Convicted criminals and budding jailbirds

This week the Commonwealth Bank stuffed up majorly, when “routine maintenance” miraculously caused various ATMs to spew out money to people who had no money in their bank accounts. The media and consumer groups are whinging and whining about how the Commonwealth Bank are trying to deflect attention onto the "decent people" who took the money. These groups believe that people commit crimes because they are angry at the system, and that if we could just convince them that the system is fair by not putting them in prison, no one would ever commit crime again.

Sure, the Commonwealth Bank ATMs were disrupted for some ridiculous reason, allowing idiots to take out random amounts of money that did not belong to them. But another key issue here is that society is so screwed up that people turn into criminals at the first opportunity. And this isn’t society’s fault; this is a problem at the individual level. At the level of people who think what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable.

If you think this is society’s fault, then you need to wake up and take some responsibility for your own actions, with includes the consequences that come with stealing money. It doesn’t matter who you are stealing from, or the circumstances that surround the act of stealing; you are a criminal and you should be punished within the law.

Speaking of convicts, felons and other assorted criminals, Channel Seven’s new reality show, Conviction Kitchen, pits a bunch of convicted felons against each other in a cooking competition. Or something of that nature. I haven’t watched it and don't plan to.  I don't give a rats if they can cook cordon bleu, I just don't want them to break any more laws and screw up society any more than they already have. The show is just another of the network’s idiotic programming decisions, and claims to give criminals a second chance. But I take their tearful remorsefulness with a giant silo of salt.

Prison. Naturally I think of LiLo


 “Would you give me a chance?”, says one Conviction Kitchen contestant on one of the network's ads. No, I will not give you a chance.  You have had your chance to play by society’s rules and you blew it. When you break the law, you go to jail. That’s how it works.  And you also gave up certain democratic rights and freedoms that are afforded to law-abiding citizens.

For example, you forgo the right to freedom, and you forgo the right to be given a second chance, because I just don’t trust you and don’t think I should have to.  These people convicted of petty crimes are stigmatised because they have broken our trust, and a stupid cooking show isn't going to fix that.  Why are law-abiding citizens always pressured to place their trust in people who have already screwed them (society) over?

Let’s be honest (a virtuous attribute that escaped our kitchen help convict).  She went to prison because she got caught; she didn't turn herself in.  The legal mumbo-jumbo for this is premeditated.  People who turn themselves in - I might consider giving a second chance, depending on the crime. But she got caught, and there’s no point whinging about how remorseful you are when are caught stealing with your hand in your employer's money jar in what the law likes to call fraud.