![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Bulger Murder
Mar. 6th, 2010 02:52 amA thoughtful, although IMHO misguided, essay on the lingering public anger over the Bulger murder.
My reaction:
When was the public ever given the chance to forgive Venables and Thompson? They were whisked away from public view and basically never seen again. It's not surprising that people continue to think of them as they were at the time of the trial. It doesn't help the public mood either that each was rewarded for his crimes with a a better life than they'd have likely been able to have otherwise.
I don't think you can really expect redemption and forgiveness unless the public has a chance to see how they've changed. What's often overlooked here is that while James Bulger suffered the most, this was also a crime against public order. The public's sense of safety was outraged, and lives by the millions were changed, and not for the better, by this crime.
The authorities seem to have taken a one-sided view of the process of reintroducing the boys to society. Consideration was given to Thompson and Venables practical need to be allowed another chance, but none was given to the emotional need of society to know that they'd changed. It's difficult to see how this could have turned out any differently, given the European obsession with individual privacy, but it also makes the unending hatred against them inevitable.
All that aside, Venables never struck me as especially evil, despite what he did. And I keep thinking of this picture I saw of little Bulger, in a sweater with a cat face on it, grinning at the camera. The whole episode is just horribly sad. We live in dehumanizing times.
My reaction:
When was the public ever given the chance to forgive Venables and Thompson? They were whisked away from public view and basically never seen again. It's not surprising that people continue to think of them as they were at the time of the trial. It doesn't help the public mood either that each was rewarded for his crimes with a a better life than they'd have likely been able to have otherwise.
I don't think you can really expect redemption and forgiveness unless the public has a chance to see how they've changed. What's often overlooked here is that while James Bulger suffered the most, this was also a crime against public order. The public's sense of safety was outraged, and lives by the millions were changed, and not for the better, by this crime.
The authorities seem to have taken a one-sided view of the process of reintroducing the boys to society. Consideration was given to Thompson and Venables practical need to be allowed another chance, but none was given to the emotional need of society to know that they'd changed. It's difficult to see how this could have turned out any differently, given the European obsession with individual privacy, but it also makes the unending hatred against them inevitable.
All that aside, Venables never struck me as especially evil, despite what he did. And I keep thinking of this picture I saw of little Bulger, in a sweater with a cat face on it, grinning at the camera. The whole episode is just horribly sad. We live in dehumanizing times.
