Policeman in Turcotte case kills himself
The first policeman on the scene of the Guy Turcotte child murders has killed himself. Patrick Bigras was an officer with the Sûreté du Québec, and that force is in mourning; the mother of Turcotte’s kids has also made a statement.
Douglas 23:50 on 2019-07-22 Permalink
So sad. 10 years ago I once passed by a house with strange note written in front. I came up to read it and it was a suicide note. I called the cops right after and they broke into the house after reading the note.
1 min later the police leaves the house and tells me to leave the area. Police officer told me the man inside hung himself in his bedroom.
Police officer was clearly distraught and I can’t imagine what it is like walking into a scene like that and living with those images years later. And in this case 2 dead kids.
RIP
Bill Binns 09:12 on 2019-07-23 Permalink
Yet Turcotte himself had breakfast this morning, probably read the paper and checked another day off his wait to be paroled in a few years. He has also enjoyed quite a bit of out on the street freedom (and bike rides) since murdering his children and damn near got away with the whole thing. It’s enough to make me hope I’m wrong about religion.
Kate 09:37 on 2019-07-23 Permalink
We’re not in Turcotte’s head, thankfully. He killed his kids, and he’s lost a profession that required years of intensive study, and he knows he’s done. I don’t imagine anyone is especially friendly to him in prison, either. There’s nothing else we can do to him that he hasn’t already done to himself.
Bill Binns 09:47 on 2019-07-23 Permalink
Don’t think for a minute that this monster lives in daily torment, haunted by the things he has done. If he did we would have received the welcome news that he found a way to off himself in his cell by now. The least we could do is reduce the chance that he will do this again to 0% by locking him up forever.
As it is, there is a very real chance he could be living with children again in the not too distant future.
Ian 11:45 on 2019-07-23 Permalink
Bill, I don’t think you understand that prison in Canada is meant to be rehabilitative, not punitive.
Whatever Turcotte’s psychological damage is, he’s still a human being capable of being helped. We’re not talking a clearly demented, manipulative person who has scammed the system like, say, Karla Homolka.
Ian 11:49 on 2019-07-23 Permalink
P.S. : A ham is hung; a man is hanged.
meezly 15:55 on 2019-07-23 Permalink
Turcotte had the gall to appeal for an earlier parole because the judge gave him an extra long sentence due to the paritcular heinousness of his crime, which I feel is worse than anything Homolka (is known) to have done. I’m no psychologist, but I cannot see how such a person can be rehabilitated.
Blork 17:48 on 2019-07-23 Permalink
Oh FFS. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the two cases can see a significant difference if they choose to think beyond the first level.
Turcott’s crime was indeed heinous, but there is significant evidence that he was literally out of his mind when he did it. As in, he was insane, suffering mental collapse.
Homolka, on the other hand, was completely sane and rational when she (a) participated in the drugging and rape of her own sister, and (b) participated in the kidnapping, rape, murder, and dismemberment of at least two teenagers.
One person was out of their mind. That person can possibly be rehabilitated. The other person was sane but likely socio- or psychopathic (which is not the same as being “insane”). Not so clear that can be rehabilitated.
Ginger Baker 19:36 on 2019-07-23 Permalink
Vengeance isn’t justice.
Eye for an eye thinking literally dates back to the Code of Hammurabi… have we not evolved since Ancient Mesopotamia?
Nothing can undo what Turcotte or Li or Homolka did. The idea having the state kill them will somehow set everything right is naive and foolish.
The death penalty does not prevent crime; if it did America would have no prisoners, no criminals.
The conservative estimate is that 4% of Americans on death row are innocent.
This means that since the death penalty was brought back forty some odd years ago, it is entirely likely that completely innocent people have been murdered by the American state, and the truth will likely never come out.
Bringing back the death penalty appeals to our lowest and basest instincts, and the likelihood of it being used inappropriately is far too high to be tolerated.
It is always better to let a few undesirable people live with their guilt and the effect of group hatred than to open the door to state-sponsored murder. Innocent people have a greater right to life than the vengeful have to their naive and myopic sense of justice.
Bill Binns 08:59 on 2019-07-24 Permalink
There is a hell of a big gap between the death penalty and taking unsupervised bike rides through city parks or being pronounced “cured” by activist mental health professionals and simply set free with a prescription that’s supposed to keep the bad thoughts from coming back.
Personally, although I have no moral qualms about it, I am not a big booster of the death penalty. I don’t think it’s worth all the whining and endless appeals. Criminals can be just as disappeared by a real life sentence as they are by the death penalty. If only real life sentences were ever handed out.
meezly 10:02 on 2019-07-24 Permalink
Hmm, I keep thinking how many knife stabs you need to inflict on your two kids in order to plead insanity, 4? 47?. Witnessing the murder scene was enough to traumatize a police officer for years, yet Turcotte seems unfazed. When he was hospitalized, there was the nurse who said that Turcotte admitted he did this to piss off his wife – that must have been a few hours after his massacre – was he still out of his mind then? There were other smaller details like how he may have drank the windshield fluid after the murders if he really wanted to off himself, he would have drank bleach). So FFS, there is also evidence showing cold-blooded calculation in his motive which was to punish his wife and make her suffer, and their kids were a means to that end. Of course he would try to plead temporary insanity for a reduced sentence. And he almost got away with it if not for the second trial where the judge was not so sympathetic, who noted that Turcotte was more concerned with whether he had enough funds for his defense rather than deal with the consequence of committing infanticide.
Ginger Baker 12:24 on 2019-07-24 Permalink
Bill –
You might not like the end result, but real life isn’t Law & Order.
This idea of ‘activist’ mental health professionals is nonsense. Nothing is gained by rehabilitating someone who isn’t ready for it. Think about what you’re saying.
The shrink(s) involved would never be allowed to work again, they would do permanent, irreperable damage to their entire profession.
As medical doctors, they have a responsibility to do no harm. Some are considered officers of the court on top of that.
You honestly think PhDs and medical doctors are going to play fast and loose with their careers/professions knowing if they’re wrong they’ll never work again, and potentially set their entire profession back?
No way.
How many murderers released early went on to kill again in Canada?
Can you think of even one person?
Don’t drink the koolaid of the prison industrial complex… crime rates are in constant decline, violent crimes are in constant decline, Canada has a low recidivism rate and it’s entirely likely we’ll soon have to start closing prisons. Rehabilitative systems work far better than all other prison system types.
As an adult, it’s important to understand sometimes bad things happen to good people and there’s no satisfactory explanation. If a prisoner can be rehabilitated, then they ought to be. Otherwise they are a (furhter) burden to the state.
Spending $100,000 per annum to keep a prisoner incarcerated makes no sense when we’re having a hard time providing the poor with a living wage.