What should happen to the sociopathic thugs that prey on the weakest members of society, particularly defenseless schoolchildren?
It used to be that we were a sane society and recognized that such people should, at the very least, be locked up for good, unable to ever again prey on the defenseless. And that’s the base level of what treatment should be afforded them: others would say that such sociopathic thugs should be hanged.
Well, 70-year-old Frederick Woods was certainly deserving of such treatment. He was one of three men who committed an almost unspeakably horrific crime against an entire busful of children and their driver. Here’s what the Daily Wire reports he and his accomplices did:
In 1976, a small farming town in northern California found itself in the national spotlight in the midst of a harrowing story. A bus full of 26 children and their driver were kidnapped by three men and buried alive in a truck trailer.
[…]The three kidnappers, Richard and James Schoenfeld along with Woods, kidnapped 26 children and one adult from a school bus. They also planned on demanding $5 million before letting anyone go, a plan that was reportedly inspired by the 1971 Clint Eastwood film “Dirty Harry.”
Fortunately, however, the kids and their driver were able to escape. Again according to the Daily Wire:
Bus driver Ed Ray had a plan of his own to get himself and the children out. He along with 14-year-old student Michael Marshall removed a man-hole cover that was blocking a hole in the trailer then began digging themselves out while their kidnappers were asleep. It took hours for them to reach the surface, and the victims spent a total of 16 hours underground.
Ray helped all 26 children out of the trailer, and they walked to the rock quarry where they were met by shocked workers. Police arrived and took the victims to a local jail where they were all examined by doctors and interviewed by police.
Thank goodness! So, the kids and driver made it out of the situation alive. Notably, however, that was far from a foregone conclusion: they were buried deep underground by a gang of deranged, greedy thugs, left in a terrifying situation where they could easily have suffocated if not for the thinking and courage of Mr. Ray.
Even more importantly, Mr. Woods was in no way responsible for their escape: he didn’t go against his gang and help the kids out, so there seems to be no reason why he should be treated mercifully. Rather, it seems far more prudent to keep him locked up where he can’t ever capture and bury children alive again.
But, of course, that’s not what a soft on crime judge wanted to do, as CNN reports:
A 70-year-old man imprisoned for the 1976 kidnapping of a bus full of children has been approved for parole, according to spokesperson Joe Orlando of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
[…]The proposed parole decision by the hearing panel will become final within 120 days. After the parole decision becomes final, the governor has 30 days to review the decision. He can either allow the decision to stand or refer it to the full board for review. The governor can only reverse parole decisions if the inmate was convicted of murder, which Woods wasn’t.
Good lord. Woods imprisoned kids underground, leaving an entire bus full of school kids in a situation where they easily could have died. Letting him back out on parole seems the peak of insanity, a decision with an impermissible likelihood of ending horribly. Woods should be treated like the sociopath he seems, not with kid gloves.
By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.
This story syndicated with permission from Gen Z Conservative