So I use to work at this restaurant in Canada that attempted to do fine dining upstairs of the restaurant but have a thriving boozy bar downstairs. Now this cannot and did not work. You cannot be both things, the posh diners got annoyed about spending a fortune and going to the washroom to bump into very drunk loud people. The restaurant had to decide which customer it wanted to serve (being a small town, guess which one they decided on...).
Anyways, similarly I decided that this blog was not going to be about issues (except some little Swiss things), and more of what Lola and I are getting up too. However, occasionally I find it hard to keep my mouth shut (for instance if you really want to hear me go on ask me about my feelings of Burkas or if woman's treatment in certain countries is a 'cultural' issues), so today I am going to have a mini rant.
This morning I went on the BBC website and felt ill to unsurprisingly see that Troy Davis had been executed, not a big shock but I am so fundamentally against the death penalty it always upsets me and particularly this case with so much doubt. But what upset me even more were all the ignorant comments posted to this story and the lead up ones. About how come this became about race and would the same amount of press have occurred had he been white, blah blah bloody blah. Well of course it would not of because the sad fact is he most certainly not have been on death row had he been white, witnesses would not have been coerced and pressured etc. Not to go on (because I could start listing loads of facts about US prisons and death row prisoners), but really are people really this blinkered??
Okay, will go back to me original brief now, sorry!
The vast majority of murders are committed in a fit of rage, not premeditated, and will never stop because a death sentence is possible. Children still stole food, small items etc in medieval times even though they could be hung from the age of 7. Killing someone who attacks or kills my family or friends is a valid target for me to murder them. Any society which decides it can act in anger or retribution is diminished and made more aggressive.
ReplyDeleteBut what should we have done at Nuremberg faced with the Nazis (insert your own mass murderers and place in history here)? I don't know, would life imprisonment have been better? Maybe some crimes are just too horrendous for society not to kill people, but this case was certainly not one of those
Possibly, but we are talking about a country that keeps people on death row for a decade maybe two before administering this penalty. The majority of people on death row have come from back grounds that neither of us could ever dream of. In the time they wait this sentence, they have time to reflect, away from the horrendous life most have been subjected too, free from drug addictions and gangs and what ever other numerous obstacles they have faced. They are usually completely different people by the time put to death.
ReplyDeleteAnyways,, I could go on for ages but will not. I do not believe in an eye for an eye. And I would most certainly not want someone who hurt my family dead, I would want to know why and try and prevent such a crime happening again.
I do however appreciate your points and also so thrilled someone has commented on my rant!!