Kaleem Washington, Crime, Blog 9

Kaleem Washington, Crime

Blog #9

Source: CNN

Soldier accused of killing Afghan citizens to stand trial

When you think of criminals what type of people do you envision?  Criminals are of every kind in our society, however; the norm physical description of a criminal in our society is more likely to be a “common-folk” than an upper class citizen.  What about those people we trust that will uphold the law, such as police officers and military personnel? In this article U.S. military soldiers have been accused of killing Afghan citizens as a sport, which is inhumane and an unjust act of criminal violence.  Armies have warned soldiers about “sport killing” where killing becomes a norm thing and executed as a first response due to the high stress and constant battle.  However, that does not make these actions of premeditated murder civil.  Spc. Jeremy Morlock, one of two military personnel, is charged with three counts of murder. He is accused of killing one Afghan civilian in January 2010 with a grenade and rifle; killing another in May 2010 in a similar manner; and shooting a third to death in February 2010.  Also, Pfc. Andrew Holmes is facing charges in the case, but both soldiers are part of a larger case that involves about 12 U.S. soldiers in what they called, “a conspiracy to kill Afghan civilians and cover it up, along with charges they mutilated corpses and kept grisly souvenirs.” 

These actions are appalling, however; I am not surprised because there has been other instance where military killings have been questioned and in most cases could have been avoided, but because of the constant fighting a high dislike of Afghans soldiers have been let loose from punishment.  However, it is good that these crimes are not being swept under the rug anymore because if it is ok for U.S. to do such actions, many more countries will then follow in this criminal action. Already governments are allowing government agencies and officials to illegally kill, but enough is enough and all criminals regardless of their status in society need adhere to the law.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/03/23/us.afghan.sport.killing/index.html