I’m generally against the death penalty in this country. I recognize that Church teachings allows for it in specific circumstances, and I believe that those circumstances don’t apply in this country in most circumstances. That is, I think we can adequately protect society from most murderers by incarcerating them for life. That doesn’t mean I like murderers or am unsympathetic to their victims.
All that said, I find it very difficult to stand on the same side of the death penalty issue as the people who protested outside San Quentin earlier this week to save the life of unrepentant murderer Tookie Williams, founder of the Crips gang. (Warning: bad language and a few photos of Tookie’s victims, post-mortem.) Read especially toward the bottom. Communists, Socialists, anti-Christian bigots, anti-American conspiracy theorists, anarchists, homosexual organizations (?), supporters of Palestinian terrorists (??), and more. There were the de rigeur anti-Bush signs, the Nazi/Hitler signs, the 9-11 conspiracy signs, a flag burning. Jesse Jackson showed up to dance for the cameras. And meanwhile, the media selectively recorded only the least radical protesters, giving a biased impression of who was really there opposing the execution.
In fact, it reminds me very much of an Operation Rescue protest I attended with my brother back in the late 80s/early 90s. There were the same groups: radicals, Socialists, gay activists. There was the same outright bigotry against Christians. And there was the same media bias, recording only the least bizarre people on other side and when they did record people fighting with the police, they gave the impression that it was pro-lifers when it was really the pro-aborts.
Technorati Tags: anti-Christian, capital punishment, media bias
