General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow can you be both for social justice and pro death penalty?
The dp is one of the most racist institutions in our country.land there is no way to rid it of racism.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-and-death-penalty
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/opinion/09dow.html?referrer=
Response to cali (Original post)
Cheese Sandwich This message was self-deleted by its author.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)...highly structured due process, review, and accountability, then can there be social justice in any institution?
Bjorn Against
(12,041 posts)aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)They did their jobs well. What accountability do want from them?
However due process is reviewable and sometimes agents of the state have been held accountable for wrong doing in DP cases.
Bjorn Against
(12,041 posts)Because that is exactly what it is, premeditated murder.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)...held accountable. Have there been many cases where the death penalty was outlawed, but prisoners were still placed in the state's mechanisms of death by state agents and executed anyway?
Bjorn Against
(12,041 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)Last edited Sun May 31, 2015, 07:31 AM - Edit history (1)
Your response makes no sense. None.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Oh shit, you're serious...
Telcontar
(660 posts)There are many who deserve death, but also many who deserve life. You can't grant life, so dint be so hasty wanting to grant death.
Words to that effect.
joshcryer
(62,280 posts)WTF.
cali
(114,904 posts)The death penalty is applied to AAs at a rate almost double the rate it is applied to whites. A black person who murders a white person is over 4x as likely to get the dp as a white person murdering a black person. there is exactly zero doubt that the dp is one of the most racist institutions in this country.
Yes,this has to do with HRC. She is, as On The Issues puts it, a long time advocate for.the dp. We've discussed, at length here, whether or not Sanders cares enough about the issues facing the black community. This is one such issue. Only 34% (as of 2011) of African Americans support the death penalty.
That again.
Hillary Clinton follows the polls. That should not be an indictment on those who support social justice.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)I haven't seen anywhere candidate C beats candidate B in a particular social justice measure but now we find one where candidate B beats candidate C.
If one were keeping score that is.
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)There's a very simple test that should be applied to any argument that purports to show that the death penalty is wrong: if this argument worked, would it also imply that imprisoning and fining people was also wrong? If so, you can be confident that something is wrong with the argument, and you just have to work out what.
This argument fails that test. Yes, at present, the application of the death penalty in the USA is far from race-neutral. But exactly the same is true of prison sentences. And there's no reason to think that fixing the former would be any easier or harder than fixing the latter, if there was the political will to do it.
So unless you genuinely oppose imprisoning people - not just think that the USA locks up too many people (which it certainly does) but oppose imprisonment, and fines, in all cases, on general principles, even for murderers and rapists - then this argument doesn't work against the DP either.
The only valid arguments against the death penalty are ones that *don't* also apply to imprisonment - vis, it's irreversible if you get it wrong, and the cost/benefit ratio is lower.