Bush and Company annoy me

Seriously. They are killing me with their fake Christianity and fake compassion. So I am taking on some other topics. Namely the Death Penalty--something I have opposed in earnest for sometime. I oppose it because I believe the process is riddled with racial and class problems. The poor and non-white are most likely to end up with the needle. DNA evidence showed a lot of convicted killers were wrongfully convicted. I think that the numerous documented problems with the death penalty really require its abolition.

But that was before I learned of the "brutality effect." A discussion with someone in the sociology biz suggested something that I have long suspected. It turns out that people in the business talk about "stranger homicides" v. well, you know, the crimes of passion and stuff like that. States without the death penalty have a steady stranger homicide rate. Those with have a higher rate. What? And it isn't just the higher rate, but a higher rate of homicides, abuse, etc, associated with the execution dates. Streak's partner and I suspect that this makes sense--it is the stoking and encouraging of rage and hatred. The state says that killing is ok and extends to victim's families the false idea that executing someone else will make them feel better and ease their pain. Instead, it stokes the rage and hatred and encourages violence against others. The death of others is held out as a solution. This not only externalizes the health of the hurting, but repeats the idea that violence solves things. It may in certain situations. Certainly if someone is physically attacking my loved-ones I would endorse violence to save their lives. But as an after thought in some death house miles away? No. My hatred will live on unless I deal with it. Killing someone else will not mollify that hatred or rage. And the state is wrong to sell it as a palliative. And doubly wrong if capital punishment encourages the very behavior that they say they want to stop.

The death penalty becomes much like a "bug zapper" supposed to kill the disease carrying mosquitoes that actually kills the wrong bugs and fails to accomplish the intended goal of stopping the mosquitoes. But it looks dramatic and convinces the beer drinking slugs under its light that they are better off. Likewise, the death penalty sells the public a fake sense of security, but makes them less safe, and less moral.

More research on this later.