this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2025
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[–] qevlarr@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (22 children)

That's disgusting and all, but 15 and 20 years is a little excessive, no? I'm from a country without mass incarceration or private prisons, but you don't need nearly that much for people to learn their lesson

[–] rockandsock@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

In America prisoners get lots of time off their sentences for good behavior. He could be out in 8-10 years if he doesn't get in trouble in prison.

[–] JTode@lemmy.world 33 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

They threatened children with guns.

Yeah, this wasn't idle threatening behavior. This is the kind of behavior that if the police were involved would shoot the PoC on the spot.

[–] qevlarr@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Edit: There is no reasoning with Americans on this topic. It makes me sad. What a shithole country

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml -4 points 12 hours ago

Lol cry about it shitwit

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 29 points 23 hours ago

Those kids will never feel safe walking around. Every time someone raises their voice, they have to wonder, "Was this directed at me? Am I going to die?" They will look at their skin and wonder what they did to deserve this. The hate. The threat of violence. At a birthday, where people celebrate.

This trauma lasts longer than their prison sentence.

Source: me.

[–] OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world 12 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

If someone waved a gun at my kid and threatened to kill him, I’d want that person incarcerated for at least 15 years.
My kid has a right to feel safe around his own home / neighborhood. Nobody has the right to make him feel like his life is in direct danger from them, just for being outdoors.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 49 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They were waving around guns. That is assault by threatening someone's life. Also complete disregard for public safety. It is a felony just brandishing a gun when not threatened yourself.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (10 children)

Even still if there's no other record of violent behavior I imagine barring them from firearm possession, 5 years in prison, and 5 years probation would do the trick.

All punitive justice is good for is giving more slaves to the prison complex. Rehabilitation is better for everyone. It's not only cheaper but also creates better (ie safer) outcomes for society.

After 20 years what will they even have to live for anymore? This is why people re-offend.

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

We don't have a system of rehabilitative justice and we're not going to start having one any time soon, so the options available to us for dealing with these shitbags are either lock them up or let them keep doing what they're doing, I think preferring option 1 is extremely reasonable

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Well no, you could have given them a more reasonable sentence.

By putting them in prison for 20 years you're basically garunteeing they commit more crime when they get out. Congrats you've made society less safe.

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Cool story, but as I said our reality is unfortunately limited to two shitty options and your idea isn't one of them

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Unfortunately my original idea working within the system was ban on firearm ownership, 5 years prison, and 5 years probation.

Plenty punitive, but at least gives them a chance of reforming a life afterwards. Works completely fine without giving in to your false dichotomy

Honestly why are you even from .ml?

Also in case you're confused when I said rehabilitative justice is better that was entirely separate from my suggested sentence

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

If we had anything resembling a reliable system for rehabilitation of violent ideologues in this country your plan would be a good one, but we don't so it isn't. Not a false dichotomy, just one you don't like. I'm on ML because communism is the future, the present is dogshit and our options are dogshit.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 0 points 52 minutes ago* (last edited 49 minutes ago) (1 children)

Yeah there are still more than 2 options. Mine is completely reasonable.

The stance of "the prison complex should be given a slave to make as much profit as possible, but yeah I'm a communist" is absolutely wild

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 0 points 47 minutes ago* (last edited 47 minutes ago) (1 children)

Reasonable but has no chance of happening in the US right now, so you're still wrong, cope. I said nothing about "should", learn to read.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 0 points 38 minutes ago (1 children)

Well that's an amusing backpedal

[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 0 points 6 minutes ago

My first comment: "If we had anything resembling a reliable system for rehabilitation of violent ideologues in this country your plan would be a good one"

My second comment: "Reasonable but has no chance of happening in the US right now"

Does that actually register as a backpedal to you? Are you sincerely stupid or just that desperate to pretend I'm not 100% right?

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You're correct, but anyone from the US, whether they're on the furthest right or the furthest left, is going to have an incredibly hard time understanding why. Their country is deeply indoctrinated with this notion that anything less than the death penalty is basically a slap on the wrist, and even the progressive segments of their populace have mostly failed to ever meaningfully address or deconstruct this sentiment. Left/right disagreements over justice in the US tend to look more like disagreements over which things you should get put in prison for life for, rather than positing that such extensive prison terms being normal across the board might not be healthy for a society.

What this couple did is horrific, and it deserves a very serious penalty, and the problem then becomes that because the bar for "Very serious penalty" is set at "Spend most of your life in prison", arguing for anything less than that feels like siding with these monsters against their victims.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I'm an American though, and many of my friends agree with me on the topic of prison reform

[–] nullroot@lemmy.world 3 points 23 hours ago (7 children)

American here as well. Prison reform is needed, it's modern slavery. But these people are Nazis and I do feel no remorse being intolerant of their actions in society. Rehabilitation or exile I do think are appropriate ways forward. It's not the people that aren't reasonable, it's our laws and two tiered justice system.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

See, this is an excellent example of the point I just made.

Even when people say "I want prison reform" they inevitably always have some kind of carve out for "Except in the case of X."

Which means you don't actually have a problem with the current system. You just have a problem with who it gets applied to.

[–] nullroot@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

This isn't an example of that. My alternatives were rehabilitation or exile, which I suppose could be argued isn't reform as we've exiled people as punishment for like as long as we've been people, but I'm really having a hard time seeing how I said "except in the case of x" I said you should be mean to Nazis, not lock them up for life.

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[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago

Combined. Read the article

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Did you miss the part at the bottom where they were using guns to threaten them?

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 1 day ago (7 children)

15 years is the maximum¹ sentence for murder over here. Armed threats are a serious offense but not to this extent.

¹ you may be kept longer for security reasons if a judge deems you to pose a threat after that time.

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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

it's about sending a message, and protecting the public. not rehabilitation.

this is the core difference between European prisons and US prisons.

I bet people in your country don't go violently brandishing guns around at children, but if someone did you would probably feel like 15-20 years wasn't enough.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

armred robbery, threatening to kill are all felonies they carry heftier sentences. the woman was later released early, like within the few months of being charged.

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