THIS HEINOUS CRIME DOES PAY

New York Post ^ | 11/27/01 | ANDREA PEYSER

[kattracks]

Our society allows an adult to kill another human being without fear of punishment or stigma.

The criminal is paid for her cruelty with an education, career counseling, plus the assurance, "It's not your fault."

We claim to abhor violence and love children. But when babies are slaughtered by their own mothers' hands, the justice system does back flips to forgive ferocious felons.

[Demidog]

A pot dealer who used to work my schoolyard is serving 15 to life - because his trade harms kids.

This is what's important to the drug warriors. Even if it means that child murderers walk.

[Judith Anne]

Thanks, for this excellent post. There should be a "Megan's Law" for these child killers, so that their neighbors know who they are, for the safety of children everywhere.

[goldstategop]

Yes child murderers get more consideration than drug dealers. Now there's a not too comforting thought. I'll remember that next time pro-choice liberals hector us to "do it for the children."

[Nick Danger]

...the California case where an angry man who had been involved in a fender-bender snatched a beloved bichon frise from the arms of its owner, the driver of the car that had bumped him, and hurled it into traffic.

The man has been sentenced to three years in prison, a sentence that drew much discussion. Something fundamental must be missing from a person who could commit such an act.

But, at last, people are waking up to animal cruelty. The judge treated the dog-hurling incident with the seriousness it deserved.

[GeronL]

3 years for murder, gotta be tolerant and understanding of course... grr

[GeronL]

there is no drug 'war'... their so-called 'war' hasn't made a dent. I wish druggies would stop complaining about a phantom war.... we got a real one now.

[Zorobabel]

"But, at last, people are waking up to animal cruelty. The judge treated the dog-hurling incident with the seriousness it deserved. "

I wonder what sentence the judge would have imposed if it had been a pet rat instead of a dog?

[Red Jones]

But if the prom mom had been a man, then she would've gotten a lot more time in jail, so at least there's some justice.

[LadyDoc]

Most of the dead babies I've seen had parents on drugs. So I don't feel sorry for the drug dealers getting jail.

Indeed, most of these "parents" who kill their kids were druggies. However, what you don't see in this article is the sad fact that the mom's new boyfriend who is a druggie is the most usual one to kill the kid. When a mom kills kids shortly after childbirth, often it is associated with a mental illness, often associated with post partum depression (Ask your wife about it).

Druggies, on the other hand, simply chose to take drugs, and I have little sympathy when they shake a kid or beat the shit out of a kid who is crying and gets on their nerves (I've treated half a dozen of such kids, two died of severe brain damage)

[kaylar]

Remember Marybeth Tinning, who killed 8 of her 9 children, one after another, blaming it on SIDS or a rare genetic disorder? She will be released in 2005, if she's not been quietly paroled already.

[HateBill]

This column by Andrea Peyser is the height of hypocrisy. She loves baby-killing well enough when the child is in the mother's womb. As a matter of fact, she voted for Al Gore instead of George Bush solely because Al Gore supported abortion on demand.

Wake up, Andrea Peyser. If killing babies one second out of the birth control is a "heinous crime" why is killing babies one second away from natural birth a "woman's cherished constitutional right"?

[Nick Danger]

I wonder what sentence the judge would have imposed if it had been a pet rat instead of a dog?

Probably less. I don't think we value rats as high as babies.

[Demidog]

their so-called 'war' hasn't made a dent.

Neither will this one. Hope you enjoy it.

[Demidog]

Most of the dead babies I've seen had parents on drugs.

How scientific. Most of the dead babies in this country occur via the members of your profession. Perhaps we should start jailing all doctors. I wouldn't mind much if you went to jail.

[Harrison Bergeron]

"Indeed, most of these "parents" who kill their kids were druggies."

How do you back up such a claim? The high profile cases, Drexler, Grossberg, Smith, the recent Texas case that claims post-partum depression as a defense... none of these are drug related. Oh yeah... then there's Marie Noe. Remember her? She's the Philadelphia Woman convicted of murdering eight of her nine babies over eight years (the ninth died "mysteriously"). She got house arrest and then probation. I think she should have gotten the pipe.

I don't have a dog in the fight against drugs, but I have an 18 month old son. Infanticide is treated as a personality disorder or illness of the mother. It doesn't even get included in national murder statistics. Let's not take it even further out into psychobabble land by claiming it's simply a substance abuse problem.

[LadyDoc]

How do you back up such a claim?

Statistics. I am using statistics from CASA, but there are plenty of other web sites that have statistics on social problems.

Or just ask you local pastor, or any ER nurse.

seventy percent of children who are abused are abused by a substance abusing adult. Most are not moms with post partum depression, or the cases you read about in the newspapers.

Children with parents who use drugs and heavy alcohol are four times as likely to be abused. Twenty thousand kids are taken from mom because they are obvious addicts. A half a million kids (at least: I believe the actual number is higher) are raised by grandparents, aunts or other relatives because their parents can't do it. I see many kids taken from druggie parents by family pressure but sometimes welfare forceably takes the kids and places them with family. Half a million kids are up for adoption at any one time.

Of course this has nothing to do with your good family. You aren't really your brother's keeper.

[Harrison Bergeron]

Your point, insofar as "abuse" is concerned, is well taken. Abuse covers any number of offenses from failure to provide adequate food and shelter to outright physical torture. But the subject of the post was a little more specific: infanticide - women murdering their newborns. As far as I can determine, CASA is a child advocacy legal assistance organization that works through the Family Court systems. Murdered newborns, especially in otherwise clean and sober middle and upper-middle class families, would be totally transparent to such a system. It appears that you're comparing bad apples to rotten oranges.