A CNN story comes up today that almost made me sick to my stomach. Not because of anything visual, but more with rage.
Due to content, the rest of this post will be in-link only, rather than right on the main page.
Do not read if squeamish.
Welcome back, if you read it.
Over at Bobvis, there was a discussion that wandered into whether some people are a net negative to society. Some readers thought this was a monetary-only discussion. It wasn’t.
Case in point: whoever did this is a net negative to society. No matter what job they hold, no matter what else they do, even if they spend time making charitable contributions or whatever, I class this person on the same level as John Wayne Gacy, or the Black Dahlia murderer, or Charles Manson, or any one of historical dictators who ordered thousands/millions of people murdered, or any number of other crazy psychos who have harmed society.
This is an amazingly heinous thing to do. I am feeling physically ill just thinking of what kind of a person would do such a thing. Were I to meet the person who did this on the street today, what I would do to them would likely get me thrown in jail.
But I don’t think that would matter to me, because at the moment I met them and found out who they were, it would likely be worth it to remove them as a threat to society before they do this, or worse, to someone else.
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8 Responses to Not for the squeamish.
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The dog’s head story indeed is shocking. And yet, I cannot help but think of an incident that happend last night just two blocks from where I work. A man carrying two semiautomatic pistols and 100 rounds of ammunition walked into a pizza parlor and shot the hapless counterman between 10 and 15 times. He then fatally shot two auxiliary police officers, who are unarmed civilian volunteers, before finally being shot by the “real” police. More than 40 shots were fired in all, and given the crowds in the area in the evening it’s amazing that several more people weren’t hit. It’s reasonable to conclude that this story won’t get a tenth of the attention of the dog’s-head story despite having far more impact on more people’s lives.
Peter makes a good point. I remember a while back there was a story about this guy that, in a fit of road rage, tossed a woman’s poodle into the freeway and it’s death. I can’t remember how much money was raised and spent finding the perpetrator, but it was a lot. I remember thinking at the time that the money may be better spent looking for someone that killed a human. I guess if you want to do something despicable, make sure it isn’t interesting enough to make the national papers.
Cruelty to animals of this nature is usually a good marker for people with very deep psychological problems. Whoever did this is a very dangerous person, and not just to animals.
Will, Peter,
Where I part ways with you on this is that this DOES affect a human. Not only that, but like the poodle case (though not as graphic) this is a deliberate attempt to first delight in the suffering of an innocent being, and then use that in order to inflict incredible mental harm upon a human.
Would it be worse had it been the head of a human, perhaps someone close to her, delivered? Possibly. As Will notes, the committing of violence upon smaller creatures is a stepping stone, and that someone who does this is highly likely to graduate to doing worse things to humans.
As compares to Peter’s example: what we have there is someone who has snapped. Whether it has impact on more people’s lives is an open question: I get the feeling her entire community is going to be quite scared for some time, and she’s likely scarred for her entire life. I can only imagine the type of nightmares she’s likely to have now. There’s something arguably worse about the entire community being under “are YOU the one who did it?” suspicion, as opposed to knowing who did it in the case of Peter’s.
I don’t think either of us suggested that this didn’t have an impact on human lives. Regarding the poodle story I was only making the point that if he had just shot the woman it probably wouldn’t have made the national news.
You make a very good point about the fact that the assailant is unknown can make it more disturbing than a more severe case where he or she is known.
Will,
The scariness for me is fourfold:
1st part – That someone would take an innocent creature and do that.
2nd part – That they would then use that to inflict such a massive level of mental pain on someone else.
3rd part – The fact that this girl is going to have some incredible trust issues for a long time, if not forever, and the whole community now has to look at everyone around there with suspicion.
4th part – That if they get away with this, their next crime is likely going to be even worse. This is the stuff of which some severely demented serial killers are made.
Peter,
Looks like your story hit the pages today.
Hmmm. The obvious guess is that it’s some guy she dumped or rejected. But it doesn’t seem there are any obvious suspects. This is the sort of thing an angry female might also do, maybe with the help of a guy. It’s so movie-style dramatic, it could be a female.
Probably they caught the animal, drugged/poisoned it, then decapitated it after it was dead. Sure, it’s mean and wrong to kill a pet. But, in this society, we kill animals to eat them all the time. Some people have different attitudes toward animals.
My guess is that it’s some warped neighborhood kids. I don’t think that the girl herself was a target. They probably just ran across the dog and so knew where to put it back.
Who knows, though?