Narupug wrote:
Ilocano wrote:
Narupug wrote:
So because they've committed these crimes it makes them less human? I'm not backing them up but everyone makes mistakes, some not as big as killing someone, but with guns as accesible as they are in this country I think that the criminal is sometimes not the only one to blame. So we're killing them because it costs less money, because they deserve it for hurting other people? Didn't that book that you guys build your religion around say something about eye for an eye being bad?
Yes, commit murder or rape, you are less than human and should be treated as such. You made a choice, you pay the consequences. If I kill someone with my craftsman hammer, I should put part of the blame on Sears? Please... You hold a lethal weapon, kill someone in the process, you are at fault, be it manslaughter or murder.
I for one believe that anything that can think and that would have a decent quality of life alive, should be allowed to live. I don't know about you but that's my opinion, and you are entitled to yours but I just don't see how you can think that way
/lopsided argument
Maybe I am just a sick bastard, but I don't that awe of the sanctity of life. Nothing (and no one) has an usasalable right to 'live.' I would refer you to Heinlein's argument of the "Right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." (if you can't find it, I may end up having to post it; it was in his
political sci-fi novel, 'Starship Troopers') Yes, there are lives desined to protect our lives and safety for the precise reason that nothing else is. If there were not laws there to protect 'me and mine,' I would take very forceful and direct measures to ensure our lives myself. The laws are there to allow us to live in groups with relative safety.
Now, there are some who say that Capital Punishment is a good deterent; there are others who say it isn't. Personally, I think it IS a deterent, but a limited one; the very essence of criminal thought is that they are going to get away with it and not be caught, so why worry about punishments. Especially in states where they 'officially' have a Death Penatly, but never seem to actually execute anyone. In order to actually be able to even
claim C.P. may be effective as a deterent, it must be used, and used
a lot. It must be seen that, if you get caught, it is not a remote possiblity but a
probability.
Next, we have a serious problem in our prison systems of an entire subculture being formed from the worst our society has to offer. Gangs, mostly racially-based, flourish there, indoctronate new members, spread criminal skill-sets, and forming alliances. This bodes ill for the general public when these people are released.
I propose that some people, either through some genetic defect or through systematic errors in upbringing, are thouroughly unfit to live in modern society. Further, I submit that these people are either unwilling or unable to change. We have to do something with them. We can't leave them running in public. We either store them away (prison), exile them (to where, exactly), or remove them entirely (execte them). WE currently store them, but it costs a lot of money and we are a bit short on room. Exile is attractive, but irresponsible, since they have to go somewhere. If they are going to spend the rest of their lives in prison, who is to say we can't just save money and make it short? Now, I am all in favor of making it painless. Anoxia via a pure nitrogen atmoshere is about as painless a way that exists, not to mention realatively inexpensive.
Yes, I am draconian. Yes, I am spartan in my views. I could be argued to be a souless sociopath myself, but at least I obey the laws. Still, my solution is to reduce the amount of criminal laws, to get rid of the relatively harmless ones (which will also provide sources of legitimate income and reduce the criminal 'moneymakers.' You then take the more serious of the remaining crimes and bump up the penalties WAY past 'cruel and unusual.' THAT is the detterent I propose.
Of course, this is also why I will never hold public office. Who would vote for me?
