A 58 year old woman has been found guilty of tossing a steaming hot cup of coffee in the face of a 30 year old man she believed had cut her off in a queue of people on their way to getting on a GO train.
People cut you off and it’s irksome. But this victim suffered second degree burns on his eyelids for goodness sake. What kind of rage has to be boiling within you to prompt you to assault another human being in this way? The woman’s lawyer says the java tosser is “known for her excellent customer service” in her job. She only talks to customers on the phone. If she tosses a coffee at them, no one gets hurt.
I find it difficult even to describe this next woman as well meaning but I suppose she thinks she is. She’s trying to convince London city council to approve of a bumper sticker that reads, Kill Your Local Pedophile. She even has the stones to claim she’s not promoting violence! We’re all a little sensitive about the safety of children right now, with very good reason, in the wake of the horrific crimes against Woodstock’s Tori Stafford. And I could pull the switch as easily as anyone against the Paul Bernardos and Michael Brieres of the world and I realize I’d have to get into a very long line-up of those also willing to do so. But this is still Canada. We still presume innocence until someone is proven guilty. We don’t stone people to death, we don’t burn them at the stake and we don’t carry out vigilante justice. It’s uncivilized.
“What they did to Tori isn’t civilized”, I can hear some people saying. That is true and there is no punishment that can equal the horrors that little girl was put through. But I don’t want some delusional yokel carrying out society’s revenge on my behalf because of a bumper sticker. If this woman wants capital punishment for child killers, she should work toward making that happen. If there’s enough of an outcry and public support, the government would have no choice but to react. But a movement toward advocating the murder of another being, no matter the reason, sickens me and if you’re on board with her approach, please don’t claim it’s what everyone who wants to protect children would want. Because I for one am absolutely not in that camp.