Anders Breivik gets 21 years.
DocMcCoy
"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,913 Posts
What a shame, said no-one, ever.
Although he's been given the maximum possible sentence under Norwegian law, there remains a possibility - even if it's only a theoretical one - that he may one day be released. Therefore, despite being the worst mass murderer in his country's history, he owes both his life and any future likelihood of freedom to precisely the kind of liberal democracy he sought to destroy. Proof that fascists are amongst the most stupid people alive.
Although he's been given the maximum possible sentence under Norwegian law, there remains a possibility - even if it's only a theoretical one - that he may one day be released. Therefore, despite being the worst mass murderer in his country's history, he owes both his life and any future likelihood of freedom to precisely the kind of liberal democracy he sought to destroy. Proof that fascists are amongst the most stupid people alive.
Comments
You'd think, given the old "Unpleasantness" of 1939-1945, that the Norwegians would (:no beatles:) be keen to stamp der right-wing out - it surprised me that it's a fairly high-profile movement over there. All the Norwegians I've met were neo-hippies.
Can they keep him locked up longer than what the maximum penalty calls for?
Dude is 33 and if he serves his full sentence will be 54 when he gets out.....this seems more realistic than theoretical.
And he claims he'll do it again if given the chance.
Should have moved the trial to Texas where we could have applied the "He Needs To Be Kilt" statute and rid the earth of this scum.
They can keep him locked up as long as he is considered dangerous to society which, based on his own words, means he will most likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
I think the option is there for them to extend the sentence if he's still perceived to be a threat.
I'm inclined to think that 21 years is ample time to reflect upon one's transgressions and the wisdom of the paths one has chosen, especially when they've led to a four-cornered room. I've been hearing variations on the kind of apocalyptic rhetoric peddled by Breivik for as long as I can remember - "In ten years' time, the white man will be a minority in his own country, just mark my words", that kind of thing. For all the certainty of the people who spout that stuff, I'm still not seeing it or anything like it. I don't see white people conceding power or having it taken from them anywhere. But I digress. It'd be ironic if Breivik was released from prison to discover a society not altogether dissimilar to the one from which he was removed 21 years earlier.
Dude killed 77 people.
is that a Norman Mailer quote?
http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2011/09/aint-nothing-gettin-corrected.html
[/No Self Promotion]
I agree with this.
nice and interesting read. Props for quoting Foucault ;-)
Good reading, thanks.
However, Norway is more than able to afford the dehumanisation of its incarcerated if it wants to; it has socked away it's oil revenues all these years and now sits on a huge pile of sovereign wealth fund, somewhere approaching a trillion bucks of investments.
But to their immense credit, they choose not to go down that route.
And this sort of hunger for revenge is a prime reason why the US correctional-rather-than-rehabilitational approach will always result in return rates in jails higher than Norway's.
Read the Non's link.
One thing that I found interesting was his assertion that he'd challenge the court if they found him insane. Was this an attempt at reverse psychology - surely the act of a madman would be to insist on a longer, more grueling punishment (or are Norwegian mental institutions worse than their prisons?). This and his 'apology' for not having killed more furthered his credentials as an unrepentant bad guy worthy of a Batman movie.
He wants to be an inspiration to others, a soldier and martyr, rather than the sad confused man he really is. But there's no doubt he knew what he was doing, he's a disturbed person but definitely accountable in the legal sense, from what I've seen and heard.
Can't help breathing a sigh of relief that very few "madmen" have the level of discipline/obsession ABB has...
All of his actions seem insane to me btw.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19354906
(not his room, but an example of one)
Do the inmates have to put their furniture together themselves with those little allen wrenches?