SteveD
Nomad
Posts: 106
Registered: 11-29-2007
Member Is Offline
|
|
Positive LA Times Editorial
This editorial in today's LA Times on the Death Penalty ends on a positive note about Calderon's Judicial Reforms. It will take changes like this to
get long terms improvements in their country
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-mexico5...
From the Los Angeles Times
Editorial
Mexico shouldn't resurrect the death penalty
A stream of kidnappings and murders is prompting calls to reinstate executions. But doing so would cost the country the moral leadership it has shown
on the issue.
February 5, 2009
In Mexico, the unchecked violence of the drug cartels brings daily tidings of kidnappings, murders and corruption throughout the legal system. It is
in this context that Mexicans, fearful and frustrated with the government's inability to prevail, are considering whether to reinstate the death
penalty.
The Mexican Congress is to debate the issue this month, and news outlets report broad public support. That's understandable but wrongheaded, as the
United States' experience with capital punishment has made tragically clear. This page has long opposed the death penalty on moral and political
grounds -- we cannot sanction the exercise of such profound government power, especially given the penalty's uneven and manifestly unfair application.
It is worth remembering too that the penalty's effectiveness as a deterrent is highly suspect. Buffeted by rising crime and violence, a majority of
states rushed to legalize executions once capital punishment was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. It was no solution. According to the FBI,
states with the death penalty consistently have a higher murder rate than those without. In 1990, the difference was an average of only 4%; as of
2007, it was 42%.
Capital punishment was abolished in Mexico in 2005 in a move that seemed mostly symbolic -- there had not been an execution since the 1960s. But the
political repercussions were genuine. Mexico became a leader on the issue and an example for less enlightened countries, including the United States.
Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976, so the U.S. found itself bracketed between forward-thinking allies. Today, it belongs to a sorry club,
along with such beacons of humanity as Iran, Pakistan, China and Sudan. Together, these nations perform more than 90% of executions worldwide,
according to Amnesty International.
Rule of law will come to Mexico. President Felipe Calderon has successfully pushed through measures to modernize the judicial system; once
implemented, these reforms may begin to eliminate judicial and police corruption, which remains frighteningly commonplace. In the recent case of a
teenager's kidnapping and murder, for example, the chief suspects are police officers. And late last year, prosecutors arrested or fired 35 members of
an elite organized-crime unit believed to have aided drug traffickers.
Allies of Calderon's National Action Party say the push to reinstitute the death penaltyis simply political maneuvering on the part of opponents who
are pandering to popular outrage, and we hope that's true. Mexico has claimed the moral leadership in this difficult debate, and it should not
relinquish that position even in the face of its current crisis.
|
|
|
rpleger
Super Nomad
Posts: 1087
Registered: 3-12-2005
Location: H. Mulegé, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Was good.
|
|
Good one...
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
|
|
|
MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
Member Is Offline
Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
|
|
Positive ?
By all means, let's be positive.
Hang em High !
Execute the worthless vermin in the most painful way possible.
|
|
|
DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
Member Is Offline
|
|
I don't know. So many variables to consider. It wouldn't be a bad idea to incarcerate the vermin [Bills appropriate label] and make them work
themselves to death. That might be acceptable.
|
|
|
Dave
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
Member Is Offline
|
|
Research counts
I wonder how much time the author spent walking the streets of Juarez. 
|
|
|
DT.IN.LB.BAJA
Junior Nomad
Posts: 78
Registered: 8-5-2008
Location: Los Barriles, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Smiling
|
|
Excellent info!!
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
