Entertainer of the Week: John Karr

Groucho Marx said it’s got to the point where you can’t make fun of anybody except man-eating sharks. He forgot about one other class: victims of prison rape. California Attorney General got his five minutes of fame back in 2001 when he said of Enron’s Ken Lay: “I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says, 'Hi, my name is Spike, honey.'" Lockyer issued the predictable half-hearted apology (but high marks to Tom G. Palmer for calling him on it).

But that is ancient history. One of the many distasteful facts about this week's new uproar over JonBenet Ramsey is that it occasions a new round of prison-rape self-indulgence. As John Karr wings his way home from Bangkok (we can assume he carries no liquids?), a troll of the blogosphere produces this:

Mem, commenting at Drezner, says: “If it is true what he's saying he'll get his justice in prison as a child molester...” (followed by my response)

Possum says: “Welcome home, Mr. Karr. I’m sure a federal prison won’t be half as bad as some Thai holding pen.”

The Monkey Lab says: “This guy deserves a lot worst than he's going to get I'm sure.”

Low Rollin’ says: “Like I said, I hope he ends up on death row. It's the next best thing to what should really happen.”

Put aside the fact that the poor sod appears not even to be guilty, let’s repeat: prison rape is not entertainment. It violates long and deeply-held principles of common decency. It is (okay, it should be) cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment (look here and here).

This shouldn’t be news. Stop Prison Rape is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to spotlighting the problem. The Justice Departments released a useful study last year. Dan Bell from the Nation has the detailed goods here.