100 lashes on the paint job

In the 19th century, humiliation had a name - the cat o' nine tails. (If you don't know what it looks like, see the link.)

Mutinous sailors in the Royal Navy, hapless convicts in the Australian penal colonies, slaves, and other unfortunates felt its bite. The subject would be tied to "the triangle," an upright wooden frame, and given anywhere from 10 to 500 lashes from the cat by a professional flogger, depending on the infraction. Typically, a crowd of the subject's peers would be assembled to bear witness, "pour encourager les autres." Afterward, the subject's only medical treatment would be a bucket of brine splashed on the back.

I think most of us would agree that the cat o' nine tails is a barbaric device when used in this way, but I see no reason to forget about its symbolic value - the rich cultural heritage of humiliation and degradation that it offers us, at least those of us who live in Commonwealth countries.

I propose that when a criminal act centres around the use of an important tool or personal possession (e.g. you ran a bunch of red lights in your muscle car; you used your computer to hack the school server and change your phys ed grade; you blasted your stereo every night for a month and disturbed your neighbours; you ran over a family of endangered otters with your jet-ski), the cat o' nine tails be applied, publicly and generously, to that object as one component of your sentence.

This would require a special reinforced cat o' nine tails designed to damage objects made of metal, plastic, and wood rather than a human body.

So, take the stereo blasting example. The case goes to court, the verdict is guilty, and the judge calls in a flogger (toothless, burly, wild-eyed, and dressed in an early 19th-century British army uniform complete with red coat) to deliver 100 lashes to the stereo equipment on the lawn in front of the apartment building as all the other tenants look on.

The point is, the cat o' nine tails is a powerful cultural symbol of humiliation, in addition to its basic destructive qualities. The stereo blaster guy would not simply have a mangled stereo as punishment, but also the deep shame of the flogging itself.

I like this sentencing idea particularly for crimes involving cars, because people *love* their cars, invest a lot of time in them, involve them in personal identity, feel pride about them, and of course, use them in a public way. People in your community would see your flogged car, comment on it, remember it, and judge you. There would be a powerful social deterrent at work here.

I see the cat o' nine tails more as a punishment for unthinking jackasses than for arch-criminals or people who commit crimes in the heat of the moment. It's the serial jackass who truly needs to be humiliated in front of people and made to understand that bad children have their toys taken away. Or at least flogged.

I have included an illustration of my own devising. Please see link.