Closure?
Decidedly, at the national level, perhaps somewhat less so at the personal level. But then, who knows? Norwegians appear to have bought wholesale into the convention of kindness and understanding being the means of countering the worst excesses of human depravity. One must think of the possibility that the mass murderer suffered some manner of catastrophic mind alteration that managed to erase any measure of humanity that all human beings must certainly be endowed with.And for that loss of compassion, empathy, kindness and human decency, it is the destroyer of lives that must elicit sympathy. And so it is that under the Norwegian justice system, a mass murder who had not the least compunction that what he undertook in extinguishing the lives of 77 human beings was an assault against humanity, has the best interests of the society he claimed to be defending, at his own defence.
During his final court appearance Anders Behring Breivik visibly sneered at the entire national justice apparatus. It held no meaning for him. Nor did the presence of anguished family members of the 69 campers, most of them in the early years of their lives, reacting to the remembrance of the dread and horror felt by their loved ones at Utoya island as Breivik took his calm time killing them; his smug satisfaction was palpable.
"I would like to apologize to all militant nationalists ... for not having killed more people", he stated.
Judge Wench Elizabeth Arntzen, of a panel of five sitting in judgement made clear the horror of his crime: "He has killed 77 people, most of them youth, who were shot without mercy, face to face. The cruelty is unparalleled in Norwegian history. This means that the defendant, even after serving 21 years in prison, would be a very dangerous man." He will, obviously, never be released.
Although his testimony was held to be "delusional", and his decision to slaughter young Norwegians invested in the fortunes of the political party he held responsible for the Islamicization of Norway represented obvious lunacy, he was rational enough to carefully plan, down to the very last detail, how that fateful day would proceed.
From his electronic release of his mission statement, to his setting of a bomb in downtown Oslo, to his deliberate decampment to Utoya, an assortment of well-used weapons he had trained himself to use with precision, took place according to plan. His calm demeanor during his methodical slaughter of young people, disbelieving the horror they were entangled in, and desperately attempting to escape death, marked him as insanely sane.
He will now be punished by being generously granted a three-room prison suite, complete with study, computer, an exercise room and a bedroom. Doubtless the meals he will be served will be national dishes, much to his liking. He will be able to access university courses should he wish to further his education, and outdoor exercise periods in the company of other convicted prisoners.
He will have a staff tasked to ensure his personal comfort, health and opportunities to broaden his horizons, inclusive of medical staff who will gently attempt to guide him back to a state of normalcy - assuming he ever, at some time in his past history was a normal, thinking, decent human animal.
Labels: Norway, Psychopathy, Religion, Security, Social-Cultural Deviations, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, August 25, 2012
<< Home