Anders Breivik declared sane

[Zav]

The BBC just did an article comparing the bastard's clenched fist gesture to the Radical Left, mentioning the Black Panthers and, of course, the CNT-FAI. The one time the BBC talks about it, it is in comparison to a Nazi fuck. Durrutti is screaming obscenities in his grave, and I'm shouting them here. I saw it this morning, but I can't find it again. I question the heavy sourcing to BBC articles on RevLeft. It is apparently rather conservative.

[Sam_b]

there is absolutley no reason why this specimen should not be sent to his death.

Because we're against the state condemning murder, and then going on to murder in the name of the law?

Seriously, this is pretty basic stuff.

[andyx1205]

He isn't insane, and this should be a disturbing yet curious fact that the Left must come into terms with. This is the reality of racism in Europe.

The views he holds, particularly that multiculturalism is a failure, are also shared by David Cameron, Sarkozy, and Angela Merkel. His views are very mainstream. The right-wingers hide those views with euphemistic terms, the far right express those views openly, Breivik simply went the extra step and acted out on those views.

The Nazis took the extra step of having a final solution for the Jews, yet, anti-semitism had existed in the West for a very long time, the Nazis simply took those views to an extreme.

The media tries to make Breivik seem like some isolated insane individual instead of trying to analyze his actual political views and hence challenging those bigoted views which are, like I said, found in mainstream dialogue.

[Yazman]

I'm not saying we should be devoting great time or effort into critical analysis of his ideas or ideology, just that it is still worth having a look at what he wrote if this general area is something you're interested in.

Certainly don't feel like you should shut up though! Quite the opposite - your contributions are good

[Luís Henrique]

I may have gone little too far with no fair trial, but 21 years in a hotel room?

Hotel rooms are places where you can come in and go out at will. He will be locked for 21 years, and then scrutinised for whether he still represents a danger - and if so, kept locked until another psychological review is scheduled, and so on, and so on. So he is likely to pass the rest of his life behind bars, or to be released only after his health conditions make him no longer a threat.

Luís Henrique

[Yazman]

Hotel rooms are places where you can come in and go out at will. He will be locked for 21 years, and then scrutinised for whether he still represents a danger - and if so, kept locked until another psychological review is scheduled, and so on, and so on. So he is likely to pass the rest of his life behind bars, or to be released only after his health conditions make him no longer a threat.

Luís Henrique

I agree.

Treating prisoners like the human beings they are doesn't mean the cell is like a "hotel room" either. We must also consider that while they might have a decent standard of living, prisoners like Breivik are usually without any cellmates, and are stuck in a cell much of the time, not to mention they are completely deprived of liberty. So it isn't some sort of fucking holiday, they get to spend at least decades in a prison, every single day. Having a reasonable standard of living doesn't change that.

Besides, committing a crime, regardless of the nature of said crime, in my view doesn't give us license to strip a person of their humanity.

As far as people bringing up the brutal and inhumane prison system in countries like the US, if you want to isolate and incarcerate them, fine. But just because some countries have gulags (like the USA!) it doesn't make them acceptable. If any country desperately needs drastic prison reform, it's DEFINITELY not Norway, it is the US.

[Luís Henrique]

If any country desperately needs drastic prison reform, it's DEFINITELY not Norway, it is the US.

Or Brazil:



How is this more conducive to rehabilitation of criminals?

I can only hope people advocating such treatment of criminals never do anything against the law.

Luís Henrique