From: laelth@yabbs
To: JasonLee@yabbs
Subject: re: John Gacy R.I.P.
Date: Tue May 24 04:10:23 1994


Does it bother anyone else on this board that we are the ONLY nation in 
the industrialized world that regularly executes its criminals?  We do so 
while also having the highest rate of violent crime of any industrialized 
nation - so much for deterrence.

What does the death penalty say about us?  To me it says that we're lazy 
and selfish.  Rather than doing what's hard (dealing with the root causes 
of criminal behavior) we'd rather do what's quick and expedient -
kill 'em and kill 'em fast.  We don't want to be bothered with the 
despair, hopelessness and poverty that our society creates.  We want to 
sweep all that ugly stuff under the rug - until it comes back to haunt us 
in the form of an astronomically high crime rate.

We've had the death penalty for a long time in the U.S.  It never stopped 
crime in the past, and it won't stop it in the future.  All it does is 
make people feel good (as Maedhros reminds us) while making us look
barbaric and uncivilized.  Is it worth it?

-laelth