A More Appropriate Protest
November 19, 2009 • By Cameron Clarke,
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The Nov. 12 issue of The Breeze bore an interesting front page article. The article reported on the candlelight vigil held for John Allen Muhammad, the “Beltway Sniper” who killed 10 people and injured several others in a murderous spree in Northern Virginia. As a Northern Virginia native, the series of murders he committed hit close to home, and I shudder when I think of the families he affected and the lives he changed.
While I respect and stand behind the protestors’ rights to gather outside the courthouse and hold a vigil as Muhammad was executed, I feel this is a poor way to protest the use of capital punishment in America. Lighting candles and mourning a man who killed 10 people in our fair state seems somewhat backwards to me. This is especially true when the involved parties are opposed to the death penalty on the grounds that our government should not condone violence by putting people to death. So how can a group protest killing by mourning a killer? It seems contradictory.
Allow me to compare this method of protest to an unrelated situation. And bear with me, because this may sound absurd at first. Let us say that I am a bloodthirsty, evil tyrant. I have committed many crimes against humanity, and upon being captured, the international community agrees my punishment should fit my crimes. After multiple appeals for mercy, it is still determined that it would be best for the world if I were beaten, tortured and killed, just as I did to my victims. It is easy to see how some people could believe this is justified, and could point to my crimes as the justification for my punishment. However, I can also understand how many people around the world could view this as cruel, unusual and unnecessary punishment. In this case, it seems some protests are easily expected. But doesn’t the following scenario then seem strange? As I am tortured and killed, a group of people holds a vigil, mourning my death, just outside my place of execution. These people claim to stand on the side of love and mourn my death as a means of protesting the vile way in which I was executed.
I get the point. Many people believe the death penalty is cruel and unusual, and that lethal injection should be outlawed. But this is the wrong way to protest it. The idea is to protest our government’s support of killing. But in protesting this way, are we not backing a killer?
I also understand that the group mourns Muhammad’s victims as well, and I’m fully in favor of this. But this strikes me as odd also. How can a group mourn the victims of a killing spree and the killer himself in the same vein?
Instead of mourning a killer’s death, those opposing the death penalty must take a better route. Perhaps instead of holding a candlelit vigil outside the courthouse (despite their constitutional right to do so), and thus appearing to back a ruthless killer, opponents of capital punishment should appeal to their leaders to find a better way to punish criminals like Muhammad.
Cameron Clarke is a freshman theatre major.
Contact Cameron Clarke at cameronclarke@me.com
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This is the most ludicrous piece of writing I’ve seen in this paper in a long while…and that’s saying a lot. Perhaps you’ve never heard of the value of a human life. Just because he killed 10 people does not mean his life is worthless. This man had a family. Yes, we all know he did things of unspeakable horror. He also had children. Every single second of his life was not pure evil. They were not backing a killer but mourning the passing of a human life.
“So how can a group protest killing by mourning a killer? It seems contradictory”
How is killing someone for killing others NOT contradictory? If his killings are wrong then so too in some part are the state’s.
“Just because he killed 10 people does not mean his life is worthless.”
Yes it does.