New Hampshire social workers ignored a litany of warning signs that a 5-year-old girl was being physically abused by her father prior to the child’s death, the slain girl’s mother alleged in a negligence lawsuit filed Friday against the state.
Crystal Sorey says the state’s Division for Children, Youth and Families failed to act on numerous reports from multiple people about Harmony Montgomery’s welfare after father Adam Montgomery was awarded custody of the girl in February 2019.
Adam Montgomery was sentenced in May to a minimum of 56 years in prison after he was convicted of murdering his daughter and moving her corpse around for months before disposing of it. Police believe Harmony was killed by him nearly two years before she was reported missing in 2021. Her body was never found.
I understand the revenge fantasy, but advocating for the public torture of someone is fucked up, even if they are a monstrous piece of shit like this guy.
What are you supposed to do with people like that? He punched his child to death between a methadone clinic and a McDonald’s because she wet her seat. He bragged about “bouncing her off every wall in the house”. He moved her body around for months, and based on the locations he chose, it almost seems like taunting than “how do I get rid of this body”.
Can someone like that actually be rehabilitated, or can they serve as an example of what happens to monstrous pieces of shit like that? Like, normally I’m for rehab, but I’m not sure he can be rehabbed.
I doubt it. Which is why I’m a fan of letting them disappear forever in a prison, and never have the opportunity ever again to harm a child.
Also doubt it.
These sort of people will not recognize their own actions as being wrong, and they also wont “learn” from the punishment of others.
So the only thing public torture would do is provide a spectacle for those who enjoy it. It won’t deter anything. There used to be public hangings, stocks, etc - which also was not stopping the crimes from happening.
Yeah, you’re right. Tbh I’d rather if they were gone so they don’t have a chance to escape and rejoin the real world, but there just isn’t a great solution to the problem that doesn’t end up with others suffering in some way. The people who do this kinda shit either A) do it knowing they’ll eventually get caught and believe the risk is worth the reward, or B) they’re so disconnected from reality that nothing can deter them from following whatever fucked up thoughts pop into their heads. A) knows exactly what they’re doing and are doing it anyway, while B) is basically an animal with human intelligence at that point. You ain’t stopping either one of them.
Unfortunately true. And the reason I personally land with prison is that enough innocent people end up there that I can’t support the death penalty. I actually just referenced a convicted murderer just a bit ago, whose conviction was overturned in no small part due to bad police work.
The best prevention, IMO, has nothing to do with the justice system, and a lot note to do with better social services. Counseling before something terrible and irreversible happens, better support for single parents, or even social workers/police/etc doing their job in this case, would have improved things drastically - a little girl would still be alive.
I can’t think of a better option than that.
Yeah, I mean, again, I’m usually for rehabilitation, prevention, counseling, etc. because I know there are a lot of innocent people; either innocent of action (they didn’t do it, were coerced, or the law was unjust or unjustly applied), or innocent because (imo) they had good reason (like stealing food or assaulting/killing your abusive spouse).
I also know there are plenty of people who could be kind, caring people, they just never had the chance to not be a criminal due to their upbringing; and they absolutely deserve to have a chance at rehabilitation.
But then you end up with these fucks. Just… What the fuck.
Yup totally get it. This is a point far beyond rehabilitation to me, where the only sane solution is to never allow that person to interact with the public again.
I have zero ability to comprehend any of their “reasoning”, and even if they change their behavior, I don’t see how it could possibly be worth the risk to the public to ever let them be free.
Its just… So far beyond anything understandable to do something like this.
I think I can relate, somewhat. It’s not easy, constantly being rational in the face of evil depravity. A just mind seeking a clean pattern of cause and effect can’t be blamed when it starts asking “where is the sword of the innocent”, and I personally get how that morphs to “Ok, will somebody give me the sword?”.
I’m there myself today, on other news. Beware the thoughts, however. There’s a difference between wanting to wield a sword to protect and one to punish; one is swift and necessary, the other opens the window to festering and becoming the abyss.
I wouldn’t weep at a swift and ignominious end now, and I certainly would personally swing down that figurative blade and go to sleep soundly but never with the idea the monster could be made to comprehend if I taint myself to the same level of depravity, best remain a monster-lite. Because even that course of action I’d take is not without its own brand of reprehensible in the just world I’d rather live in.
Very poetic, and yes. You’re right.
Edit: (I’m being serious btw, you write very well; I just don’t know what else to say aside from what I’ve said to the other commenters).
If it makes you feel better, he’ll likely have a target on his back in prison, as people who hurt children are supposedly not well-liked in there either. So he’ll be living in constant fear and paranoia.
Not really, again, this isn’t really about revenge; it’s more like, what would it take to make these kinds of people stop acting this way. Someone else made the point that, at the end of the day, they’re breaking the law anyway. The law hasn’t ever been, nor will likely ever be, enough to stop people like that. As such, a punishment like that probably wouldn’t do anything except make cruelty socially acceptable (it might actually backfire).
sigh