Wednesday, December 14, 2005

grrr.

i couldn't find an article about tookie's execution that i wanted to post, but i thought this piece was closer to what i wanted to say anyway. besides, anybody who can find their way here can google stanley "tookie" williams + execution or any such related terms, and/or his nobel peace prize nomination, and/or the movie redemption (starring jamie foxx) based on tookie's memoir, and/or the crips, etc...
i'd also like to say that it is a fuckery that cnn.com had footage of the execution on their homepage today. the fruits of civilisation...
i can't believe that they finally have a rehabilitated prisoner that allows them to say their bullshit system works, and they did this anyway. life in prison would've effectively continued to punish him for his crime, while allowing him to continue atoning through his positive, community-service programmes. and i recognise that victims feel they need closure, but as someone who has lost many, i think we can recognise that "killing somebody back" is revenge. it doesn't bring the dead to life so you can have that final moment you wish you'd had, or kill the loss, just another person. how is that closure, not vengeance? and i can see the justification where there's concern about repeat offences, but that was the whole point with tookie. he wasn't trying to be a repeat offender.
i don't even always have a clear opinion about the death penalty. i just think this was bullshit.
i guess i'll retreat into my corner, muttering to myself that these are not my people and not my problem- although america seems determined to make itself the world's problem...

maybe i can warp myself into some other sector of the metaverse that doesn't involve people.

i was gonna post about the gremlin+me adventuring yesterday, but after doing my tookie googling i'm sour, so memoirs of the gremlin will have to wait until my mood improves.
prob'ly tomorrow- well, it's already tomorrow, so later...

walk good.
and don't kill. except rats and roaches and schwarzenegger. they stink. i'm making sure i don't own any of his movies as soon as i walk away from this machine.

4 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

In the case of serial killers and child molesters, I'm all for the death penalty because their brains are broken in such a way that they can never be fixed. And I'm not for killing them out of vengeance or deterrance. Just to make sure they never do it again (vis a vis Kenneth McDuff).

But if you have a guy who is obviously atoning for his crimes, why kill him? I mean, even if you're pissed at him, why not make him live in prison for the rest of his life?

10:18 am  
Blogger sweet trini said...

dude! exactly! that's the middle ground i generally inhabit.
i knew there was a reason i have a crush on you...
walk good.

2:37 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

I've always wanted someone to love me for my stance on the death penalty instead of my movie star good looks.

9:41 am  
Blogger Jake said...

The death penalty is absurd and barbaric. Recent DNA exonerations in VA only serve to reinforce this. Yes, we are convicting innocent people, all the time. When we execute them, there's no chance to take it back. On top of this, the death penalty accomplishes no public policy goal that I can discern. So why are we doing it? I'm hoping all this negative pub (with Tookie and the 1,000th execution since the moratorium) will encourage this country to rethink its marriage to this disgusting ritual.

4:57 pm  

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