Wander on April 13, 2009 at 6:49 PM

Stinkbait?

BTW, I’m terribly oppossed to the US practice of lowering the age of trying kids as adults.

These are kids.

AnninCA on April 13, 2009 at 5:40 PM

Ann, I spent quite a few years working with teenagers at my Church. Based upon that experience, I know that there are 19-year-old mush-brained kids who will be led on a string by peers, parents, whoever; and there are 12-year-old adults who are capable of acting independently to accomplish their ends, for good or for evil. I don’t think it’s possible to pick a specific age at which we can try teenagers as adults; each child must be judged on his or her own developmental level.

I remember my friends and I “learning” (wrongly, I now know)in our teenage years that we could commit any sort of crime and we’d be turned loose when we were 18. For us, punishment became almost no deterrent at all. Fortunately for our families, neighbors and associates we were not the homicidal type, because the calculus certainly made it seem like we could have almost ‘gotten away with murder’. In the same way, there must be some credible deterrent to a truly evil 14-year-old going on a killing spree or raping his step-sister. Remember, as we are concerned about juvenile offenders, we must also be concerned about juvenile victims. I’ve not looked for statistical evidence, but my experience tells me that juveniles — like any other demographic group — are more likely to victimize other juveniles.

Who will judge whether the juvenile should be considered an adult? To my mind, that’s the challenge. Our current system — in most states the accused is interviewed by specialists in child psychology, who testify before a judge, who makes the decision — is imperfect, but I’ve yet to hear a better system proposed. It is certainly better than having only minimal deterrence against juvenile crime.

That’s the long way around the tree, but the bottom line is this: there are some people whose concrete has set years before their 18th birthdays. For those who are really evil, trial as adults has to be available to deter crimes and keep hardened offenders off the streets as long as possible.

And when a 15-year-old hardened offender is put away for most of the rest of his life, my ire is not directed at the judicial system, but at the offender, and (where applicable — sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not) at the adults responsible for the 15-year-old becoming hardened.

Indeed, the pirates could have killed the good captain even without ammo, so no chance should be given to them.

A relative of one of the pirates, who said he spoke with the men by satellite phone at about 3 p.m. — four hours before the Navy opened fire — said they “were getting scared” and trying to persuade the Americans to let them go in return for the captain’s release.

BS. If they wanted to surrender, we’d have let them. It would have been a lot less risk to Captain Phillips. How can anyone believe that kind of thing? Please.

Personally, I think the only way to defeat pirates is to shoot them. The Royal Navy found that out in the 1800′s. They blasted the pirate ship and hanged the survivors.

Annin, a bit of a test for you.

I’m pointing a gun at you.

I tell you I am out of ammunition.

I have lied to you before.

Do you want to try me? Do you want to see if I am telling the truth, or lying to you, again?

Answer, please.

Yoop on April 13, 2009 at 5:49 PM

I know what you’re thinking. “Did he fire six shots or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?
Harry Callahan

But we could let Kenya deal with the aftermath.

AnninCA on April 13, 2009 at 5:40 PM

The Kenyans hate the Somalis too.

Somali refugees are a growing problem. Not so much because there are more and more of them, but because so many of them are criminals. Kenya, which has suffered from Somali raiders for centuries, is now turning back Somalis seeking asylum. The UN has condemned this, and demands that Kenya allow a fourth Somali refugee camp be established in northeastern Kenya. The three camps already there hold over 250,000 Somalis. The UN is also trying to get Kenya to stop sending Somali refugees back to Somali. Kenya accepted 60,000 Somali refugees last year, and have had no end of problems with them. Over 20,000 Somali refugees entered Kenya this year. Somali gunmen try, and often succeed, in using the refugee camps as rest areas. Worse, the Somali gunmen sometimes do some looting in Kenya, instead of going back to Somali to steal. So Kenya has told the UN to stuff it, and is turning away most Somalis trying to flee into Kenya.

The best way for them to stay alive? Stop pirating. Otherwise, you’ve got it coming.

The short answer.

There are some inconsistencies. We’ve been told that the pirates were holed up in a covered lifeboat with the Captain as their hostage.

First – those covered lifeboats have rigging gear in them to stap people into the seats in high seas. Why didn’t the pirates strap the captain down after his first attempt to escape?

Second – these lifeboats have one main door at the back of them – and there’s enough room for one pirate to stick his head out at a time. Yet we’re told the SEALS shot three bullets and killed three pirates.

Pretty incredible – they would have had to have been shooting through that doorway – at a pretty good distance and with all three pirates on a line of fire at the same time? Or did each pirate take turns holding his head out the door so a SEAL could shoot it?

I’m not saying there is a coverup – what I am saying is that I think our friends in the MSM are still doing a lousy job and there will more details to “correct” this story coming.

An analogy that my uncle’s used in the Pacific during WW2. ( which I will not repeat )

It’s a variation of something either Generals Sherman or Sheridan said about Indians. Halsey also alluded to seeing lots of good Japanese. I also presume some Greek said the same thing about Persians many, many years before.

The best way for them to stay alive? Stop pirating. Otherwise, you’ve got it coming.

I doubt the story as well. If the pirates had indeed run out of ammo and posed little threat to the captain; our military is better than this. And I, for one, will not lose a wit of sleep over these thugs getting their due. Good riddance. Three down, how many to go?

McClatchy: Pirates were out of ammo, wanted to trade captain for freedom

To demonstrate how much I care, McClatchy, I’m 100% for immediately hanging the pirate we captured unless he has crucial intel, in which case we should wait until after we’ve extracted it then hang him.

The one that isn’t dead should be keelhauled all the way the way to Gitmo.

You take an innocent, threaten his life and take him into your custody and control, and menace him with weapons, then his life is in jeopardy and you’ve already stolen his freedom and you best be prepared to be shot.

Caper29 on April 13, 2009 at 5:16 PM

Pretty sure this was an MB4 quote posted b4.

“The wise man does immediately what the fool does finally.”
-Macchiavelli

If they wanted to give up – wave a white flag and let the Captaon swim to another boat. No sympathy from me.

lexhamfox on April 13, 2009 at 7:29 PM

What’s that old line, when the kid who murdered both of his parents pleas for mercy because he is an orphan?

They held on to Captain Phillips to buy their freedom…and what happened to Phillips along the way was of no real concern to them.

The remaining pirate is indeed fortunate. Probably hasn’t eaten this well since he was born, and may have had his first real medical checkup and hot shower ever.

I think the move to shoot was smart. I think we also need to be generous as possible to this kid pirate. Otherwise, we really do run the risk of being overly punitive.

Another confrontation is definitely in the future. We can bide our time.

AnninCA on April 13, 2009 at 5:14 PM

The move to shoot was very smart and warranted.
I’d be generous enough to buy a new rope to hang the “kid”
by the neck with until very dead. Kidnapping & threatening to kill the captive should be a capital offense with no mercy shown.

I read the article for what it was… Information and quotes rather than an argument that the pirates were murdered.

The article does illustrate, however, that the US Government decided that the pirates were not going to get away or trade Phillips and go back to find another boat and go back to work. They should have surrendered.