Cool the Fantasies of Mob Violence

As of Saturday, August 14, 2010

The bloodthirsty tone of recent website comments in the Haddock murder case has reached disturbing levels.

Reacting to the court plea that sent one teenager to prison in the murder of 12-year-old Emily Haddock, one writer expresses hope “that this animal will die an unnatural painful death.” Another prays that the youth “slowly rots in prison and rats slowly make a meal of him.”

Several commenters do not flinch from summoning a lynch mob: “Just drive ’em to Lobelia and turn ’em loose after the residents had notice they were coming. I assure you they would be begging for a needle then.”

Some are asking for the return of officially sanctioned public hangings. Others display resentment at the very concept of holding trials at all and call for speedy injustice: “WHY do these scum bags need a trial???? Anyone remember the Mel Gibson torture scene in ‘Braveheart’? Give it to these guys and still wouldn’t be enough!”

Whoa. Torture? Mob violence?

Bringing Out the Worst

Surely the extreme examples quoted above do not portray the kind of justice system advocated by most Moore Countians most of the time.

The Haddock case involved such horrifying savagery, such disgusting disregard for the most innocent of human life, that it brings out the worst in all of us. If ever a case justified feelings such as those voiced above, it has to be this one. But no matter what our hearts may tell us in the heat of passion, our heads must tell us something else.

Even if one still believes in the death penalty (most civilized nations of the world no longer do), it still is supposed to carried out under the dictates of the law, not the kind of bloody, freelance vigilante action being called for in the above-quoted expressions of rage.

To the extent that those expressions can be taken seriously at all, we prefer to think that they amount to exercises in verbal hyperbole and that they don’t come close to representing the views of most of us who inhabit this county or this country. Are we really prepared to toss out the law books and reach for the rope whenever we feel wrath and outrage rising within us?

Family Endorsed the Deal

Bear in mind that the plea deal worked out with the district attorney’s office and lawyers for defendant Michael Graham Currie was endorsed by the Haddock family, whose members did not want to suffer through the airing of heartrending evidence in a trial. If the arrangement was acceptable to those closest to the girl, it should be acceptable of us, hard though it may be to swallow.

The murder of little Emily Haddock must rank as one of the most terrible crimes imaginable. But in a way, terrible crimes can be viewed as the most difficult of tests to determine whether we are serious about the rule of civilized law, dispensed in just and orderly fashion.

No matter how extreme and infuriating the provocation in this case, we must not be prepared to respond to it by descending, along with the perpetrators, into barbarism. Two wrongs still don’t add up to a right.

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coffecreme 2 years, 9 months ago

Good editorial and spot on.

TheNeedle 2 years, 9 months ago

"Surely the extreme examples quoted above do not portray the kind of justice system advocated by most Moore Countians most of the time."

Want to bet?

I've lived here for several years, and not until I stared reading comments from my "good neighbors" here in the Pilot had I ever seriously considered leaving. But when I read some of the ugly, vicious, and proudly racist comments on this site--not just about the Haddock murders, but about a wide variety of issues--I begin to wonder if perhaps the pretty, good hearted Southern town I chose to live in isn't just a facade.

There are some truly ugly people here, like the woman a couple of days ago who openly bragged about assaulting a beggar with her car door and knocking him to the ground, or the person who called for "the keys to the jail and a rope."

If I was a member of the Chamber of Commerce trying to attract people to live here, I certainly would do everything in my power to keep them from reading the comments section of this website.

By the way, I expect the replies to this comment to do nothing but prove my point.

GoldenDreams 2 years, 9 months ago

Whoever the writer of this article is, he or she is spot on. Some of the comments on the Haddock case and other controversial cases have gotten too extreme and violent. I really think that being able to have a screen name is a privilege, but hiding behind it to make violent or even "blood-thirsty" comments is wrong, or do I dare say cowardly.

GeorgiaMan 2 years, 9 months ago

The main point of most of the comments dealt on the facts that a cold blooded murderer will spend the rest of his life in prison instead of facing the death penalty. Almost 3 years after the fact a plea deals is reached in a case where the facts are pretty evident.
The real point is that we have a justice system that favors the guilty over the innocent. Why did it take almost 3 years to get to this point. Why does it seem that our District Attornery cannot go for the death penalty. This animal and his animal friend pointed a gun at a 12 year old girl and shot her in the mouth, and then the top of her head. I don't care about racial statistics, black on white, white on black crime - This case deserved the death penalty. What more grisly details would the family have to go through than what they had to go through during her funeral.
I can only hope that when it is time for the defendant to die that his death is long, brutal, painful and that his soul will forever burn.

Golf101 2 years, 9 months ago

What memory loss? Our District Attorney (and her staff) is on record for obtaining one of North Carolina's most severe criminal sentences ever: 3 consecutive death sentences, followed by many years in prison! Ironically, it happened the same week as Ms. Haddock's tragedy.

babiehop 2 years, 9 months ago

Bear in mind that most civilized nations in the world do not share the murder rate that we have here. Remember that the family agreeing to a plea deal to spare themselves further pain does not make such an arrangement truly acceptable. Keep in mind that it takes a real coward to commit cold blooded murder against a defenseless twelve year old. Do I believe in capital punishment ? Yes. Does that make me a barbarian ? Maybe. Do I still believe that officially sanctioned public hangings to carry out death sentences would be a deterrent ? Absolutely. Do I fantasize about them ? Absolutely not, but I would venture to guess that Emily's family still fantasizes about having her back.