Laurell K. Hamilton Quotes

This has been the case in EVERY jurisdiction that has had capital punishment. Capital punishment does provide vengeance for victims, relatives and society. And in many societies execution is less expensive than prison for life. But it has never curtailed crime despite the example. In London, they used to have public executions as examples to inhibit crime. While the crowd was watching a pickpocket be hung, other pickpockets were relieving many spectators of their wallets and watches.

In August 1819 there was a reform political rally in St. Peter’s Field of Manchester. The authorities wanting to censor the reform contents sent the police to break up the meeting. The police killed 11 people and wounded hundreds more in what became known as the “Peterloo Massacre”. Carlile, who publicly condemned the massacre, was one of the heroes of freedom of the press. He was jailed frequently for publishing anti government or anti Church of England criticisms, as were his wife and sister. The government grew so desperate trying to censor his publications that they placed a high minimum price on the sale of all newspapers assuring that the average citizen could not afford to buy the “seditious and blasphemous material.” In addition to press freedom he was an early reformer for birth control, religious freedom, women's suffrage and rights (which he called for in the 1820s), and against child labor.

Kennedy, the father of JFK, had been one of the sleaziest of the stock market manipulators in the country. Prior to 1934 the Republican Hoover philosophy had prevailed letting the market regulate itself. But the practices of many of the Wall Street leaders were by modern standards outright thievery.FDR created the first Commission to regulate publicly traded stock transactions and schemes. He made a shrewd pick with Kennedy who was very egotistical and ambitious for power and recognition for Kennedy not only was an accomplished master at the skullduggery of the day, but he had no loyalty to the wealthy brokerage and financial leadership class as Kennedy was a Roman Catholic and at the time Catholics were never really accepted by upper class Protestant society. He turned out to be not only the first SEC Chairman but the one who demonstrated the efficacy of such regulation. He was then rewarded with the Ambassadorship to England the plum diplomatic assignment of the country.

This proverb only makes sense in the light of understanding the Arab concept of revenge—“blood.” In a rural desert environment where little can be expected of government, the Arabs have developed a law enforcement and peace keeping mechanism which while primitive from modern standards, nevertheless worked to some degree. It is that revenge—“blood” is a moral necessity and obligation of all people, and revenge is not limited by time or to the individuals involved in the first incidence. The immediate family are the first to extract revenge, but the extended family follows and often the entire clan. Sometimes revenge is tribal or even national. Anyone who fails to revenge a member in his group is not only a disgrace, but is a clear and present danger to the group because then they can be attacked with impunity. So revenge is a strong obligation of the group members and blood must be paid with blood no matter how many generations it may take. The only thing that keeps me and my family safe, is the surety what whosoever kills one of us will themselves be killed or if they die a natural death we will take revenge on one of the evildoers relatives. Crime must never pay!

Nathaniel Bacon had led a rebellion in Virginia and had routed the Governor’s troops and caused him to flee leaving control of Virginia to Bacon and his followers who were far more democratic and advanced. However Bacon succumbed to swamp fever, and his followers could not hold the colony together giving the Governor a chance to establish his authority. He then went on a vengeful reign of terror, executing all of Bacon’s followers he could get his hands on. With no danger to the authority of the Crown, King Charles felt that Berkeley had gone too far. The King’s father Charles I had been executed in the aftermath of the English Civil War, but he had executed far fewer than Berkely had done in Virginia.

There is not much difference between England then and America now.

This sura on retaliation for murder is behind the Saudi Arabian law which allows the male relative of a murder victim to personally wield the sword in the beheading of the murderer.