When did execution become a spectator sport???

[bliss_eternal]

I'd like to see people fighting for there to be no more press viewings of executions. I am VERY disturbed by these people that have seen this and are discussing it on CNN. There shouldn't be anyone present other than the people performing the act.

A soul is leaving this life--why watch?

It is morbid and inhumane in my opinion. All these people trotting in and out discussing what it looked like. :wtf:

[tritsofme]

1. Would you rather the state conduct an execution is secret

without a free press being able to witness the state action and report on it to the people without a government middle man?

[bliss_eternal]

13. Did you see ALL the people that viewed it?

... discussing their 'impressions of it' on CNN? Yeah, I guess a catered affair is appropriate to see that everything is carried out as it should be. :sarcasm:

It seems there should be a middle ground, that doesn't require that many people to attend.

[AlienGirl]

2. It always has been

Look at old paintings of hangings, or burnings at the stake, with the crowd gathered around wanting to see blood. Humans, by and large, love to see each other hurt and dying. Always have and always will.

Tucker

[bliss_eternal]

14. That's fine--

doesn't mean I have to like it...

[A-Schwarzenegger]

3. Actually they should be televised.

It would put an end to it a lot quicker.

[bliss_eternal]

9. I like your style, A-Schwarzenegger!

:applause:

Well said...and excellent point!

[The Magistrate]

4. It Has Always Been A Spectator Sport, Ma'am

It is only quite recently that the practice has been hidden away in the dead of night, rather than conducted as a mass entertainment in a crowded plaza under the noon-day sun....

[Swamp Rat]

6. Not only that, there was also participant observation.

See: Lyons, France, cannibalism; or Michel de Montaigne's "Essai: Des Cannibales" http://www.lib.virginia.edu/rmds/collections/gordon/literary/montaigne/index.html

[bliss_eternal]

15. Ma'am? Is my mother in law here?

;)

[Stephist]

5. That gripes the shit out of me too.

it's covered like a football game with sideline reporters, interviews from both sides, and cheerleaders.
The only thing missing is XFL cam and the transport of Ed Hochuli to toss the coin in the air to see who gets the right to inject the needle.

[bliss_eternal]

10. Exactly--

thank you! Someone gets what I am saying.

:hi:

[Peter Frank]

7. I totally disagree!!!

Everyone should see the barbarism.

[bliss_eternal]

11. ....

:hug:

:hi:

[k_jerome]

8. i believe many dp supporters

may long for complete public access to further sate the blood lust.

for now, rita cosby descibing the ordeal will have to be enough.

[bliss_eternal]

12. LOL!

Thank you for making me laugh...I needed that. And welcome to DU!
:hi:

[Peter Frank]

16. k_jerome -- Welcome, and very well said...

As much as many of us want to couch our desire for vengeance in terms of "justice," ...at the end of the day, Justice all too often becomes code for blood lust.

Some obscure religious fanatic once said something like, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Too bad this hasn't caught on in the Christian community.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

17. It always has been.

Remember hangings in the town square?

[DrDan]

18. I have attended 2 executions - the first involved

3 men - the second involved 2

This was in Saudi Arabia.

I would do so again and have no problem discussing the details.

I am 100% anti-dealth penalty.

I agree with the previous poster - these should be televised. Everyone should see what we are doing.

This is not unlike the Iraq death toll. Junior's administration would like nothing more than to keep it quiet and discuss only the rosy aspects of his illegal war (if there truly are any). I think this should be on the front page of every paper every day. We cannot let this toll out of anyone's thinking at any time.

[Tesha]

19. Always has been!

Hangings, burnings-at-the-stake, beheadings via the axeman or
the guillotine, public garrotings, drawings-and-quarterings,
crucifixions, felons dying in the gladiatorial arena, stonings,
etc., executions have *ALWAYS* been a major source of enter-
tainment for the rabble.

We're only a hair's-breadth from the "particicutions" described in
"The Handmaid's Tale".

Tesha

[JNelson6563]

21. Exactly

Some people have no sense of history. Executions have always been a big hit with the public, and not just the rabble. I hear Caesar had a sumptuous box from which to watch the gore.

Julie

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. I'm afraid

That the answer is probably "round about 3000 BC".

There's a very wide streak of the ghoulish in a lot of people.

[kcwayne]

22. What do you mean "when". It was THE spectator sport in Roman

times and had been for a couple of thousand years before that as well.