Burn The Monster! Burn The Monster!

It's official - Dennis Ferguson is a 'monster' and the mob whipped up by the media and others is getting nasty:

The news came as protesters yesterday stepped up their attacks on the child sex monster and those trying to help him. Volunteers for the church-based Prison Fellowship Australia were harassed as they left the property where Ferguson is being housed. In one case, a volunteer was almost driven off the road.

Chaplains working for the group also have been advised against visiting prisoners in jail because of the level of anger among other convicts surrounding the release of Ferguson and his relocation to the government-owned rural property. In other disturbing displays of anger, two molotov cocktails were thrown at Ferguson's hide-out, one of which ignited, causing minor damage to the house. No one was hurt.

Child protection campaigner Hetty Johnston is one of the others but she seems increasingly like the child who, playing with matches, has set fire to the bed and is desperately trying to beat down the flames before mum and dad find out:

Ms Johnston said that after alleged sightings of Ferguson in public she was fearful people who vaguely resembled Ferguson could be "beaten up".

Monsters exist only in children's imaginations. To dub Ferguson a monster is to give him a status he doesn't deserve.

Ferguson is simply a man suffering a mental sickness our society chooses to deal with as criminal behaviour. If the mob wants him and others like him treated differently, they should lobby their MPs, not harrass and commit violence.

As for the media, it's amusing that they (and Johnston) are calling for a Megan's Law but their hysterical rabble-rousing may have nixed such a move by exposing themselves and the population as too immature to handle such responsibility.

For the record, I believe Ferguson should be locked up permanently but in a mental institution as an incurable recidivist exhibiting a mental disorder rather than in a prison as a criminal.

-- Nick