"But I'm not a bad person!"
“Everyone thinks I’m a bad person but I’m not a bad person.”
—- Actress/model/child-stealer Michelle Marie Gopaul, pleading guilty in a Toronto court to one count of child abduction. Gopaul, 25, was arrested Dec. 31 after police recovered one-month-old Roma Patel. The baby disappeared four hours earlier at a western Toronto production studio during a fake casting call set up by Gopaul to attract a baby for her to steal. The child”s parents had responded to an ad on Craigslist that offered $15,000 in compensation for allowing their baby to be used in a film.
Some have trouble with the concept of signature significance applied to ethical conduct, and this example should help. Signature significance is in play when someone does something that proves, all by itself, that the individual is unethical and lacks a sense of right and wrong, because a person who is ethical literally never would do such a thing.
Stealing a baby is an example of such conduct. Stealing a baby is not a mistake. If you steal a baby, you are a bad person, because good people don’t steal babies.
Thanks for the clarification, Michelle.
[And thanks for the idea to Drew Curtis’ invaluable website, Fark.]
Ethics Alarms 
If you steal a baby, you are a bad person, because good people don’t steal babies.
Now THAT’S a correctly-formed contrapositive.
–Dwayne
See? I can learn!
Kidnapping is a Federal offense punishable by life imprisonment.
Why do you think this law exists? Because every once in a while a GOOD person kidnaps an infant? Don’t think so, except in cases of mental problems on the part of the kidnapper. If the news stories are right this was a PLANNED FELONY, not the last-minute whim of some childless, mentally deranged woman.
So Michelle pleads guilty and protests that she’s not a “bad” person. Tough luck. Send her to prison. Make it a big deal. I know a lot of statistics show that the punishments people receive for breaking the law don’t stop others from doing the same thing, but this actress/model/child-stealer might be a good example.
After all the bull**** about poor, sick, NOT dying Enzo, why isn’t there more talk on this issue? Any parents out there who would forgive Michelle Gopaul for PLANNING TO STEAL THEIR CHILD AND THEN DOING IT???? Anyone think she’s a GOOD person?
I think the “Make a Wish Foundation” should “ask” (read: demand) that Gopaul (when she’s out of prison) take the family to Disney World to make up for the trauma. After all, as far as the child’s parents knew, their kid was either dying or dead, until it was found.
Aw, man.
I gotta go put something back.
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Jack: I’ve heard that same refrain from serial killers to corrupt politicians to degraded film stars. “I’m not a bad person”… often with tears in their eyes. This litany has long since come on par with such terms as “I don’t hate (fill in the blank) people”, “I made a mistake”, “I’m moving on”, “It’ll raise awareness of the issue”, “No controlling legal authority” and just plain “The Devil made me do it”! Whenever I hear one from some news source, I’m tempted to make a pagan sign to ward off evil… because that’s what’s coming.
I get so bored with teary-eyed offenders proclaiming in court, “I made a mistake…”
You didn’t make a mistake, genius, you committed a crime.
Got it? Probably not.
I find this woman unfortunately to be a sad representation of where the future
Is going. On her Twitter she is quite pleased with herself to be on TV!! For kidnapping !! A BABY!! I watched the episode and she demonstrated no rorse for what she did to the parents of this baby or to the “father” her ex boyfriend who for months believed he was to be a father only to have been manipulated and his emotions ripped apart. She keeps focusing on how she is a victim and how she had a hard to integrating into society because we institutionized her. This woman absolutely terrifies me. I do believe she will go on to further manipulate people and possibly even escalate the crimes she commits.