This is something as of late that has begun to annoy me in the extreme.
The plea of "Extenuating Circumstances", it's used for essentially everything. Read the paper. Man kills drug dealer to raise money for mortgage - the mortgage and the fact that it was a drug dealer somehow both "Extenuating Circumstances". Kid stabs 5 people to death at a party because he didn't take his meds. Someone kills partner because they claim they were abusive. Girl shoves old lady onto train track because she was high on meth.
I hate to say it, but these are not "Extenuating Circumstances". Needing money does not justify killing someone. Not taking your meds or poor mental health does not excuse stabbing people. Killing your partner because "they were abusive" or shoving an old lady to serious injury because you're high are not "Extenuating Circumstances".
The very principles of justice are undermined by every criminal appearing in front of a judge and pleading they're the victim.
Police - ironically - are the worst - their very job has been deemed the "Extenuating Circumstance" that acquits them time and again of murder.
And this, just in today: https://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/former-mru-hockey-captain-acquitted-of-drug-induced-attack-on-female-professor-in-her-home. 4 Grams is not that big a dose, and - sorry - you took the 'shrooms, you did the crime, now do the time.
I really have to stop reading the news...
I'm as liberal as it gets, but this neo-liberalism, it's killing me...