Maxprop wrote:
One of the cable/satellite news channels ran a piece on Tookie's life today.
During his involvement with the Crips, the continuing war between them and
the Bloods took over 20,000 lives

What???
That's crazy. That would mean he'd have to be responsible
for every murder in every major metropolitan area for
several years. Can't anybody do math?


... according to a researcher at UCLA's
School of Law Enforcement (may not have that name quite right).

Hmm, sounds like one of those pointy-headed scientist types
working on a gov't grant... don't you neo-cons usually
dismiss this kind of stuff with a laugh?


... While
Tookie was convicted of four murders, it was estimated that he was directly
or indirectly responsible for thousands of deaths, mostly young inner city
black men between the ages of 12 and 22

Don't you neo-cons usually shrug this off as being no loss?

... plus an assortment of innocent
bystanders.


Hey, as long as it's nobody you know personally, what's the
diff?


Not guilty, eh? If he'd been on the jury, Jon, he'd have seen the
preponderance of evidence against Williams. That said, I'm not a fan of
capital punishment and would like to see it eliminated.


Nobody in their right mind is a "fan" of capital punishment,
just like nobody is in favor of abortion. It's a question of
rights vs gov't authority.

Personally, I think that if one believes that the state has
no moral right to capital punishment; then by logic, the
state would also have no right to wage war.

If an individual has the right to defend his own life, his
family, & his property, then by all logic that right extends
to use of deadly force at the extreme. The state is nothing
but a large group of citizens, therefor the citizens have
the right to endow that state with authority to use deadly
force (when in extremis) to protect them. In other words, I
have no problem with capital punishment, IMHO those guilty
beyond doubt of heinous crimes *should* be executed.

However I have a big problem with the way the death penalty
is currently applied in this country. But hey, it's always
detail detail detail!

Regards
Doug King