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Saturday, January 23, 2016

Every country should retain flogging as part of the penal Code




As I wrote that headline I felt myself shake in horror. It seems to be an antiquated form of punishment in these modern times, as though it was something best left to past centuries. It suggests that the people who would carry out such punishment are, themselves barbarians. But are they?

If we were to take a journey back in time, as far as one might like to go, we would find both the  authorities who subjected the convicted to horrible treatment, which we would unhesitatingly call torture, and the convicted who did such stupid things that you almost want to say that they had it coming. Unfortunately, flogging was one of those things that, as we became more enlightened we felt was beneath us.

However, mankind has failed to respond accordingly, so we are faced in these modern times with people who do such awful things all over the world that the justice system really doesn't know how to appropriately respond.

I am presently reviewing the Nazi concentration camp culture because I made the mistake of visiting Dachau concentration camp in Munich. The punishment that was meted out to the few who were actually brought before justice could be considered very mild in the face of what the convicted had done. That is because we face the question of how to properly punish those respensible for crimes against humanity without falling into the same pit ourselves. One way could have been to have sentenced them, in addition to the punishment given, to a regular flogging, which was something they, the Nazis thought appropriate for the prisoner who's only crime was perhaps being Jewish.

It goes back to the beginning of time, in the home and in school. If you didn't conduct yourself properly you had to feel the pain from being flogged. It hurt like hell; it was embarrassing when it took place at school, and it did matter. Unless you were some kind of creep who actually liked pain inflicted upon you, the chances were that you would do better.

I had a head teacher who would send me out into the woods to bring back a stick that was sturdy enough for her to beat the hell out of me with. I cried like a baby while choosing that stick.

What makes me write this is because of a very recent case of some thugs who filmed themselves in a pig farm among the little piglets. The piglets were penned in, and the thugs took turns just jumping on the piglets, crushing them to death. This they did for fun, and posted the video on social media.

They will be arrested and tried and sentenced to something that will amount to a slap on the wrist, compared with what they should receive. If only they could be sentenced to three or four floggings of twenty-five lashing each time, on the bare buttocks with the Cat-o-Nine tails. I doubt whether they would think it was funny then, and I doublt whether they would  think about repeating the behaviour, and most likely it would discourage other numb-nuts from doing the same thing.

Presently, there are some 36 countries that hold flogging as part of their penal code, or practise it anyway behind closed doors. Many of those countries practise Sharia Law, but apparently Barbados, Singapore, and Trinidad & Tobago are on the list, if my informatin is current. I think these countries should continue to retain this punishment in cases where it would be a travesty not to flog them, and other countries might want to think about bringing back the sanction.

Some people can only learn the very hard way. If that is so, then so be it!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael