<p>Oooh, cartera, bring on the Orange Alert!</p>
<p>Ugh!!<br>
Welcome to the NEW US of A… where people feel sympathy for the mother of terrorists that blow up their fellow Americans. Oh, that’s right, the terrorists were American citizens too. AND to add insult to injury, some of you feel sorry for the terrorists mother who has a warrant for her arrest for STEALING goods in this country from hard working AMERICAN citizens. Let’s not forget the mother of the terrorists is a Muslim radical.<br>
I’ve read most of your posts about the media, the terrorists, the terrorists mother, AND NOT TOO MANY about the 8 yr old little boy that was watching his dad run a marathon, or his sister and mom, and the 29 year old that died, or the 26 yr old MIT cop that died doing his job. NOW… his mother I can sympathize with. WTH?? You’re debating about gun shots fired and how many??? I can see a Michael Moore conspiracy movie out in theaters soon near you!!</p>
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<p>You’re not so much into the whole Constitution thing, I gather.</p>
<p>What’s unconstitutional about that? He was charged with a federal crime, rather than murder under Mass law precisely so that the death penalty can be imposed if he is convicted. The post only says “we go for” which I took to mean that what the prosecution would ask for. </p>
<p>He’d get more than 15 minutes to decide, but I’d bet a lot that his defense team is already explaining that it’s probable that life without parole is probably the best plea deal he can expect.</p>
<p>You’re not so much into the whole Constitution thing, I gather</p>
<p>I don’t think terrorists are too concerned about their Constitutional rights here in America until their bombs don’t blow them to pieces too with the Americans they intended on killing.</p>
<p>jonri, this guy is an American citizen, like it or not. And like it or not, all American citizens are entitled to a trial. The post I quoted seems to leave out the trial part, but I might be misreading it.</p>
<p>I do agree with you that his lawyers, if they’re smart, are urging that deal.</p>
<p>^^^^^I think he was suggesting just that: a deal. Plead guilty, get life without parole, and we won’t put you on trial with the goal of a death penalty. It’s done all the time in capital cases, and there is no question about disrespecting the Constitution.</p>
<p>Sympathy? Of course I feel sympathy, pain, and nausea, severe chest pain and horrible feeling of malaise and outrage about those who injured in the Boston bombing. I can’t look at a picture of that little boy without tearing up and my chest is getting a sharp pain now as I type about it and I find it hard to breathe. So, yes, I literally feel the pain when I hear about what happened in this horrible event. The Texas catastrophe too. And I am just sick about the Sandy Hook school. </p>
<p>But does that mean that I also don’t feel for those family members of those who perpetuated these atrocities? First of all, I don’t think that the way one “feels” is a totally or for some folks and occasions, even a controllable reaction. So, to say that I don’t “feel” a certain way, when I do would be lying. Because I do. </p>
<p>In the Boston case, for whatever reason, I don’t have the usual ache I do get for mothers of those who do these horrible, horrible things. No, I don’t feel, "but for the grace of God, go I, or think it even, when something like shootings, bombings, cold blooded killings, premeditated murders, innocent children being hurt, as my brain at this point, thank God, does not connect these atrocities as something mine or even those I know well, would do. That simply has not been my experience as of yet, so my brain does not make that connection for me. But if your brain does, it does, and to say it does not, is not the truth.</p>
<p>The other fact of the matter, is that our judicial system and the rights of the accused must stay sacrosanct, and when cases are so horrible that is when the basic tenets are most tested, and must stay in place, or we would not have judicial system that is overall fair. It’s too easy to want heads on a stick as our emotions are so wired. It alarms me that it seems to be that we are heading that way more so than ever. </p>
<p>So, yes, I often feel for the mother, parents, sisters, brothers, family of perps. They do suffer the consequences of the deviant and evil deeds that a loved one, a trusted one has done, whether it’s because those perps are true psychopaths, sociopaths or mentally ill/exhausted, weak. And, the profile of the surviving Boston bomber, is one that does give me pangs. 19 year old at college, not doing well–flunking out is what I think was happening, raised a certain way with the regular American high school experience but with immigrant parents from a difficult area with dysfunctions who just left the country and left him there, with a strong personality much admired older brother? I’m not saying that he does not deserve to be or should not be held accountable for what he did. But yes, I do feel sadness, more than an outrage due to his profile. And regardless of how terrible he might be, his rights, all procedures, need to be above board. I don’t think he will be walking out of this, in any case, does anyone? I do believe that there is some differentiation between his involvement and his brother’s in all of this, in some ways like that of the Virginia sniper who was executed and his young accomplice who was not.</p>
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This confuses me–didn’t we used to be a Christian nation? But you’re suggesting that in the NEW US of A, we’re more Christian than we used to be, because some of us may even take the concept of “loving your enemy” seriously. I’m also confused by the suggestion that those of us who cling to the concept of constitutional rights are somehow less patriotic than those who want to ignore them.</p>
<p>It just makes me sad when all our values go flying out the window when we’re angry. Those values must not mean that much to us.</p>
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<p>For all we know, the bombing was the younger brother’s idea. I don’t see how anyone can cut him some slack at this point.</p>
<p>We will probably never know the totality of his role, because he will probably take the 5th and not testify, if the case goes to trial.</p>
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<p>Well said.</p>
<p>I’m the last one to throw stones and when I hear of anyone commiting a serious crime, I always think of the mother because most mothers don’t hold their newborn babies and say “I hope he grows up to do life in the state prison.” But, you know, sometimes the moms are accomplices and if that is true in this case either in the legal or practical sense, then the woman gets no sympathy from me.</p>
<p>I agree completely that it is when confronted with heinous crimes that we must be most diligent in respecting the Consitution, just as I believe that we should line up to defend disagreeable speech, so I am fine with this little piece of garbage getting good representation. However, I don’t ever support the death penalty, so I’m fine with life in prison. (Although I have always thought there was some karmic justice in Jeffrey Dahmer’s fate).</p>
<p>CPT, I find your post interesting. I consider myself a truly empathetic person and I have absolutely no feelings of compassion for these scumbags. The younger son is the one who placed the bomb next to a child, then posted snide comments on twitter. Why would anyone assume he was led astray by his brother? He is just as culpable. It galls me that he will likely get life in prison rather than the death penalty and that the American people will be paying for his care for the rest of his pathetic life. The ONLY one I feel sorry for is the poor child of the murdering terrorist.</p>
<p>After reading an article about what the SuperMax prison is like, I feel better about opposing the death penalty.</p>
<p>All the harping about respecting the Constsutional rights of the accused is just silly. In these types of high-profile cases, the prosecution and law enforcement are hyper-careful to dot all the i’s and cross the t’s because the last thing they want to happen is that the defendant goes free due to their procedural errors.</p>
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<p>If you support the death penalty, then you cannot be as empathetic as you imagine. You are, at most, selectively empathetic.</p>
<p>Breaking news: Three more suspects have been taken into custody.</p>
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And yet, there were politicians who tried to interfere with that process, which could have created that very risk.</p>
<p>But it didn’t, Hunt. And if you didn’t have an immediate concern about national security when the event occurred, then you were probably in the minority.</p>
<p>Three college students have been taken into custody.</p>