Inverted justice

The blogosphere has been pretty good covering the sentencing of Fortuyn's killer, who was condemned to a ridiculous 12-year sentence. Now the appeals are beginning to roll in both from the prosecutors as well as from the defense. There was a big outcry in the Netherlands over the light sentence handed out to Volkert van der Graaf, which even led to one of the judges receiving a bullet in the mail. The Dutch judiciary has never been known for handing out particularly tough sentences, as evidenced in recent cases. Moreover, the authorities are all but capitulating to criminals.

The appeal by the defense in this case is a real tear-jerker. The defense attorneys argue that the judges did not take into account the "harsh conditions" under which murderer van der Graaf had been kept initially. Moreover, they say, they disregarded the statements made by several politicians about murderer van der Graaf. Poor baby.

Meanwhile in the inverted world of Dutch justice, a jeweler is faced with a demand for a two-year prison sentence because he shot and killed one burglar, and wounded another. The public prosecutor claims it's a case of manslaughter, as the jeweler refused to help the scum who were trying to rob him after shooting them. And he also kicked one of them (hard, they add) in the head. And to make matters completely unbearable, the gun he committed his crime with was of course illegal.

It's outrageous that law-abiding citizens face jail time for protecting their property. If more burglars were faced with the threat of having their brains blown out, they might decide to take up a less risky profession. The only silver lining is that even if the jeweler is convicted to the full two years, he won't have to spend very long in prison. But every day that he does is an outrage in itself. Meanwhile real criminals, like Pim Fortuyn's murderer, are treated with preposterous lenience.

Mickey Kaus (no permalinks?) pointed out the following:

Among the lessons the twentieth century teaches us, one is surely that assassinations work -- maybe not in the long-term (centuries), but in the medium term (decades). You're not supposed to say this. It's a bit like admitting that most great popular music is made on drugs. But Oswald, Sirhan, Ray, Amir, van der Graaf -- name five other men who have done more to alter the course of history (for better or, in this case, worse) in their lifetimes. You'd think the Dutch judges would recognize this and adjust the punitive calculus accordingly. Instead, they've made an offer many ineffectual-yet-earnest activists may find hard to refuse.

This is exactly the point. If you do want to commit murder, do it in the Netherlands. If the reason is important enough for you, then spending 12 years in prison may not be such a bad deal. And if you can convince psychiatrists that you're actually nuts, you can get off even more easily. It's a ridiculous and dangerous position for a country to be in, but somehow I suspect it's not going to improve any time soon.