All too often, the emphasis for criminal behavior leans heavily on the environmental factors and discount the nature aspect almost entirely. Human nature teaches us that there is a subset of the population who will be motivated by greed, sloth, and anger in general directed towards society. This cannot be attributed to their upbringing or lack of opportunities in life. Bluntly stated, they are bad elements in society that should be treated as such. Current deterrent measures are not enough.
Throughout my travels in Asia one of the refreshing aspects was the ability to freely travel around cities at all hours of the night without much worry of being robbed or killed by a degenerate. The streets were clean and civilization was in working order. That is much more than we can say for major US metropolises lately.
Singapore - Caning in Singapore is only administered to men under 50 years old and ONLY for violent or sexual molestation crimes. (outrage of modestly Sec 354) however, for awhile when living there they caned men that were illegally in the country and working and anyone renting a flat to someone illegal in the country could go to jail for 6 months. (you can make a call to check on immigration status like eVerify) This was enacted to discourage illegals - economic migrants - who started to flood the country (a small country of 5 million or so) As a foreigner you can apply for a visa to work and many do - from China, Philippines. Myanmar, Malaysia, India etc
I do not think many would support caning for non-violent crimes unless you were in a country with strict Sharia like KSA / Sharjah in UAE where if you are moslem and get caught drinking alcohol - 50 lashes. Having lived in Singapore my best friend, (local) turned out to be a high ranking retired police officer and I met many of his retired colleagues over dinner several times a week - at an outside food court. They truly had a hard time wrapping their heads around the criminal justice system in the USA - they could NOT comprehend it? They summed it up - about 10% of society are criminal with a smaller subset - violent and their job was to protect productive law abiding members of society - period. The needs of the collective outweigh individual rights - a Confucian model you can see a plaque with this in every public library.
DEATH SENTENCE - if convicted the sentence is often carried out usually within 1 year - they believe it's cruel to let someone languish in prison knowing they will be executed. There is ample time for an appeal and that's it. (In Japan, if you get sentenced to death, you are notified 3 hours before they intend to carry it out - they stop by in the morning and notify - NOON TODAY - pack-up your stuff - usually years go by before the sentence is carried out)
You can travel in Singapore day or night - man or woman - safely. In Singapore, Americans would ask me - 'How can you live here with all these laws?' (rules) My response was simple - ' I don;'t break the law.' Anyone in the right mind that either visits or travels to Singapore KNOWS - you don't break the law. Singapore conviction rates are in the high 90's%
I lived in Singapore - they're system works. Why? because the police and judges feel it is their job to protect the 90%+ of the law abiding population and do not treat criminals like 'victims' - it is one of the safest cities to live in - in the entire world. ZERO tolerance for sexual or violent crimes.
Thanks for posting this essay, John. I actually watched Matt Walsh's podcast where he explained his position, and it was so logical and common sense that only a brain dead person, aka left wing progressive, would have a problem with this. He explains why these penalties are not cruel and unusual, because just as in the abortion debate, the Left picks their horse and ignores the other people involved (the unborn child who is killed, and society at large including the criminal's victims). As he explains, the studies about the alleged lack of deterrent effect don't take into account how rarely the death penalty is used, and even when it is, it's only after dozens of appeals and decades later. Singapores' businesses often don't lock their door, if they even have one. How long would that store have anything left in it in Baltimore, Philly, Oakland or San Fran? Nothing more than one night I'd bet. As you pointed out, if people no longer believe that God will judge their sins someday, your nation will need effective law enforcement and stricter punishments.
I have an over-developed sense of fairness, which makes me fairly judgmental and harsh when it comes to dealing with unfairness. Crime is unfair to the extreme, and as such requires extreme repercussions. I agree with you and Matt - Singapore has a system that works. We don't.
A good caning would indeed serve as a deterrent for some of the nimrods out there. Something else a lot of people seem to miss about crime and deterrence: restitution. The idea of throwing a thief in jail so they can become a better criminal, or get three hots and a cot at society's expense, ought to be repugnant to folks. Far better to require the thief to work (by force if necessary) to repay every penny that they took with interest. The vandal should be forced to publicly repair and care for several pieces of property, or risk corporal punishment. An batterer or rapist should be required to pay for several times the amount of every hospital bill his or her victims have. On a side note, this ties in with actual rehabilitation, teaching a person to be a better functioning member of society. Why let a useless individual rot in jail and remain useless on our dime? Teach them a skill, teach them discipline and drill a work ethic into them.
On the flip side of things, people have seen that we have a two tiered justice system in America. Justice for the rich vs justice for the poor is widely seen (a lawyer recently told me that people in the United States have the best legal system and support they can afford...) I have seen public officials get away with things that would have resulted in hard jail time for an ordinary citizen, being given a slap on the wrist. Corruption or abuse of authority by public servants should require a far more stringent standard than the general public. (Prosecutorial misconduct, police planting evidence or other such crimes should bring a harsh penalty, up to the death sentence, depending on the offense... not be covered under qualified immunity.) Police need better funding, MORE stringent standards of hire and conduct (so called warrior training needs to be outright banned), and yes, some actually trained in psychology.
The only issue I have is how do you handle cases where aggressive prosecutors withhold evidence exonerating people. How do you handle police planting evidence like we've seen on rare occasions. It seems when prosecutors or police are caught engaged in these activities they get off fairly easy. What about false accusations of rape etc. I guess I'd say if you make a false accusation or plant evidence then you pay the same punishment as the victim of your misdeeds.
Public caning, I've always been in favor of this for government officials that misbehave. Football halftime show, lottery winner (or their representative (Steve Austin?)) gets to swing the cane, proceeds go to charity.
All too often, the emphasis for criminal behavior leans heavily on the environmental factors and discount the nature aspect almost entirely. Human nature teaches us that there is a subset of the population who will be motivated by greed, sloth, and anger in general directed towards society. This cannot be attributed to their upbringing or lack of opportunities in life. Bluntly stated, they are bad elements in society that should be treated as such. Current deterrent measures are not enough.
Throughout my travels in Asia one of the refreshing aspects was the ability to freely travel around cities at all hours of the night without much worry of being robbed or killed by a degenerate. The streets were clean and civilization was in working order. That is much more than we can say for major US metropolises lately.
Singapore - Caning in Singapore is only administered to men under 50 years old and ONLY for violent or sexual molestation crimes. (outrage of modestly Sec 354) however, for awhile when living there they caned men that were illegally in the country and working and anyone renting a flat to someone illegal in the country could go to jail for 6 months. (you can make a call to check on immigration status like eVerify) This was enacted to discourage illegals - economic migrants - who started to flood the country (a small country of 5 million or so) As a foreigner you can apply for a visa to work and many do - from China, Philippines. Myanmar, Malaysia, India etc
I do not think many would support caning for non-violent crimes unless you were in a country with strict Sharia like KSA / Sharjah in UAE where if you are moslem and get caught drinking alcohol - 50 lashes. Having lived in Singapore my best friend, (local) turned out to be a high ranking retired police officer and I met many of his retired colleagues over dinner several times a week - at an outside food court. They truly had a hard time wrapping their heads around the criminal justice system in the USA - they could NOT comprehend it? They summed it up - about 10% of society are criminal with a smaller subset - violent and their job was to protect productive law abiding members of society - period. The needs of the collective outweigh individual rights - a Confucian model you can see a plaque with this in every public library.
DEATH SENTENCE - if convicted the sentence is often carried out usually within 1 year - they believe it's cruel to let someone languish in prison knowing they will be executed. There is ample time for an appeal and that's it. (In Japan, if you get sentenced to death, you are notified 3 hours before they intend to carry it out - they stop by in the morning and notify - NOON TODAY - pack-up your stuff - usually years go by before the sentence is carried out)
You can travel in Singapore day or night - man or woman - safely. In Singapore, Americans would ask me - 'How can you live here with all these laws?' (rules) My response was simple - ' I don;'t break the law.' Anyone in the right mind that either visits or travels to Singapore KNOWS - you don't break the law. Singapore conviction rates are in the high 90's%
I lived in Singapore - they're system works. Why? because the police and judges feel it is their job to protect the 90%+ of the law abiding population and do not treat criminals like 'victims' - it is one of the safest cities to live in - in the entire world. ZERO tolerance for sexual or violent crimes.
Thanks for posting this essay, John. I actually watched Matt Walsh's podcast where he explained his position, and it was so logical and common sense that only a brain dead person, aka left wing progressive, would have a problem with this. He explains why these penalties are not cruel and unusual, because just as in the abortion debate, the Left picks their horse and ignores the other people involved (the unborn child who is killed, and society at large including the criminal's victims). As he explains, the studies about the alleged lack of deterrent effect don't take into account how rarely the death penalty is used, and even when it is, it's only after dozens of appeals and decades later. Singapores' businesses often don't lock their door, if they even have one. How long would that store have anything left in it in Baltimore, Philly, Oakland or San Fran? Nothing more than one night I'd bet. As you pointed out, if people no longer believe that God will judge their sins someday, your nation will need effective law enforcement and stricter punishments.
I have an over-developed sense of fairness, which makes me fairly judgmental and harsh when it comes to dealing with unfairness. Crime is unfair to the extreme, and as such requires extreme repercussions. I agree with you and Matt - Singapore has a system that works. We don't.
A good caning would indeed serve as a deterrent for some of the nimrods out there. Something else a lot of people seem to miss about crime and deterrence: restitution. The idea of throwing a thief in jail so they can become a better criminal, or get three hots and a cot at society's expense, ought to be repugnant to folks. Far better to require the thief to work (by force if necessary) to repay every penny that they took with interest. The vandal should be forced to publicly repair and care for several pieces of property, or risk corporal punishment. An batterer or rapist should be required to pay for several times the amount of every hospital bill his or her victims have. On a side note, this ties in with actual rehabilitation, teaching a person to be a better functioning member of society. Why let a useless individual rot in jail and remain useless on our dime? Teach them a skill, teach them discipline and drill a work ethic into them.
On the flip side of things, people have seen that we have a two tiered justice system in America. Justice for the rich vs justice for the poor is widely seen (a lawyer recently told me that people in the United States have the best legal system and support they can afford...) I have seen public officials get away with things that would have resulted in hard jail time for an ordinary citizen, being given a slap on the wrist. Corruption or abuse of authority by public servants should require a far more stringent standard than the general public. (Prosecutorial misconduct, police planting evidence or other such crimes should bring a harsh penalty, up to the death sentence, depending on the offense... not be covered under qualified immunity.) Police need better funding, MORE stringent standards of hire and conduct (so called warrior training needs to be outright banned), and yes, some actually trained in psychology.
America has a bunch of blacks and Singapore doesn't. That's all a non-specialist needs to know.
The only issue I have is how do you handle cases where aggressive prosecutors withhold evidence exonerating people. How do you handle police planting evidence like we've seen on rare occasions. It seems when prosecutors or police are caught engaged in these activities they get off fairly easy. What about false accusations of rape etc. I guess I'd say if you make a false accusation or plant evidence then you pay the same punishment as the victim of your misdeeds.
Public caning, I've always been in favor of this for government officials that misbehave. Football halftime show, lottery winner (or their representative (Steve Austin?)) gets to swing the cane, proceeds go to charity.