The new Political/off topic sticky chat thread (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre: college, salary)

[Mr Yuk]

Originally Posted by NYRangers 2008

I just can't believe, not saying you in particular, that someone would be in favor of killing an unborn, innocent child and has no problem keeping alive a ruthless, cold blooded killer who is of no use to society and is a menace. Just doesn't make sense to me.

I agree. But trying to talk sense into someone on the far left will do about as much good as talking to a brick wall.

You have people out there who think that an innocent unborn human is just "a clump of cells," yet they want to spare the lives of the worst of the murderers and rapists out there. And they actually believe the criminal justice system is unfair because there are more minorities in jail. Did it ever occur to them that minorities do commit more of the crime? Oh, I forgot, that's the white man's fault.....

[The Commish]

Same, NYR!

Originally Posted by go phillies

And they actually believe the criminal justice system is unfair because there are more minorities in jail. Did it ever occur to them that minorities do commit more of the crime?

That's not my argument at all.

My argument is that the death penalty is unfair (unconstitutional even, but that's an argument we're not ready to debate here) because it's administered in a racially-discriminatory manner. Now, if you were at all interested in that argument, you would have asked me what I meant by that instead of arguing that ridiculous strawman. "More minorities in jail" has absolutely nothing to do with racial discrimination in terms of selection for the death penalty. In fact, I want more minorities in jail for life instead of arbitrarily executed.

[weluvpa]

Ok so what do you mean by that? They only choose to execute minorities or minorities are the only ones that get the death penalty?

[The Commish]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

Ok so what do you mean by that? They only choose to execute minorities or minorities are the only ones that get the death penalty?

Not quite.

The fact is that minorities are over-sampled for the death penalty. Prosecutors seek the death penalty more when the victim is white and the defendant is black, so black defendants are more likely to face the death penalty for the same crime. The statistical evidence is consistent from state to state and on the federal level too.

Now, some people say, "well, you're throwing the baby out with the bath water. Just remedy the discrimination; don't ban the death penalty." I think there's something to that counterargument, but I'm not far along enough in my research (I'm writing a 20-30 page paper for a seminar on this very topic) to know if there's anything that actually can remedy the discrimination.

[SteelCityRising]

After reading this story this evening (and MANY others similar to it over the years) I don't see how any sane, rational person can be supportive of the death penalty.

Bogus Murder Conviction Haunts Man

I believe it was STALIN who said "When you chop wood, chips fly," in reference to the innocent lives lost under his infamous Five Year Plans for the Soviet Union (i.e. they gave their lives suffering for the greater good of the nation). By some of your logic in here, people wrongfully convicted of murder SHOULD be executed simply because the alternative of NOT killing the RIGHTFULLY CONVICTED is too much of a burden? ONE life taken by the state that is later vindicated through DNA evidence is one life TOO MANY, in my humble opinion. If we have an imperfect system to kill those convicted of capital murder, then NOBODY should be executed under this system until all of the "kinks" can be worked out.

Put yourself in this man's shoes. After years of imprisonment your name is cleared, yet you are still stigmatized due to your conviction and have difficulty rebuilding your life. All the city does is say "Oops. Our bad." At least in this case there is a (somewhat) happy ending---the man will likely receive millions of dollars from this Colorado community due to their negligence in criminal prosecution. What if he had been given a lethal injection instead back in 2004 only to be vindicated when it was TOO LATE?!

[Jungle George]

This new breakthrough will help eliminate any misconceptions on the state of the city of Scranton!!! Make sure y'all pass it on to anyone who thinks that Scranton can recover so they can get the help they need!!!


YouTube - FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Jungle George

This new breakthrough will help eliminate any misconceptions on the state of the city of Scranton!!! Make sure y'all pass it on to anyone who thinks that Scranton can recover so they can get the help they need!!!


YouTube - FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

(Runs at thought of half of city residents pinning ScranBarre down and forcing him to ingest this Debbie Downer pill!)

[NYRangers 2008]

Originally Posted by go phillies

I agree. But trying to talk sense into someone on the far left will do about as much good as talking to a brick wall.

You have people out there who think that an innocent unborn human is just "a clump of cells," yet they want to spare the lives of the worst of the murderers and rapists out there. And they actually believe the criminal justice system is unfair because there are more minorities in jail. Did it ever occur to them that minorities do commit more of the crime? Oh, I forgot, that's the white man's fault.....

Very good points. The minorities still want to blame everything on "the white man". It's not a stereotype to say that more minorities commit crime, it's the truth. If someone is a known, convicted killer, I say fry him. In cases where it is so obvious that someone is a cold blooded killer, I say why keep him alive? To rehab him? Please, that's what the bleeding hearts want you to believe.

[SteelCityRising]

LMFAO! Check out the link to the Times-Tribune before they fix their error! On their major story about the apparent tax delinquency of anti-mayor activist Joseph Pilchesky, they have HIS NAME as a caption for city councilwoman Sherry Fanucci!

[SteelCityRising]

While I normally don't enjoy the juvenile musings and ravings on a competing city message board, I must say that this image in particular made me burst out laughing!


(Image Derived from DohertyDeceit.com)