.

Of course, this all changes the minute you have a loved one who gets in trouble. Or if you do something wrong. Then we are all about forgiveness and redemption.

I’m not saying Hinckley is cured. I don’t know that. I’m not a doctor, but neither are you. But it’s not really about that. It’s about people not wanting to see Hinckley given a chance at life because he shot a famous person over 30 years ago.

It’s a Crime(Reporting) Wave

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Last night there were helicopters flying over my house again after someone fired a weapon at a house in a nearby neighborhood. As always, when this was reported people jumped on the community association email list to talk about not being safe, the increase in crime and how the police need to do more to protect them.

There are a few problems with this. One being that the community association actually pays for extra patrols and the county police are always out and about on regular patrols. I’m not sure what else they expect them to short of paying to put a police officer or private security on every corner. If we did that, they would feel safe, but would be complaining about the increase in taxes. The police and community association are doing their jobs. If you need more start a neighborhood watch.

The other problem with this is that their insistence that crime rates are going up. This is not true. I don’t have 2013 numbers because I’m not getting paid to call who I need to call to get the updated numbers, but according to the numbers from the last few years, crime is down significantly(http://www.goccp.maryland.gov/msac/crime-statistics-county.php?id=18 ) So, why do people think crime is up?

The perception comes from the east access to crime reporting theses days. It used to be that you got whatever news the paper or local tv felt was relevant. Most of the smaller crimes were never in the news. Now with all of the Patch online news sites, Facebook pages like Anne Arundel Breaking News and Events and emails for the police you can know everything thing that comes across the police scanner. All of this “reporting” gives the illusion that crime is up. All that is up is your awareness of the crime. No neighborhood will feel safe if you are aware of every report that comes over the scanner. You don’t need more police, you need less information.

Let’s Play Blame the Victim

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Last night is was reported that a 14 year old boy was robbed outside of a local mall at 2am. Immediately, people rushed to the local Patch to not decry the constant crime at the mall, but to blame the victim’s parents for letting him shop on Black Friday. The article does not say who the kid was with. It just says the parents were contacted. Is it possible he was alone? Yes, but it is also possible he was at the mall with other adult relatives or the parents of a friend. No one but those involved know, but people still want to jump in and blame his parents because they weren’t there. This is not a one time thing. Every time a kid reports a crime and it is after dark(even when after dark is 7pm) people jump on to insist that it is the parent and the victim’s fault because they were lit after dark. Why do we not blame who is really at fault? Why do we give the actual criminals a free pass and always blame the victim? Are we supposed to hide in our houses after dark? Lock out kids away so we won’t be blamed when the real bad guys rob them?

How Dare You Arrest a Thief!

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I am watching the news and once again they were discussing this story http://www.wbaltv.com/news/20124542/detail.html about three kids who were arrested for stealing. The kids were stealing several items from a neighbor’s garage and were handcuffed and taken to juvenile detention when caught. The parents are outraged that their kids were treated this way. I don’t understand this outrage. The kids committed a crime. When you commit a crime, you go to jail. That’s the way life works. It’s better the kids learn this now and maybe get scared away from doing it again rather than getting away with it and deciding to do it again. If these were my kids I would want them to be handcuffed and taken to jail. I want them to see what happens when you break the law. It’s better to try to scare this behavior out of them early rather than wait until later when the crimes have escalated into something more serious. These parents need to wake up and see this was a good thing instead of sending their kids the message that the police are in the wrong here instead of them.