Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/04/manson-family-member-leslie-va.html
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I cannot be sure that Ms. Van Houten is capable of acting differently in the future
Fuck this guy. You cannot be sure of what any person is going to do.
This is 100% about image.
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Newsom basically says as much himself by listing “notorious” before “brutal” in the list of attributes that made the decision. gross.
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Why is this person and all the Manson group participants not labeled as a gang member? Or do I not understand the definition? Calling them a family seems wrong.
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Does Ms. Van Houten deserve to be paroled? That is a very interesting question, and the answer may well be yes.
Will Ms. Van Houten die in a jail cell? Yes. Because no one is ever going to parole her, due to the whole mystique of the Manson family… unless there is major political upswell of support for her parole, with about 50% of the population demanding her release, because that will end their political career and hurt their party.
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I believe it was how they self-identified.
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I could imagine it possibly happening under a principled progressive governor who was preparing to retire from politics. But if it wasn’t going to happen under Governor Brown it sure as heck isn’t going to happen under Newsom.
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This is Millhouse’s real Mom right?
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Just goes to show that if you’re going to participate in a mass murder, choose less famous victims and have a dull, unexciting guru. That way you’ll get parole eventually.
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decisions governing paroles should not be in the hands of elected officials.
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Hey, the paroled Squeeky Frome. She was a member of the Manson “family,” although she wasn’t convicted of the Tate/Labianca murders, just trying to kill President Ford.
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Why do you think so?
The mistake here is one of grammar. The name of their gang was “The Manson Family.” The judge (or more likely the clerk) made a typo and failed to use a capital F.
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She went to the same high school I would later attend, some 20 years later. One of my english teachers remembered her – she was quite intelligent and not criminal-like in the least, and it came to them as a complete shock and surprise when they heard the news.
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The relevant questions here are if she still poses any danger to society… but more importantly has her time in prison been productive toward reforming her? This is the best way to frame the issue at hand and it seems like she’s used her time to do as much. But its plainly obvious that anyone that is part of the establishment (regardless of political leaning) will likely see prison sentences as a means to punish people and not reform them. This is an attitude we have to push to change.
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That characterization is reserved for the most dangerous of our society, like juggalos.
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They were heady times…
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Color me surprised… sarcasm Isn’t this the cult that eats people?
She’s spent considerably more of her life inside prison than outside. Most of us are very different people at age 69 than at age 19. If this woman bears little resemblance to the young person who committed the murders then it’s a legitimate question as to whether it makes sense for her to remain in prison.
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The Parole Board actually has recommended her for parole three times. That, to me, is fairly telling that the people whose job it is to determine if a person still poses a threat have decided that no, she does not. Nearing 70, it is unlikely that she poses any real threat to the public at large. Certainly, there is always a chance that she might still be dangerous but, after 50 years, two college degrees, and loads of good behavior? It is likely that she doesn’t.
I don’t feel sorry for her, the whole Helter Skelter thing was horrific and I’m just old enough to remember the cultural reverberations from it. But Charles Manson was the mad guru/mastermind/cult leader that orchestrated things…and he’s dead. We need to remember that these folks were indoctrinated into a cult, not a gang, and it impacted them accordingly.
In the end, five people were sentenced to death (Leslie Van Houten included). California abolished the death penalty so…
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