via Tulip Girl
Two more women die to satisfy their families "honor".
In Europe, police now are realizing that major crimes in some immigrant communities, and particularly those against girls and young women, are often family conspiracies that have long gone unpunished.Violence in the name of honor, covered up as a private matter among unknown numbers of Pakistani, Kurdish and Arab families, has become a troubling reality for law enforcement working the streets in Britain, Germany, Sweden and elsewhere in Europe.
Such retribution appears to occur in the most insular of communities, and police have sought help from immigrants in the mainstream--the vast majority of emigre families--to understand the crime.
These crimes are taking place worldwide.
Punishing the killers isn't going to help; these people are proud of what they have done. What is there that we can do?
Posted by Rachel Ann at November 29, 2005 07:25 AM | TrackBackBefore I start, let me qualify the following statements.
I am not saying that my country (USA) has a perfect justice system. We do not. The number of flaws in it fill volumes.
Nor am I a proponent of the death penalty.
However, "honor" killings are rare in my country. I'm not familiar with the laws of Germany of Britan, but I do know what would happen in this country. The article does not tell what kind of penal punishment the accused will receive.
Here, they would be lining up the gurneys for lethal injection.
The young men would not catch a break because of their age. As terrible as it sounds, we do charge minors as adults if the crime is particularly violent. And we have executed minors.
Other family members who knew of the murder, would be charged as accessories. In most states, that carries almost as severe a punishment as murder.
The mother who lied about the crime would be charged with accessory after the fact. Not quite as severe, but still would imprision her for most of her life.
If it could be proven that the father, or anyone else encouraged or helped with the crime, that would be charged with criminal facilitation.
Add all of that to the fact that US population has no patience for infanticide. Truly that is a crime we DO NOT understand and do not tolerate.
The only defense would be insanity. In our judicial system, this is an rarity. Normally, the accused is considered to be innocent until proven otherwise. It is the prosecutor's job to prove guilt. However, with insanity pleas, that is an affirmative defense. The Defense attorney must prove that at the time of the crime, the accused did not understand that his/her action was a crime.
I am a death penalty opponent. What I oppose is how the death penalty in my country is administrated. A man who says he killed his dauther and would do it again is begging to ride the gurney.
Perhaps families that believe in honor killings don't come to the US. I get that. But that is OK with me.
To reiterate: I am NOT saying that my country has the answers. We obviously do not. But I think a more severe punishment of ALL involved would cut down on this type of thing.
Posted by: julia at November 29, 2005 10:34 AMRachel pointed out to me that honor killings may take place in the US, as spousal killings.
I agree with that. I my above comment, I was referring to the individual situations in the article referenced. Forgot about husbands killing wives and vice versa.
Posted by: Julia at November 30, 2005 12:36 AMRachel,
I wrote you a nice email explaining that you were probably right about husbands and wives, but that I stood by my opinon with families killing children.
However, the Internet ate it and it came back undeliverable.
Posted by: Julia at November 30, 2005 12:45 AMWell, most of what Julia says is true about the USA, however, if one has enough money, one can get away with murder...some have done so...we all know their names.
And infanticide is ok...so long as it occurs within the first 9 months of conception.
But, it is awful...and they want us to believe here in the USA, that these people are peaceful people...hmmmmmmmm....then what, pray tell, is the meaning of peaceful? We can be grateful we were not born into such a culture...those poor women!!
Elizabeth