He wasn’t on suicide watch, which is constant. According to the BBC this half-hour thing is standard for protective custody.
Imagine the tombstone:
(I checked Wikipedia for his birthdate, BTW.)
Right. Nothing in what is known of the case seems to have pointed to him as a suicide threat.
Still, he deserved to experience prolonged imprisonment.
Saved the taxpayers of Ohio a heap of money either way, on the bright side.
Yeah, as much as I hate the guys’ actions and would like him to suffer, I’m happier he’s gone and done with. An available room for one more violent criminal now.
As an Ohio taxpayer, I think he made the right call and fully support him in his decision.
Sure, he was rational to the end. No psychosis there.
I can’t say I disagree with his embrace of a de rigueur lifestyle.
As usual, I celebrate no one’s death (and am fairly unique in that). On the other hand, I can’t help but think that if they’d listened to the Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, this might have been avoided; surely if Officer Obie could see that a man might hang himself for litterin’, the correctional officers of the State of Ohio might see that a man could hang himself for imprisoning ladies for many years. (To say nothing of knocking himself out with the toilet seat so he could fall in the toilet and drown.)
I’m not gonna celebrate his death. That fucker should have rotted in prison for the rest of his life. As far as I’m concerned he cheated justice. Fuck him.
"Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee. "
–John Donne
I am neither celebrating nor grieving (nor, John Donne notwithstanding, am I particularly diminished). I am, however, grateful that he has saved the state a lot of money by taking his own life. No great loss, IMO.
yes and no. They still have the same amount of jailers and the same number of jail cells. They’re saving a bit on food, but I bet they throw away each day more than Castro would have eaten.
But some a lot more than others, right?
I think it’s fair to say Castro has escaped justice. If the prison staff enabled it in any way, that’s reprehensible.
I was just discussing this with a friend and he said it’ll save the state about $750,000. Whee! No cite for that at all (he had to leave for a meeting) but along with what Procrustus said, sounds plausible.
I’m hoping that since he’s Puerto Rican that he and his family are very Catholic and the suicide gets him extra special worse treatment in hell.
I am opposed to the death penalty, and to extra-judicial punishments, but Castro is one of those criminals I just can’t bring myself to care about, given what he did.
Right, I see his passing as not so much an immediate savings but as the removal of a placeholder that frees up space for a future applicant, thus diminishing even if only temporarily the need for future construction and staffing. Ariel Castro is no longer viewed compassionately in terms of the loss of human potential but instead as little more than a number, a statistic, an integer important only in the fact it’s a fraction of a multiple.
For Castro, who mindful of th’ unhonour’d Dead
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;
If chance, by lonely contemplation led,
No kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate.
Hell, I wish more violent unredeemable criminals would off themselves and save us the money. I wish every spree killer would just turn the gun on himself. I wish everyone who ever picked up a gun and decided to murder their spouse and children and maybe their entire family would have just turned the gun on themselves before they started it all.
Suicide isn’t always a bad thing…in the above cases it would save many lives.
I predict there will be a L&O:SVU episode where the suicide turns out to be a murder and the detectives will argue with each other over how much they should care. But then they will discover some evil corporation is responsible and they’ll be united once again.
Any word on the funeral…?
“…trash is what trash is; cussed to cussed…” flush