Comments on: Grief, Outrage over Grave Desecrations

Four Arrested for Digging Up Hundreds of Graves to Resell the Plots; Little Consolation for Victims

[YCantWeAllGetAlong]

Did you notice the suspects are black? Yet they STILL had to bring up the race issue. Do you think the black suspects are being called on that? It just goes to show that race plays SUCH a ridiculous role in the media. Imagine if the suspects had been white? The headlines would have been, "Racial Graveyard Horror" or something like that. I wish the media would see all this BS for what it is. Notice the swimming center story is a racist one since the owners are white and the people whining are black. Some things never change.

[Kintari]

Throw the book at these creeps...desecrating graves and voter tampering.

[stn_sage]

To IrishWench01:

It is what these acts represent that make them SO vile and why they deserve consideration for more aggressive punishment!

First, it's a heinous act! It's like choking a cat or molesting a child, only a sick and twisted mind would do it!

Second, and a person with a mind like that will continue to be lurking around society somewhere, until they grab you IrishWench, and carve your heart out with a tablespoon! And, I for one, would feel bad about that, because we'd miss your commentary on this board!

Third, it's a huge FINGER to law and order and civility in society, it's a repudiation of everything we SHOULD be standing for!

Fourth, true these occupants of the plots are dead, but shouldn't they and their contractual rights be acknowledged and protected? I think so!

Fifth, what about the trauma induced in the relatives of these people? I don't want to over-estimate that, but I don't want to downplay it, either!
A lot of these folks ARE going to be immensely traumatized as a result of this!

Finally, you're an intelligent person, 'Wench'! I believe if you consider the matter, at the least, you'll see why I think it's so important!

[whereisgrandad]

Perhaps you should take an interest in cemetery practices in Dryden, NY. My grandfather's grave disappeared about 3 weeks after he was buried there. The interred have apparently been moved all over various cemeteries serving the Dryden region--or their burial plots have simply disappeared. The time period I'm referring to is, if I remember correctly, late fifties? Long time passing, but you will find that interested parties are still trying to locate the whereabouts of their dear departed remains.

[ajjaxtheleast]

Regardless of respecting employees that "take their work
home with them,,lets check out Anna Nichol Smith's plot.

"Grave diggers" didn't have that much to spare
but now this pretty much removes even
that little tad.

Time to see about ALL cemetaries!!

It's doubtful that this is the only "bad" cemetary around.

How many others are setting up nighttime shops in
pitch black cemetaries digging up caskets, shinning a
light,,,"oh yes!,,This ones a keeper, whatta'ya think, Ned"?.

No matter what one's job is, at night before sleeping, your
successes and failures of the day are recounted and
mental images there-of flash through your mind,,,
to say that these dudes were of a different
cut is a gross understatement.

[riddelup]

These people do not look like the masterminds in this affair. Is there more?

[taxchurches]

Obviously this comment was intended to shock and offend, but at the same time, there is a grain of truth in it. The recent idiocy with Michael Jackson's corpse is a prime example of America's death fetish. Funerals are a disgusting, superstitious practice and cemeteries are an obsolete waste of space.

[IrishWench01]

brianbwb-2009 ...

I don't discount the severity or the emotional impact of this crime. I do feel that the outrage is a bit over the top with all of the things going on that don't seem to get much of a rise. I see young boys, husbands, fathers, sons dying in a senseless undertaking who receive very little coverage or acknowledgement. I suppose I should blame the press rather than the population because they have more appreciation for the glamour and sensational than the ugliness of everyday happenings.

I will add that I am against capital punishment for crimes that only involve financial or emotional loss. Years ago in a criminal justice class I took, we visited a women's prison in Canon City Colorado. I still remember the shock and disgust I felt upon learning that the majority of women with the longest and harshest sentences wee those that had stolen large amounts of money, commited fraud, passed bad checks habitually or counterfeited payroll checks. Thos ethat had commited assault or murder has much lighter sentences.

This from a population that professes vehemently to value life.

[brianbwb-2009]

To irishWench01

Perhaps if you consider it a theft of property that the victims paid a substantial sum for, and for whom the loss is more than just the money, then it could be considered a capital theft. The price of the gravesite probably constitutes a felony, so for, say 300 felonies the punishment should be....

[IrishWench01]

You think the disturbance of the dead is worth the cost of a human life? The dead are more sacred than the living. If so then I suppose you could view that as a reward to the living to be put to death. Curious logic.