Re: Man gets life in prison for spitting [on a cop]

On Thu, Jul 03, 2003 at 07:10:59PM -0500, Andreas Pour wrote:
> Do YOU understand what life in prison means?  Or are you really suggesting that
> anyone who does not desire life imprisonment for every minor offense "does not
> care about the law"?

Fact is, transmission of body fluids can be lethal and has been on several
occasions. Fact is, they didn't make up this law to lock up people.

> There is this concept called proportionality.  Does it make sense for someone
> who spits on a cop to get the same sentence as someone who murders 10 people in
> cold blood?  Well perhaps you want to give the latter the death penalty, though
> I wonder if you would oppose the death penalty for the former . . . I doubt it.

I would, but that's your prerogative.

> Plus if you really cared about speading disease, then you should get the same
> penalty for "stealling a kiss", certainly for date rape (that risks pregnancy as
> well, and causes far greater psychological damage), and what about sneezing in
> public?  Life in prison for public sneezers!

I wouldn't mind to see life time prison for rape. And last time I checked,
sneezing wasn't something one can easily reproduce or aim at another person,
unlike spitting.

I would not oppose making the law less strict and require an actual lethal
disease on the offender's part, to make it fall in line with sex crimes.
(HIV-positive people *can* be charged murder in case they don't tell their
partner, even with conscentual sex)

Rob
-- 
Rob Kaper     | "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
[email protected] | temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
www.capsi.com | - Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

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