PIRATES KILL MERCHANT SEAMEN
I say this as it seems that we are going to be subjected to a flood of sympathy stories about this poor little pirate:
His mother said she was horrified when she saw a photo of him being brought handcuffed into 26 Federal Plaza on Monday, a smile on his face."The last time I saw him he was in his school uniform," the mother, Adar Abdirahman Hassan, 40, told the Associated Press from her home in Galkayo."He took all his books the day he disappeared, except one, I think, and did not come back."She said her son should not be held responsible for the Maersk hijacking."He was brainwashed. People who are older than him outwitted him, people who are older than him duped him," she said."I cried when I saw the picture of him," Hassan said of the arrest photo. "Relatives brought a copy of the picture to me. Surely he is telling himself now, 'My mother's heart is broken.'" - NY Daily News
You know what. This kid has the very same sob story as all the other Somali pirates. It's just that many of the others have gotten ransom money to release the ships they captured and the sailors they terrorized. Now they are living the big live as heros at home. This guy just wasn't that lucky. He was however lucky enough not to be with his pirate buddies when they all got bullets in their heads. As far as I am concerned, this kid should get punished to the point where it is clear that the lucky ones were the pirates who dies at the hands of the snipers.
For starters, don't fall for the talk that these pirates really didn't hurt anyone. How would you like it if your wife/husband was kidnapped on their way home from work and you get a message that you'll never see them again unless you pony up a million dollar ransom. Ransoms are being paid because there is the threat that these sailors will never be seen again unless a ransom is paid. Many sailors have been held for months. Some have apparently been abandoned by the vessel owners and their own country. No telling what will happen to these sailors once the pirates get tired of holding them. As it is, they are slowly starving to death.
So let's treat this pirate right. Convict him of piracy in NY and then take him to the edge of lower Manhattan and hang him at the water's edge in Battery Park near the Merchant Marine Memorial. (Or hang him from a yardarm from one of the sailships at South Street Seaport.) If that is too horrific, how about taking him out to Execution Rocks in Long Island Sound.
There one other way to handle this pirate. How about holding him and demanding the release of all the merchant ships and seamen currently held by pirates off Somalia. If the Somalis are so concerned about this 'kid', they can show it by letting all their hostages go. They should have to do that just to keep him from the death penalty. As for getting him back. I do not think so.
Note: There is some dispute over whether this pirate is under 18 or not. I think it makes no difference. At least not since the point that he picked up a rifle.
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