Comments on: Politics and the death penalty

By: avinash

avinash — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:32:46 +0000

Thanks Reena for your comment…

By: ReenaDKL

ReenaDKL — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:11:05 +0000

Hmmm..very nice debate here.

Actually though am not for people taking lives, I have to admit that am for the death penalty.

Why? Because everytime I read about a rapist or murderer I think about my own family…my lil sister and now my 5 months old baby girl.

Now imagine a man (like Yashvin read in the papers) who raped a kid like some 10 years ago. He purges his 10 years sentencde in a cool, friendly, clean prison. Comes out and hep!!! His hunger for sex is still very raw and rapes another kid. What are you going to tell the kid who has just been raped…oh he was punished son..he was in jail for 10 YEARS!!! so long!!!! plus we can’t take the life of someone just because he raped a kid…don’t worry son, your life will be cool again..no worries!!! be happy!!!

BS!!! TOTAL BS!!

As a woman, I can tell you that even someone watching you with lustful eyes is kinda hard to digest at times…a stranger touching you on the road is disgusting ( Imean passe la main…) now imagine a rape! how can you explain that to a child???

A lil girl barely aged 2 has been raped nd murdered by 2 guys who are still waiting for their sentence… 2 years old!!! God!!!

I am for the death penalty because I am sure no one would like their kid to go through that..i sincerely don’t…

By d way, innocents will not be hanged if the DNA thing is applied and the police and forensic guys do their job as per books…

Also i am sure crime rates will diminish once death penalty is re-introduced for criminals will think twice before doing any crime…

By: michelle

michelle — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:15:04 +0000

dont get me wrong though im not saying the death penalty for theft and petty crimes but for really serious crimes, like murder, rape, paedophilia and drugs, where the criminal is only sorry for getting caught and not for what he did!. it should depend on the intentions and the chances of rehabilitation of the offender.

By: michelle

michelle — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:06:01 +0000

indeed avinash i am in the psychology field and its safe to say thats such brains are very very rarely cured! and having had numerous encounters with people in the incarceration centers i can tell you that those incarcerated are truly well-fed and kept warm.a raison de balanced diets each and every day and warm beds. wheres the punishment in that.they’ll be out in no time and the idea of jail may not be so bad to them after all!
and for them ‘pay for their crimes’ i beg to differ…you, me and the rest of us ‘pay’ for them to do their time!

By: Yashvin

Yashvin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:36:30 +0000

Both @Michelle and @Avinash raised interesting points, but I would like to ask @Avinash what he thinks about sending all the criminals to prison which WE, TAX PAYERS are paying for…
So basically, the guy kills/rapes a few persons for others’ money, he is sent to prison and stays while we are paying the bills with our money and he repeats until he gets killed by someone else whom he met in prison, lol. At the end of they day, innocent tax payers are both the victims and the bill payers.

btw @Michelle, there are no “dimounes misere” since a few months. You know why? Koz everybody plays the lotto lol

Lovvy said above, I quote “Some people think going to prison is like going to a 5-star hotel, well have they ever gone to a prison? How can it be a hotel if you do not have freedom to go wherever you want. Humans are always curious so they do not like to stay in one place idle!!!”
Be serious man, you are behaving like a kid with this argument!

I believe that this post was aimed to find the relationship between the PM’s announcement about death penalty and any political interest, but finally it turned out to be a discussion about “Do you agree that death penalty should be introduced”

By: avinash

avinash — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:03:29 +0000

@Michelle Maybe you’re a psychologist but personally I don’t know anything about “he’s got a deranged brain that no amount of punishment could set straight…he will NEVER be cured and would most probably recidivate!” How do you know that the NEVER you wrote is true?!?

As for “What to do with him then? keep him safe, warm and fell fed?on tax-payers money?”, I’m afraid you get it wrong. Imprisonment is not supposed to be nice. If it is, then something needs to change.

Once more, people mix issues. You can’t kill all the murderers or all the rapists in the country (or else you’ll have to kill hundreds of Mauritians.) But you can keep hundreds if not thousands of people in jail and make them (i) pay for their crimes and (ii) become rehabilitated.

By: michelle

michelle — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:54:00 +0000

the other day i read an article in a mauritian newspaper where the so-called journalist stated that countries with the worst criminality rates such as south-africa are still resisting the death penalty.my question was:wouldnt it help SA to reverse its current situation of it did introduce the death penalty?
why dont we look at countries where the death penalty is still operant and wont be voted out soon and where it works!!.countries like singapore? this is a country with the lowest drug-related offences and murder. singaporeans & foreigners know to play by the rule and if u dont then to the gallows! parents there are pretty sure their kids wont be approached by mules and have their families fall apart. People are safe to walk around at night whereas in mauritius we cant even afford to walk alone by day!!

As for finding underlying problems im not sure we need further studies to find the ‘root causes’. if the root cause is an education to be made or remade it would be to educate those felons about other people’s rights not just theirs.and also to teach them that laws are strict in the country they live it and if they want to be alive in it long enough they better behave.

if the root cause is poverty i would say there is lots of job opportunities in mauritius.i’ve been looking for a domestic worker for ages and still no sign of one.construction workers…well lets not talk about it. Some mauritians just dont want to work or they just want to be able to say ‘mo misere’! and what has root causes like poverty and education to do with a perverted paedophile- he’s got a deranged brain that no amount of punishment could set straight…he will NEVER be cured and would most probably recidivate! What to do with him then? keep him safe, warm and fell fed?on tax-payers money?

You sure are right to say that the juduciary and the police should be made more capable/responsible in handling cases but with the death penalty hanging around the corner i bet it would put some sense in some first-time criminals’ minds cause there might not be a second one.

By: avinash

avinash — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:34:35 +0000

I read this article too and, like you, I was revulsed.

But, and this is a major but, a state is not supposed to be revulsed. A state must find solutions to problems. You are right: a 60 year old pedophile with a strong criminal background should not have been in a position to commit crimes again. This person should have been in jail. There is something dysfunctional somewhere. And this has nothing to do with death penalty.

By: Yashvin

Yashvin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:41:24 +0000

I think that those who came forward for the introduction of the death penalty made it clear : The law will not be hanging people for a chain robbery or because you slapped your neighbor.
Not later than yesterday, I read an article on 5Plus Dimanche. A man rapped an 8 year old boy a few weeks ago. His criminal record started when he was aged only 16years old. Since then, he visited the “Youth Rehabilitation Center”, the prison and has been doing community works more than a dozen of times. 50 years later, he did not learn the lesson. The 8yrs old boy was raped on his way to the shop near his house.
A few questions :
- Will you allow your children to go out in these conditions, even to school?
- Do you think that such people should be allow to wander on our streets?

This person is a sort like the “best example” of where the death penalty should be applied : Someone with a very long criminal records including robbery, rapes.
The law will of course be precise and clear. Death penalty will be applicable for specific cases only.

Oh i forgot to say the most important part. He raped and killed his 12yr old niece… Does this sound critical to you?

By: avinash

avinash — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:32:21 +0000

Life imprisonment?

In an ideal world, the death penalty looks (for lack of a better word) ok. But all judicial systems are imperfect, and as the death penalty is not undoable, then there is a problem. Killing someone in a cold-blooded manner is also repulsive to me (which is what death penalty is.) My point of view is that we should really pay more attention to the roots of the problems leading to crime (lack of education, poverty, drugs, etc.)