Do you believe as Stevenson does, that we are more than the worst thing we have ever done? What effect, if any, should that belief have on the justice system?
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Robert William Bartels
Oct 25, 2020
Angela Davis said "we need to popularize understandings of how racism underwrites the death penalty" as well as other institutions in our country. The death penalty itself however is uniquely tied to our history of slavery. Angela Davis also says that we aren't going to be able to understand why the death penalty still exists in our country without analyzing slavery itself. With so many people resistant to even discussing topics about racism let alone slavery because of bias and/or discomfort, it's going to take a mass global and social movement to delegitimize and oust the death penalty from our laws. BLM is that movement in many respects.
Also, my personal understanding is that allowing our government or any government to have the power in any of its branches to decide who can live and who can die in any capacity is inherently dangerous and unjust. Especially, when people finally realize that our government and body of law are built on a foundation that is racist, as well as homophobic and misogynist and xenophobic. Our justice system is fallible and black people like Walter McMillian are not always protected from being wrongfully convicted and subsequently wrongfully murdered by the state. My point is simply that not only should our government not play the role of the Grim Reaper in the first place but logically even a minor risk of the state killing innocent people outweighs any need for a death penalty at all. Especially in a country beholden to institutional racism.
ALSO also, I just saw that Michael B. Jordan hasn't been even nominated for an Oscar yet!? Even after Fruitvale Station and Creed! WHAT?!
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annalise.leonelli
Oct 25, 2020
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ryan.minett19
Oct 20, 2020
Because of the way of our criminal "justice" system, interactions with the law are typically described in the aftermath as of a result of the worst thing on has done. This is because the criminal "justice" system provides very heft punishments for violating it, potentially completely changing lives for the worse. If we are to believe in "corrections," the criminal justice system should not have such lasting negative effect on many people's lives .
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annalise.leonelli
Oct 21, 2020
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It also inevitably has a lot to do with who you are, as we all know. I think back on some of the things my white peers have done, from breaking school windows, to getting pulled over for flashing a very realistic looking bb gun on the highway, to getting caught with a sizable amount of medical marijuana at the border. All of these stories end a certain way because the people in them were white. Their lives were not upended in any meaningful way. And then I think of all the people who are incarcerated or who have died in jail because they once did something similar.
Angela Davis said "we need to popularize understandings of how racism underwrites the death penalty" as well as other institutions in our country. The death penalty itself however is uniquely tied to our history of slavery. Angela Davis also says that we aren't going to be able to understand why the death penalty still exists in our country without analyzing slavery itself. With so many people resistant to even discussing topics about racism let alone slavery because of bias and/or discomfort, it's going to take a mass global and social movement to delegitimize and oust the death penalty from our laws. BLM is that movement in many respects.
Also, my personal understanding is that allowing our government or any government to have the power in any of its branches to decide who can live and who can die in any capacity is inherently dangerous and unjust. Especially, when people finally realize that our government and body of law are built on a foundation that is racist, as well as homophobic and misogynist and xenophobic. Our justice system is fallible and black people like Walter McMillian are not always protected from being wrongfully convicted and subsequently wrongfully murdered by the state. My point is simply that not only should our government not play the role of the Grim Reaper in the first place but logically even a minor risk of the state killing innocent people outweighs any need for a death penalty at all. Especially in a country beholden to institutional racism.
ALSO also, I just saw that Michael B. Jordan hasn't been even nominated for an Oscar yet!? Even after Fruitvale Station and Creed! WHAT?!
Because of the way of our criminal "justice" system, interactions with the law are typically described in the aftermath as of a result of the worst thing on has done. This is because the criminal "justice" system provides very heft punishments for violating it, potentially completely changing lives for the worse. If we are to believe in "corrections," the criminal justice system should not have such lasting negative effect on many people's lives .