Just when you thought our legal system couldn’t possibly sink any lower…Ok so it’s not the legal system per se, it’s ALL of it, the Whole Thing- but types like this are trying to put about ideas that can only make things even worse. Check it out.
Ummm, so your deal is convincing judges that sicko stuff should be considered ‘EEETZ my KulCHURE , man. Thatz just what wee DOO ” and punishments lessened or dismissed . This is the kind of crap that makes me sick- Sure, we all have problems, but after reading this stuff I’m feeling like maybe I’m not doing so badly after all. Alison Dundes Renteln, you just SUCK. If you’re not making sense and are wearing everything that you secretly, repressedly believe turned inside out-you just might be a diversity co-dependent– as opposed to a co-defendant, though you’re that too, since others are probably promoting the same garbage . You drank the Berkeley Kool-Aid, and opened your own lemonade stand in LA. Good for you. Bad for everyone else.
“Cultural differences deserve to be considered in litigation because enculturation shapes individuals’ perceptions and influences their actions,” she writes in the book.
She is calling for formal acceptance in the legal community of a cultural defense in which legal systems acknowledge “the influence of cultural imperatives” in illegal acts.>>
Wow, why didn’t anyone think of that before? That is awesome, Alison! Getting sex criminals off on some kind of ‘Diversity! Yay!’ defense. Tell us, when did this lightning rod of brilliance hit you? Were you watching the news? Were you enjoying a soy latte? Or did the kids next door run through your flowerbed one too many times? Will it be called getting a CUI as opposed ot a DUI? Cultural Imperative, huh? How about Culturally Impaired? ‘My culture commanded me to do it’. Kind of like The Devil made me do it! I can’t help it, I’m (fill in the blank ethnic group). Kind of the opposite of those silly tourist shirts ‘Kiss me, I’m Irish/Greek/German/Whatever ‘, more like ‘I’ll kill/molest/stab/murder/steal your bike , I’m (fill in whatever race/people)!’
Cultural Imperative, huh? Almost sounds like if enough cases pile up using that, it could be construed as RACIST! What is the new made-up phrase? ‘Stereotype Threat’ ? Instead of the person being bad, or the race being bad, it’s Culture. And it’s not Bad, per se, right? Because that would be making a Value Judgement and we just can’t do that-because that wouldn’t be Fair and Accepting- we can only do that at to each other- never at some other group. Okey-dokey, I get it. It just Is What is Is, man. Hate the sin, love the sinner. Cool, I’ve got at least three ‘cultures’ I can call upon ! How far back can we go, Alison? Ancient times? Maybe you get a little punishment, a little tardo-counseling with worksheets and positive I-statements, but at the end of the day- no one goes to jail. Neat-0. Kind of like Assimilation meets ASlimeyNation, which you are helping shape. Have a gold star.
A judge in fact did consider the Albanian man’s culture in which touching a child has no sexual meaning and is an accepted form of affection and comfort. The man was acquitted of child sexual abuse although he did lose his parental rights. Renteln says such consideration should be the rule rather than the exception, and she also questions whether the interests of the family were served by separating the father from his child.>>
WHATWHATWHAT?!!! EWWW . I would bet many people from other cultures would be offended at the suggestion such behavior is their cultural ‘norm’ and would not want that false assumption and legal manipulation to serve as a way for sickos to beat the rap for unnatural, criminal acts. Strike ONE . And, Strike TWO, if it IS true, that some ‘cultures’ AKA race/peoples/whatever DO these horrible things consistently, well then, let’s see- do we want to let them, defend them? Or Duhhh, look a little bit further, use your mental ZOOM OUT function- do we WANT that HERE?! Strike THREE -you’re out. Your argument sucks, the whole Culture Defense idea sucks.
“Touching children in the genital area should probably be discouraged….
not only because parents will encounter difficulty with the law, but also because children caught between two cultures may feel uncomfortable if they realize it is considered inappropriate conduct in the larger society.** But incarcerating parents or breaking up families are illegitimate means of inculcating new values,” she writes in “The Cultural Defense.”>>
“Probably be discouraged” , huh? Ugh. I know, I know. I’m guilty of Anti-Solicitorism, right? I’m the Hater because what YOU’RE suggesting is foul and wrong. So… you’re saying that yeahh, just keep the family together and believe that that OMG, no way! The parents have never heard that molester stuff is NOT COOL in 99.9 of EVERY culture ? And on the rare occasion it might be, we should be TOLERANT of it? WTF are you talking about? Are you INSANE? Do it just to make a name for yourself? You really had nothing better you could think up to write a book about? Sick, sick sick.
The author is not, she emphasized in an interview with the Bar Journal, advocating leniency for all defendants whose culture may put them at odds with U.S. law. “I do think the courtroom door should be open to the consideration of culture. That doesn’t mean I think the argument should always prevail,” says the USC professor of political science and anthropology, who also has a law degree from USC and a Ph.D. in jurisprudence and social policy from UC Berkeley.>>
So.. you’re backpedaling to protect yourself from people calling you out like I’m doing? Disclaimer much? And I’m the ‘Hater’ ? Hahahahaha
**” Dad, you mean in Amerika I’m not SUPPOSED to get molested? Huh? But you’re not going to jail because it’s ok where we’re from. And me and mom and the brothers and sisters are supposed to be happy about that. Is that why that girl’s dad who drowned her in their backyard pool never went to jail, because of this ‘Cultural Defense’ stuff? Ahh OK, I get it now. Uh. I think. Umm, Dad? Does this mean you are going to stop doing the creepy stuff now, or I have to just put up with it, because..well, nothing is going to happen to you really?
The Spoils of War 