1946. Karl Hermann Frank hangs before a crowd of 5,000, punishment for erasing an entire village. They called it justice. But once a crowd shows up to watch someone die, is it still justice, or has it become the same cruelty dressed differently? Curious what people think.
@xdimao@Jay_Musk_JR Pointing out that a crowd enjoying an execution is a different feeling than justice being served isn't sympathizing with the guy who got executed. It's a pretty basic distinction
1946. Karl Hermann Frank hangs before a crowd of 5,000, punishment for erasing an entire village. They called it justice. But once a crowd shows up to watch someone die, is it still justice, or has it become the same cruelty dressed differently? Curious what people think.
@jondotfreeman@Chomag77 Nobody mentioned rehabilitation either. You're arguing with three different points, none of which were made in the original post
@jondotfreeman@Chomag77 Funny, because the post you're replying to never claimed deterrence was the west's downfall, it pointed out deterrence literally failed at the exact events built to demonstrate it. You brought closure into a conversation about crowds enjoying a hanging
This isn't the first time a crowd showed up to watch someone die and called it justice.
1936, Owensboro, Kentucky, Rainey Bethea's execution drew over 20,000 spectators.
Food vendors set up stands. People climbed onto rooftops and telephone poles for a better view.
Out-of-town visitors booked hotel rooms specifically for the event. Newspapers at the time described the atmosphere as a carnival, not a courtroom. It was so chaotic and so clearly about spectacle rather than justice that it became one of the last public executions in American history, lawmakers were embarrassed enough by what the crowd revealed about itself that they moved executions behind walls. So when 5,000 people show up for Frank in 1946, or 20,000 show up for Bethea in 1936, the question isn't really about the men being executed.
It's about what the crowd was actually there for.