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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
October 3, 2004
Give me liberty,
give them death |
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Arguments about humane
punishment for criminals get louder as our society gets sicker.
Spare the life of a convicted murderer? Please spare me the
pity party for such animals.
Thanks to a dead man from Wisconsin, I am further
convinced that the death penalty is a justifiable and necessary tool
of a civilized society. A 23-year-old man died after a highway
chase in which he crashed into a police car. Before he
crashed, he threw his fiancée's 8-month-old baby from his vehicle
while being chased by police. Fortunately, the child was
unhurt.
Because Dana Bettin died, society has been spared the
futility and expense of taking him to trial. Too many other
cases of child abuse and murder don't end as quickly and justly.
Far too many human animals get the luxury of spending time behind
bars after destroying the lives of innocent children and families.
Children killed by sick people like Timothy Buss,
Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy had no anti-death penalty
advocates. Yet, we have international organizations fighting
for the rights of the most heinous criminals to live a dignified
life in jail. A dignified life? In jail?
Soon-to-be-released criminals may also be rejoicing now
that President Bush allowed the national assault weapons ban to
expire. I'm all for the right to bear arms, but the 19 types
of weapons that were banned in 1994 are not the kind most Americans
would buy. The formerly banned military-styled guns are the
type police forces around the country unanimously declared a threat.
The ban went into effect in 1994 and was supposed to help protect
both the common folk and particularly police.
Then again, it could be argued that the worst attack
against Americans on our own soil was committed with the aid of box
cutters, not assault weapons. The imaginary weapons of mass
destruction were never found in Iraq, but we have sentenced over
1,000 young men and women to death in search of them. Just a
few days after the three-year anniversary of September 11, we allow
weapons of mass destruction to become legal again on our streets.
Decisions like Bush's and guys like Dana Bettin make
the argument against the death penalty moot. It's just too bad
so many convicted killers get to live long lives in jail while
do-gooders argue on their behalf. Why should a murderer be
allowed to sit and think about his crime for the rest of his or her
life when obviously he or she wasn't too keen on the idea of
thinking before committing the crime? Our penal system doesn't
rehabilitate; it is a zoo to comfortably house animals who will
never be a benefit to society. The thousands of
life-without-parole prisoners would make a fair exchange for the
1,000 plus who have died needlessly in Iraq in the last year, but it
would be considered inhumane and cruel to suggest such a thing.
Long before the weapons ban and before I ever heard of
Dana Bettin, I was an advocate of the death penalty. It was a
close family member who convinced me. Today, he lives safely
behind bars as he becomes an even more bitter person while his
victim has long since decomposed.
My family member will get out of jail in a few years.
If he so desires, he will then be able to get his hands on an
assortment of legal assault weapons. An angry murderer without
a hint of rehabilitation and with an assault weapon is nothing more
than a death sentence, most likely for another innocent person.
It seems that more and more Americans are against the
death penalty because we have a less than perfect system, but we are
OK with killing our unborn before they ever get into the system.
Be it death by hanging, firing squad, electrocution,
sword to the jugular, or lethal injection, I do think those
sentenced to death should have the right to choose the method.
After all, they chose what method to kill their victims. |
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