Maintaining ideals when nutcases test them
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:19 pm
Remember when in the first hours after the massacres in Norway, how the rabid right was urging the Norwegians not to surrender their freedoms and way of life when they believed Islamist terrorists to be responsible? Will they be saying the same thing now?
Will the Glenn Becks and the Sean Hannitys be screaming NO, Norway should not fuck around with an enlightened criminal justice system that has served it exceedingly well, resulting in some of the lowest crime and recidivism rates in the world? Or will they be braying that Norwegians should surrender to the desire of this right wing fundamentalist Christian terrorist's demands for a more repressive society?OSLO – Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg urged parliament on Monday to preserve the democratic values of Norway as public pressure grew for stiffer sentences for serious crimes after an anti-immigration zealot’s bloody rampage.
In a poll of nearly 1,300 people taken six days after the attacks that left Norwegians devastated, 65.5% said penalties were “too low” and 23.8% were happy with them, the Verdens Gang paper reported. More than half said their view had hardened since the mayhem that claimed 77 lives.