Great headline

[webofevil]

Evening Standard today: Police say Suffolk strangler is ‘out of control’

What, because killing only a couple of prostitutes would show a commendable level of restraint?

Comments

[strictlytrue.livejournal.com]

There was some similar "well, duh" line in the papes the other day along the lines of "Police say prostitutes are the key to identity of killer". Not quantity surveyors, then. Good to know Inspector Knacker is on the right track...

[chiller.livejournal.com]

I was talking to one of our lawyers yesterday about this and had almost exactly that conversation.

Him: "I don't think he's sane."
Me: "He's killed five people."
Him: "Five ... that's crossed the line."
Me: "Yah. Three's ok. But five... is excessive."

He then made the usual comments about "getting these poor girls off the streets". I ground my teeth.

Yes please! All we ladies would like to be tucked up safely in our homes at all times! With big bars on the windows to keep us safe! And none of us would like the freedom to make questionable choices about what we do with our lives, neither would we like to be afforded the protection of the law from murderers if we exercise that freedom!

Just keep us safe pleeeeeease!

Mmmmm. Utopia.

[webofevil.livejournal.com]

Up to a point, Lady Copper. If these were rent boys being killed, the same principle of "getting them off the streets" would apply. Any kind of prostitution on the streets carries attendant risks and is inherently less desirable than if these people could work somewhere legal and safe. I'm not sure it's much of a cause to fiercely defend people's "right" to end up on the lowest rung of society's ladder; surely it would be better to campaign to give them a leg up?

[chiller.livejournal.com]

I phrased it badly. His comment was along the lines of: "What are those lovely young ladies doing in that line of work anyway? They should be rescued and given office jobs!"

Rather than the eminently sensible: "Gosh, shouldn't they all be under armed guard to avoid the whole being dead thing at this moment in time?"

I do appreciate the underlying kindness of his statement. But it's the sort of good intention that'd make a great paving slab.

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

Somewhere else, I can't remember where, a poster alluded to some signs in the 1970s, during a spate of serial murders, that asked all men to stay inside after 8:30 p.m. in order to allow women to go about their business without having to worry about men being out.

[amuchmoreexotic.livejournal.com]

I support your right to be a crack whore.

[amuchmoreexotic.livejournal.com]

In fact I would defend it to the death.

[chiller.livejournal.com]

I am so wearing the right dress for it.

[pageantmalarkey.livejournal.com]

By favourite obvious statement they keep making is that he dislikes women for some reason.

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

I dunno, maybe he's a property developer undergoing some radical gentrification of the area.

[psychonomy.livejournal.com]

He's a bit of a handful, isn't he?