So, lemme get this straight....

[conuly]

This woman killed her son.

She drugged him, then put a plastic bag over his head so he couldn't breathe, and waited for him to suffocate.

Premeditated, cold-blooded murder.

But instead of being treated as a murderer, she's out on bail, being charged with manslaughter, and the pastor of her village says that they feel profound sadness and sympathy - for her, not for her dead son.

I wonder, if I just started killing people who were inconvenient to me, could I get profound sadness and sympathy too? I've got a list of people I don't like all that much....


_{Taken from wakasplat}

Comments

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

But- I- Duh- Bwah.

How? WTF How?

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Well, what you don't say is that she has an overwheming history of psychiatric problems. Obviously murder isn't right, but we do have such defenses as temporary insanity, even not guilty by reason of insanity. perhaps she qualifies for one of those.

[conuly]

Lots of people have overwhelming histories of psychiatric problems, and they aren't treated like this. Remember Andrea Yates? There's somebody who deserved a bit of sympathy, but she didn't get it.

Whereas this woman is being told that she was a wonderful mother, very conscientious, and that because her son was hard to take care of, it was okay to kill him.

[conuly]

*re-reads article*

Does it say in the article that she has a history of psychatric problems, or in another article? Because all I see in this article is that her son had Downs and was autistic, and that she had trouble taking care of him.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Well, should you ever be in exactly her position, I hope you are judged with the same mercy.

[conuly]

I hope *not*. If I ever kill somebody, and I wasn't absolutely insane at the time, I don't want people acting like I'm some sort of martyr or saint.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Note also that, probably not quite in a deliberate contrast, they also are running an ad next to that article that says:
"The NSPCC is working to shield children from abuse. Click here to find out how a small contribution will make a big difference."

[malantha.livejournal.com]

That would be the beauty of contextual ads. They're placed automatically based on keywords in the article and sometimes you happen end up with terribly inappropriate results. :P

[ancarett]

What gets me in the wave of sympathy for this woman is all the people who could have helped provide or arrange respite care, get this family the intervention it needed before tragedy took hold and murder resulted.

She's certainly more culpable than her neighbours suggest. They're certainly more at fault for failing to help than any of them realize.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Yes, someone could have given her a break.

And IIRC, doesn't the UK have mechanisms in place for 'carers', as they call family members and friends who have to take care of someone in their lives? I did a quick search on carer/respite/UK and found a number of programs, from a few hours long to overnight.

As a recent conversation came up about how my son seems to have something (hearing problem/autism/unknown problem) someone did pipe up "you'll be eligible for some respite care" in a conversation. It's there. You would think the woman or her son's doctor would have suggested it.

It would be easier for me to find a way to get a break than to kill any of my children, especially in the fashion that she did. To me, snapping is grabbing a gun and shooting or a knife and stabbing after a particularly shitty episode of dealing with difficulty. To go, get pills, feed pills, watch my child suffer, there is time to put a stop to the madness and think DAMNIT I NEED HELP.

I feel for her, as I would for anyone that nuts, but it is the community's reaction that disturbs me the most.

They could have stopped it, because at least THEY were sane the whole time.

[lordalfredhenry.livejournal.com]

That should be a hate crime and not some "crime of compassion" bullshit. What a sick, sick, sick fucking hag she is. (actually sorry, I can't find another word atm for being so pissed off and realize this is giving hags everywhere a bad rep)

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Out of curiousity, where do you get that it's premeditated? Because the son was drugged? Zopiclone is a prescription drug used to combat sleeping problems. It sounds quite possible that he would be awake in the night (to do that shouting) and although we can only speculate on the reasons why, we can similarly speculate that taking such drugs could be routine, or at least something that was occasionally done for some valid reason. In which case it's the suffocation that she did to kill him, which is certainly not necessarily a premeditated act.

I am in no way excusing what she did, just saying that calling it premeditated on the evidence in that article (and I've checked the Guardian's, it's almost identical) is jumping to conclusions.

[conuly]

Covering his face with a grocery bag isn't premeditated?

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Ok, I heart Medea, but ow.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

But- I- Duh- Bwah.

How? WTF How?

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

Well, what you don't say is that she has an overwheming history of psychiatric problems. Obviously murder isn't right, but we do have such defenses as temporary insanity, even not guilty by reason of insanity. perhaps she qualifies for one of those.

[conuly]

Lots of people have overwhelming histories of psychiatric problems, and they aren't treated like this. Remember Andrea Yates? There's somebody who deserved a bit of sympathy, but she didn't get it.

Whereas this woman is being told that she was a wonderful mother, very conscientious, and that because her son was hard to take care of, it was okay to kill him.

[conuly]

*re-reads article*

Does it say in the article that she has a history of psychatric problems, or in another article? Because all I see in this article is that her son had Downs and was autistic, and that she had trouble taking care of him.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Well, should you ever be in exactly her position, I hope you are judged with the same mercy.

[conuly]

I hope *not*. If I ever kill somebody, and I wasn't absolutely insane at the time, I don't want people acting like I'm some sort of martyr or saint.

[moggymania.livejournal.com]

Note also that, probably not quite in a deliberate contrast, they also are running an ad next to that article that says:
"The NSPCC is working to shield children from abuse. Click here to find out how a small contribution will make a big difference."

[malantha.livejournal.com]

That would be the beauty of contextual ads. They're placed automatically based on keywords in the article and sometimes you happen end up with terribly inappropriate results. :P

[ancarett]

What gets me in the wave of sympathy for this woman is all the people who could have helped provide or arrange respite care, get this family the intervention it needed before tragedy took hold and murder resulted.

She's certainly more culpable than her neighbours suggest. They're certainly more at fault for failing to help than any of them realize.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Yes, someone could have given her a break.

And IIRC, doesn't the UK have mechanisms in place for 'carers', as they call family members and friends who have to take care of someone in their lives? I did a quick search on carer/respite/UK and found a number of programs, from a few hours long to overnight.

As a recent conversation came up about how my son seems to have something (hearing problem/autism/unknown problem) someone did pipe up "you'll be eligible for some respite care" in a conversation. It's there. You would think the woman or her son's doctor would have suggested it.

It would be easier for me to find a way to get a break than to kill any of my children, especially in the fashion that she did. To me, snapping is grabbing a gun and shooting or a knife and stabbing after a particularly shitty episode of dealing with difficulty. To go, get pills, feed pills, watch my child suffer, there is time to put a stop to the madness and think DAMNIT I NEED HELP.

I feel for her, as I would for anyone that nuts, but it is the community's reaction that disturbs me the most.

They could have stopped it, because at least THEY were sane the whole time.

[lordalfredhenry.livejournal.com]

That should be a hate crime and not some "crime of compassion" bullshit. What a sick, sick, sick fucking hag she is. (actually sorry, I can't find another word atm for being so pissed off and realize this is giving hags everywhere a bad rep)

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Out of curiousity, where do you get that it's premeditated? Because the son was drugged? Zopiclone is a prescription drug used to combat sleeping problems. It sounds quite possible that he would be awake in the night (to do that shouting) and although we can only speculate on the reasons why, we can similarly speculate that taking such drugs could be routine, or at least something that was occasionally done for some valid reason. In which case it's the suffocation that she did to kill him, which is certainly not necessarily a premeditated act.

I am in no way excusing what she did, just saying that calling it premeditated on the evidence in that article (and I've checked the Guardian's, it's almost identical) is jumping to conclusions.

[conuly]

Covering his face with a grocery bag isn't premeditated?

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Ok, I heart Medea, but ow.