Outrage!!

[SteveM]

****Trigger Warning***

A former gubernatorial Candidate in my State, (ran twice), plead guilty today to possession of "tens of thousands" of images of CP. He was sentenced to 4 years with al but 9 months suspend. Grossly , grossly unfair and the punishment doesn't fit the crime!!!
I am pissed to say the least and needed to put this anger somewhere. I am fairly new here so if this is inappropriate let me know and ill take it down.

Just heartbroken that our legal system still doesn't address the severity of this depravity.

[Armee]

Seems like a completely appropriate post, Steve and I share your outrage!

[Bermuda]

I get very upset by these things too. Actually justice and injustice have been huge themes throughout my life and it is absolutely cPTSD related.

I am very much anti punishment and am a firm believer that prison is for people who are dangerous to society to be rehabilitated when possible. These crimes are what prisons are for and I find it so so sad that prison populations do not reflect that. People with CSAM in my irrelevant opinion are as bad as the direct perpetrators themselves and are absolutely dangerous. Sentencing guidelines for these crimes in the US are appalling and judges have very little leeway in sentencing. The guidelines need to be changed to reflect the fact that there is a very real victim, or thousands in this case. I could write a dissertation on this.

Bad news effected me so much at one point that I went to huge lengths to avoid hearing the news to make sure I could not be accidentally triggered whenever I opened my browser.

You’re not wrong in your outrage. It is outrageous.

[Armee]

That's somewhat what I wanted to say too, Bermuda. Somehow we (society) seem to think possessing the materials is less bad than creating them. But it's not. It's feeding the machine. When you purchase download view whatever you are... I don't want to say more. But yeah.

[SteveM]

Thank you both for your replies.  I have done a relatively good job of staying away from this kind of triggering stuff, just don't do anything perfectly:).

I believe my warrior is on high alert with the recent birth of my second granddaughter, Im an uber vigilant guardian!

[Kizzie]

We need more uber vigilant guardians so it seems SteveM when we consider instances like what you're outraged over (and rightly so IMO), and all of us here who had no power as children to stop whatever abuse we went through.

I personally like the idea of survivors having more of a say in sentences and sentencing, it gives us back some power and control and maybe even some dignity?  There's a book just out by Judith Herman "Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice" in which she talks about how we view repairing the harm done to us (e.g., reparations such as the perpetrator(s) paying for any and all legal and therapy monies the survivor spends to recover/heal).  I'm really stoked that such a respected professional has finally taken on the issue of accountability and reparation.  Hers is a well-known voice and we sure need that advocacy.