halonachos wrote:Right now its above the Japan thread so it reads ...Darwin Award goes to Japan hit by 8.9...

Who would park the car on a busy freeway in heavy fog, for a quickie?
That's the whole picture: A young couple, driving along Via Dutra, the largest freeway in Brazil with tons of heavy traffic, at 6AM under heavy fog. The couple decided that this was the time to park (for "dating" according to the charming Google translation) and, yes, they parked on the freeway in the right-hand lane, not on the shoulder, the median, or at a gas station. Naturally, given time a cargo truck encountered a "speed bump," instantly killing both -- during the act of procreation -- double-double Darwin Award! (2) people making (2) obviously bad decisions, and natural selection acts at the very moment the two are reproducing. Textbook!

sebster wrote:I see this has been necro'd, but I must have missed responding to KamikazeCanuck's post way back when...

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Yes, I just said they did a study in my local area. They took a sample of criminals that have over 100 convictions - that's right OVER 100 convictions and determined that were serving less and less jail time with each conviction.
Why don't the judges care? Because they judge for a living and have lost touch with the people. They've become desensitized to crime. I'm enraged about the crack dealer living next door to me but for Judge Bob its like "oh, there's Fred the pusher again. Haven't seen you in weeks, what did you do this time you rascally scamp". And them gives him 2 days in jail.

You're making this huge assumption that decliing sentences are the result of a judge not caring. As if sentence lengths were in anyway due to the amount of 'care' of the judge. It's nonsense.

The law isn't the problem but the sentencing part that is only in one man's hands. If you're proposing mandatory minimum sentances there's a whole other debate.

Sentencing is not only in one man's hands. Laws are written with minimum and maximum sentencing, and there is also precedent in similar cases that judges are supposed to follow in their sentencing.

Within those bounds we actually grant judges discretion to impose higher and lower sentences, because we believe that an independant person actually present at the trial of the criminal is the person who is most likely to give a fair sentence.