The psycho rapist freakshow conundrum, Mark Morford

[madokie]

The psycho rapist freakshow conundrum
The Dugard story asks: How do you make sense of the ugliest abuses of man?
By Mark Morford

As a passionately jaded observer of news media and the insane human spectacle it is so painfully wont to wallow in, I find there are always a number of choices when it comes to analyzing something like the horrific Jayee Lee Dugard/Phillip Garrido saga, that sickening kidnapping/rape/confinement tale spanning 18 years, multiple offspring and countless layers of psychological torment often too disgusting and sad to ponder for long without a book of poetry, a puppy and a large glass of Scotch.

Nevertheless, it remains one of the more fascinating and revealing of questions: How do you parse it? What the hell do you do with such bizarre and soul-curdling information? Through what sort of lens do you observe, take in, try to make even a passing hint of sense of such stories? Do you even try?

Maybe you take the easy route. Maybe you, like millions of others, go for the knee-jerk, right-wing reaction and simply say, "Great, another psycho rapist madman. Let's just kill Phillip Garrido right now and be done with it. Or maybe throw him in prison and let him suffer for a while first and then inject him, hang him and zap him with 2,000 volts all at once because he's obviously an unspeakable monster who doesn't deserve another breath on this planet."

Easy, right? It's a hugely typical, mindless, even comfortable sort of all-American pseudo-cowboy response, allowing all sorts of bogus calls for "justice" and retribution while doing absolutely nothing to offer perspective and help you walk down the street with just a little less taste of fear and misanthropy in your mouth. But hey, it's what we do. ...

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(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/09/02/notes090209.DTL&nl=fix)