I saw a post on Facebook that bothered me a lot. It was about a father who’s daughter was raped. He took the law into his own hands and beat the two rapists to death.
Now here is what was troubling to me;
- The noted the father was a veteran – hence a hero.
- The rapists were noted to be Syrian refugees – hence Muslim terrorists.
- There was no indication that the daughter was killed in the rape.
Now I did not comment on this because no matter what I said, the poster would only see what the wanted to see and would not read the whole message so I am posting my thoughts here:
- I understand the frustration and anger on the part of the father and can see myself doing the same thing in his place, Regardless, what he did was:
- Against the law and that is what the law is for. There is no indication that the rapists would not have been prosecuted without his intervention.
- There is no indication that this was not an overreaction to the actual rape. All rapes are bad but not all rapes deserve the death penalty.
- We are a country of laws.
- Why was it important that they mentioned that they were Syrians?
- Would the rape have been a lesser crime if it was perpetrated by Americans.
- It is an obvious xenophobic reaction to bring this up in this up. In fact, it belittles the effect of the post.
Basically, my reaction is: if the father decided to take the law in his own hands, he needs to face the consequences and hope there are mitigating circumstances that are not included in the posting.
