It’s a terrifying story for any parent. Although we all know the majority of attacks
on children happen with people they know, the stranger-abduction is the
bogeyman lurking in our subconscious closets.
Mainly because there’s almost nothing we can do to prevent it. No matter how much preparation you try to do,
children are trusting innocents.
There’s been a lot of speculation about what will happen
since the woman involved, Ms. McClintic, has changed her story since her
initial arrest. At first she claimed her
boyfriend, Mr. Rafferty, orchestrated the entire thing and killed the little girl. At trial, she has testified that she is the
one who struck the final blows. The
boyfriend claims McClintic was the one who planned the abduction and that he
did nothing wrong.
It literally beggars the imagination. The best story he could come up with is to
claim he knew there was an abducted little girl in the back of his car and he
did nothing? Neither of them deserve to
see the light of day again, in my opinion.
Neither of them has the moral judgment to be anything other than a
danger to society. If you’re too stupid
or easily manipulated to call the police or otherwise interfere when you know a
major crime is taking place, then you can’t be trusted without constant
supervision. Or you’re arrogant enough
to think we’re all stupid enough to buy that idiotic story.
My thoughts are with Tori’s family. I hope they get the closure they deserve,
especially after having to listen to all the graphic descriptions at
trial. I hope they get the help they’ll
need to heal. Nothing can ever make it
okay that their daughter is gone. But
they can have whatever comfort they can glean from knowing those who hurt her
are behind bars.
But there’s one more thing that bothers me about this
trial. It’s something that bothered me
about the Bernardo-Holmolka trials and I’m seeing it again here. When a man and a woman pair up to commit a
heinous crime, there seems to be an assumption that the woman is somehow duped
or coerced into participating. The woman
often receives a lighter sentence than her male counterpart. This bothers me because I believe women can
be just as cruel and callous as men, sometimes even more so. Gender doesn’t automatically lead to empathy
and goodwill.
I believe the assumption is a holdover from the days when
women weren’t considered responsible for their actions. Men were responsible for their wives and
daughters. Or women simply weren’t
considered bright enough to be deliberately malicious.
Both McClintic and Rafferty are equally responsible for
Tori’s death. I’d be pleased if they
were both declared dangerous offenders and denied any chance of parole for the
rest of their lives.
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