I read of a young man who “snapped” while diapering his own six-month-old child. He punched the defenceless infant five times in the guts, then left the child alone in the crib all night and did not check on him again.
The man was convicted of second degree murder and will serve 5 ½ years. A paltry sentence for a heinous crime.
Will he be out in two years or less based on time served?
Perhaps it is because the baby could not make its own victim impact statement. I’d like to offer one for him.
“I was wet and smelly. I couldn’t sit up by myself or even turn over. So I cried out for help, the only thing I had learned to do since my first arrival in the outer sphere of life.
“My daddy came to help me — but somehow he got so angry when some of my poop got on his hand and a blanket, both of which are washable, that he punched me out. He punched me five times. In my little guts. And left me to die.
“My daddy said in court I didn’t cry or scream after he hit me. I can tell you it hurt so much I could hardly breathe. Maybe the pain knocked me out, I don’t remember. I was just a baby.
“My murder has destroyed my life and that of my mother and my father. My grandparents mourn and rage. People are trying to say that my dad could not express his emotions well — but I think he expressed them very clearly. I am dead because of it.
“They say he ‘snapped,’ as if that’s some kind of excuse. But I know countless moms to all my baby friends had to listen to babies cry because that’s about all babies can do, other than eat and poop and grow. Those moms get frustrated too, and even they sometimes cry and scream — and phone a friend — and cry some more.
“Like, how can you punch a baby? Maybe it’s lucky I didn’t survive — but it was a slow and painful death. I tried to live. But I died in a torturous way, that if he’d done the same to an adult, the court would have added years to the sentence.
“But I’m just a baby. I have no voice.
“So my victim impact statement is that I don’t want my dad to ever have another baby. Never. I want him to be as much without the pleasures of life as I am.”
What kind of society do we have that ignores the depth of cruelty in such an act, yet seems to compassionately recognize the problems of perps who commit vicious acts of violence with psychological assessments like — “seems to lack insight to a significant degree,” has a “limited ability to describe emotions,” and has a “low risk for future crimes.”
If he lacks insight to a significant degree, then how can any accurate prediction be made about his potential for future crimes, when his first known crime is infanticide? In fact, if his insight is so low, should he be free in society at all?
And if our valuation of a baby’s life and death is so small, how can we expect our society to ever thrive?
It kind of sets a precedent for all of us. Anyone of us could “snap” at anytime, over anything now. We can claim we lack insight, can’t express emotions in a more effective manner — so we ran over the pedestrian; gunned down the shop owner; knifed the passerby who wouldn’t cough up spare change; beat the crap out of the granny who crossed the road too slowly; killed the postie over the stamp that wouldn’t stick; blew up the workplace because they made me wear a tie to work.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
But look — what a low risk for future crimes!
How about a no risk?
Michelle Stirling Anosh is a Ponoka-based freelance columnist.