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DAZED AND CONFUSED

Lee Dresselhaus / L’Observateur / September 1, 1999

So..I waited a few weeks to write this column because if I had written itwhen the urge hit me, I would have put stuff in print that does not reflect well on me. Not that it would be the first time I’ve done so, but in thiscase I figured I’d better wait a few days until the initial head of steam I had built up had dwindled somewhat. We all have a grim side, a perhapsprimitive side to our nature that surfaces from time to time in the form of dark impulse. (Yes you do, too.) Sometimes something happens thatcauses these urges to come forward. Those of us who are sane manage tostifle them, to subdue these deeply atavistic impulses, and that control is generally what separates the criminal mind from the way most of the rest of us think. When that guy shot those children in California, I felt a verystrong feeling concerning his well being and immediate future rise to the forefront of my nature. I managed to stuff it back to where it belongs, likeputting your crazy cousin back into a dark basement after he escapes briefly. But then came part two.When the news footage of this animal showed him walking between two officers he was smiling. Yep. He was smiling. He had a cat-that-ate-the-canary smirk on his face, a smug self-satisfied grin as if he had accomplished a great deed. When I saw that smirk I found myself wishingmomentarily that someone would step out of the crowd and Jack Ruby/Lee Harvey Oswald this guy. How could he smile after what he did? To makematters even more unpalatable, he thought he had killed those kids when he surrendered himself. He didn’t know that he had only shot them topieces, physically and mentally. If someone had stepped up and shot thisanimal right then and there I would have cheered like a drunken football fan, then contributed to the defense fund of whoever did the shooting. Ihave been asking myself over and over how could he smile? Besides the fact that he’s nuts, that is.

I have at least part of an answer.

If you’re feeling a bit testy and you walk into a school, or house, or office or restaurant, and open fire with on whichever crowd happens to be the focus of your insanity that particular day, and you get caught afterwards, it will be YEARS before anything happens to you that has any meaning whatsoever. There are no immediate consequences for being a homicidalmaniac in this country. The news pundits were saying that, since thisparticular animal had also shot and killed a federal employee (in this case a postal worker, something postal employees generally reserve for themselves) he could, that’s right, COULD be eligible for the death penalty under both federal and state laws. Chances are, this moron will be putsomewhere in a nice safe federal prison where all of his rights will be ferociously protected. He most likely will never face the kind of sentencehe, as self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner, passed on those kids. Oron that mailman who was just minding his own business so he could pay his rent. Is it just me, or is something really wrong with that picture? Good thing I calmed down before I wrote this, huh? And all you raving liberals out there (which I’ve been accused of being from time to time), don’t give me that stuff about the death penalty not being a deterrent. Sure it is. Granted, it may not deter the next guy whodecides to do something horrible, but it will flat darn sure deter this particular animal from ever hurting another living soul.

The soulless creature in Petaluma, Calif. that dragged 12-year-old PollyKlass out of her house, raped her, then killed her, then laughed at her father in court as he admitted doing so, should have been taken out and shot right then like a mad dog. Why do we wait? He admitted the crime andhis intent. Why do we extend the protection of a Constitution that theanimal himself disdains? After he gloatingly admits what he did, like the two animals were talking about, what else is there to wait on? A technicality so that the death penalty can be overturned? Why? They sure didn’t give their victims any chance for appeal, did they? I’ve heard anti- capital punishment demonstrators say that it’s not justice, it’s revenge.

To which I reply – So? I guess you can tell which side of this fence I come down on with a thud.

Can’t make up your mind about the death penalty? Here’s a test: How many of you shed tears when Jeffrey Dahmer, the gourmet head case who cooked and ate several people including some neighborhood kids, got killed in prison? Did any of you undecided folks or even you anti – death penalty gurus get misty when you heard of his demise? And if you can imagine the horror of the last few hours of Polly Klass life spent in the hands of that sub-human monster, can you really say that the death penalty accomplishes nothing? Didn’t think so.

Lee Dresselhaus is a regular columnist for L’Observateur .

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