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Saturday, October 24, 2015

The face of Justice



There is a country, among many, that was once called a paradise. That was before the advent of recreational drugs, and the siren song to the young men that working at a normal job was to work for chump change. They fell in line and traded drugs for massive incomes, but before long jealousy took over and they started to fight among themselves. They reduced their living space from a maximum of thirty-five kilometres to less than a thousand meters.

Than out came the guns and they started to kill one another. These were supposed to be the future leaders and husbands, but one by one they ended their lives on a cold slab, in jail, or they ran off to England.

It is a sad thing to witness; however, my son has been out of the country during this period and has, thankfully, avoided the whole sad scenario. There has only been one thing worse to observe than the war between gangs, and that is when one soldier falls out with his own gang, and they turn on him.

I know first hand how this feels. As a very young lad I fell in with a group of other young guys. We didn't do anything illegal, except one of the boys used his grandmother's needles to inject oranges with vodka which he then shared with the group during the morning recess. I was always pissed as a lord for my mathematics class, although I still went on to become an accountant.

My father made me an ultimatum to get an education and to stop hanging out with those losers. When I tried to break away they turned on me with a vengence. That is another story, but the story we are following is what happened when his own gang thought that our lead player was an informant for the police. They set out to assassinate him, which they did with extreme prejudice. The assassin was brought to justice and sentenced to serve time in prison for the rest of his life.

He is a young man of 21 years who must serve at least 35 years before he can be considered for parole. He will be 56 years old by then, so the question arises, why would he even want freedom at that time. He would have to make his own way at a time when absolutely no one will hire him.

In my opinion, this is a classic case of justice. The assassin deliberately took the life of his former colleague, and now he has to forfeit the quality of his own life. To put him to death would simply release him from what he must now face. I assume he would not have been fazed by facing a death sentence. After all, he understands killing.

This case illustrates so well that applying the death penalty is stupid and barbaric. To kill to make the point that killing is wrong is just dopey. Plus, when mistakes are made that convict the wrong person, if that person is put to death then the State commits murder.

One thing more: the argument that the taxpayer has to foot the bill is irrelevant because we will always have full prisons with full staffs, all of which must be paid for. Some of the inmates will be murderers and others will be lesser offenders. That's life.

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael