Sentencing In The Ivory Coast

[torn asunder]

http://reuters.excite.com/article/20061023...ISONERS-DC.html

this has got to be the stupidest bit of sentencing i've seen in ages...

Roland Guy Bouabre, serving a 3-year sentence for stealing a bicycle, courted Emilie Yobouet, who was given a one-year sentence for kidnapping a child, while he was delivering groceries for her to cook.

three years for a bike, but only one for a kid!?

thoughts?

[phee]

Yikes

[BrassFusion]

There were probably two kids riding the bicycle when he stole it.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

um.... another reason to love my country.

[phee]

um.... another reason to love my country.

indeed

[ZhukovCodeslinger]

Having just finished writing an article on this region (Western africa; Liberia and Sierra Leone's civil wars)... ill say that I am shocked and appalled. (NOT THAT I AGREE WITH ANY OF THIS)

I cant believe that they are actually punishing people in those countries for anything.... (10s of thousands of forced amputations and rapes go unpunished because the perpitrators are 9-16 years old).

Oh, and if you were not aware before, females are not worth much in the region. They probably only punished the guy because with the girl kidnapped, she could not cook for her family and they had to pay someone else to cook for them... Plus... when they look at the bike, they see an Item that has to be made overseas and shipped there and then bought with money. girls come free... infact there are more of them than are "needed"

boys on the otherhand are valuable. You can send them off to fight as "mercenaries" at 9 or 10 and they will send back pay or plunder. Girls cant really be sold there since if someone wants one, they typically kidnapp her (and may or may not kill the rest of the family and steal everything they own before burning down the house)

These are countries where someone can stand and the street and scream "that woman is a witch and she stole my penis".... which will result in a publically approved lynching. (how else do you get your penis back once a witch has stolen it...

Oh, and one final bit. They belive in Ju Ju/Voodoo and sacrifice accordingly to prevent demons and spirits from getting them.

[creatureofthenyte]

Hey, OJ Simpson killed two innocent people and didnt get squat. Justice sucks sometimes

[pomba gira]

can't judge w/out knowing the circumstances, might have been his own child for all I know. And please don't think I'm in any way equating an object in value with a human, but in that part of the world a bicycle represents a means of making a living, not a recreational item as it usually is in the western world.