White Bear "Justice" Park

If we were to hear that someone tortured, killed a child and on top of that recorded it, we would be repulsed and would want that person to suffer the same if not more than what the child suffered. As said in class, we would come up with some sort of medieval punishments. In the film, White Bear, we see this happen. Victoria, who is the main character of the story, recorded her boyfriend torturing and killing a little girl. Because of this, Victoria is tortured, just like the little girl was tortured, every day as punishment and at the end of the day, her memory is erased, not remembering the crime she committed and the punishment. While she gets punished, there are spectators recording and taking photos, as her punishment is a show at a place called White Bear Justice Park. This the film, she receives all the hate for the crime, but why? As discussed in class, could it be because she is supposed to have motherly instincts and should have protected the child? Because she was a bystander?

    This is totally wrong. Yes, she did commit a crime, but why are they torturing without her knowing what she did. The point of punishment is for the person who did wrong to think about their actions and reduce the likelihood of them doing it again. In this case, she doesn’t remember what she did. She is basically a different person every single day. Is this really justice? A way to think of her as a different person when her memory is wiped and wakes up. Because of her vulnerability and confusion, we sympathize with her.

    It is very interesting how we think that recording and using her punishment as entertainment is cruel, but we do it all the time without thinking. Nowadays, if a fight starts, people take their phones out and record instead of stopping the fight. Even if we are not there, at the moment of the fight, we are also guilty of this. When the video pops up on our social media feed, we watch it. We find it entertaining.  Are we any better than the people who record the fight and do nothing? Are the spectators in the park any better than Victoria? Because they find recording Victoria entertaining, it makes me think that they are supportive of what Victoria did. If so, who will punish them? Who will punish us?