oh, how depressing this is . . .

[realthog]

Jamaica votes for death penalty
 

Jamaica's parliament has voted to keep the death penalty, as the Caribbean nation struggles to contain one of the world's highest murder rates.

MPs were allowed a free vote, rather than having to vote along party lines.

Jamaica has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 1988 but the governing Jamaica Labour Party, elected last year, has pushed for its return.

The Beeb has a fuller story here.

Of course, this means that any plans this particular cricket fan might have had to go visit Jamaica have just gone down the tubes. But presumably the numbskulls who thought, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that state-sanctioned murder is the way to bring the crime rate down are also so economically dimwitted that they really don't give a fuck about the hit the Jamaican tourist industry might take.

Of course, a high murder rate doesn't help the tourist industry either; I can recognize that. But for me -- and there must be lots of others like me -- state-sanctioned murder has a unique repulsiveness that somehow puts it beyond most other murders. I've just been to Philadelphia, a city with a remarkably high crime rate, and I didn't even think about that. If there'd been an "execution" (that useful euphemism) going on in Philly at the time, I'd definitely have been repelled.

Perhaps the Jamaican parliamentarians responsible for this regressive step think it'll be worth a few human lives to give themselves some political advantage? Of course, they'll tell you that only the heinous will be sacrificed; what truly crass hypocrisy, since it's blatant that every judicial system in the world convicts the innocent on a depressingly regular basis.

If you really want a proven method of getting the crime rate down, tackle poverty. It's been proven effective time after time after time throughout history. Of course, tackling poverty requires a certain amount of political courage and a degree of disruption of the average politician's ultra-comfortable life -- oh, only give me the time to stir my martini to perfection! -- so just killing people is a whole lot simpler and less time-consuming.

(And, before you ask, because of the US's barbaric killing practices I'd surely not have emigrated to this country unless . . . well, guess I love Pam even more than I love cricket.)

Comments

[quilterbear.livejournal.com]

If you really want a proven method of getting the crime rate down, tackle poverty
Amen to that! What a novel idea!

And I'm glad to know that Pam ranks so high. I'm sure she is, too. LOL

[pds-lit.livejournal.com]

I love you more than cricket too!

[ellenscult]

Hear hear! I really hope this gets overturned very swiftly.

The death penalty is the reason why, although I think the USA is in many respects a remarkable country (in a good way), I don't actually consider it to be a civilised country. Civilised countries don't commit state-sanctioned murder.

This news makes me feel as though the world has taken a step backwards. :(

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Frankly, I have to say this is a completely insane idea. It's going to do nothing to lower the murder rate. However, in its favour, it actually fulfills a campaign promise by the current government.

There have been no executions in Jamaica since 1988, and there has been a moratorium on executions since 1993 as a result of a decision by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (the Law Lords when they're serving as final court of appeal for certain Commonwealth countries).

The high murder rate in Jamaica -- there have been something like 1,400 this year -- mean that the government is under pressure to do something. Since the real cure, reducing unemployment, replacing the horrible slums in Kingston with decent housing, raising the standard of living for the half of the population that lives in sheer misery, is out of its reach, it resorts to grandstanding.

There is real demand for harsh action on crime -- not just hanging, but the restoration of flogging as a penalty for theft and sex crimes (http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20081124T190000-0500_142998_OBS_HANGING_MURDERERS__FLOGGING_SEX_OFFENDERS.asp)-- and there have been frequent cases of vigilantism in poor communities in Kingston and in rural areas. How many of these have been directed at the wrong people I couldn't begin to say.

I should note that fifteen MPs voted to abolish the death penalty:
Peter Bunting, Marisa Dalrymple-Phillibert, Dr D K Duncan, Andrew Gallimore, Olivia Grange, Maxine Henry-Wilson, Andrew Holness, Fitz Jackson, Gregory Mair, Dr Wykeham McNeill, Phillip Paulwell, Dr Peter Phillips, Dr Donald Rhodd, Ronald Thwaites and Everald Warmington. They included government ministers (Holness, Grange, Gallimore), and leading opposition figures (Paulwell, Duncan, Henry-Wilson, Phillips). I'm especially proud of my former MP and card-partner D.K. Duncan, and my fellow political scientist Peter Phillips.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it will not be. The death penalty is extremely popular in Jamaica. Opposition to it is a minority position (as someone who would, if resident in Jamaica be part of that minority, I find that regrettable). Most working-class Jamaicans are sick of crime, and want harsh punishments inflicted on criminals -- unless the criminals are powerful people who are patronising their communities.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Are you sure your priorities are correct?

[pds-lit.livejournal.com]

Most definitely. :)

[realthog.livejournal.com]

It's whether mine are correct that's the big question . . .

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"I don't actually consider it to be a civilised country"

I couldn't agree with you more. For a country that holds itself to be (and sincerely believies itself to be) a pillar of democracy and righteousness to hold human life so cheap is quite remarkable: it's an astonishing case of self-delusion, rather like all those old Soviet satellite dictatorships that called themselves "Democratic Republics" as if this might somehow disguise the tyranny of their regimes.

The US has many fine aspects, but it severely needs to develop the arts of introspection and self-criticism if it's ever going to attain the pedestal on which it currently believes itself to stand. And abolishing -- or in fact re-abolishing -- state murder would be a good start.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Congratulations to those courageous heroes! May they live long and prosper . . . and certainly reap the benefits when the majority comes round to sharing their wisdom.

Since the real cure, reducing unemployment, replacing the horrible slums in Kingston with decent housing, raising the standard of living for the half of the population that lives in sheer misery, is out of its reach

I've just within the last half hour or so received a news story saying that Lebanon is planning to abolish capital punishment. To be honest, if it's within the reach of war-devastated Lebanon to find other means, then surely it's within the reach of Jamaica.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Lebanon doesn't seem to be short of political courage. That's for sure.

No Jamaican politician has had the political courage to confront the real issues that face the country for years. Possibly not since N.W. Manley died in September 1969.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that they are.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Fixing munged link: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20081124T190000-0500_142998_OBS_HANGING_MURDERERS__FLOGGING_SEX_OFFENDERS.asp

That should now go to a column by Ken Chaplin (a veteran Jamaican journalist) in the Jamaica Observer. Chaplin's views are not mine, but his observation of Jamaican society is, I think, reasonably accurate and his assessment of public opinion is, in this case, probably right.

Jamaican society is deeply brutalised. There are people who speak out against the brutality, and who demand that the Jamaican state not continue to perpetrate it: http://www.jamaicansforjustice.org/nmcms.php?snippet=news&p=news&id=947§ion1=newslink

[sarcobatus.livejournal.com]

Too many bad guys in the world, and they seem to win more than they lose.

Very sad.