by Kurt Nimmo, Global Research:
“If I’m in charge later, we won’t just have a three strikes law,” declares Palantir co-founder, multi-billionaire (net worth: $3.6 billion), and Trump supporter Joe Lonsdale. “We will quickly try and hang men after three violent crimes. And yes, we will do it in public to deter others. Our society needs balance. It’s time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable.”
Lonsdale’s desire to publicly execute criminals “quickly”—apparently minus the ability to appeal or petition for post-conviction relief—harkens back to the Middle Ages when public executions were common, particularly in England where the monarch Henry VIII executed nearly 60,000 people. According to the Italian jurist Cesare Beccaria (On Crimes and Punishments, 2009), “the death penalty is not useful because of the example of atrocity it gives to men.” Public executions largely ended in the 19th century, with significant legal reforms occurring in various countries. Following these reforms, executions were conducted behind prison walls. “As ideas about natural rights and human dignity took hold across Europe,” writes Claire Lehmann,
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support for public torture and state-sanctioned killing waned. By the mid-to-late 19th century, public executions no longer occurred across most of Europe, and if capital punishment was carried out, it was done behind closed doors. By the mid-20th century, most European nations had abolished capital punishment altogether.
Mr. Lonsdale has fallen back on a more brutal concept of justice. He evidently believes gruesome public hanging sends a message to criminals, although this has been consistently refuted. Experts agree that public executions do not deter criminals.
“The psychological mind-set of the criminal is such that they are not able to consider consequences at the time of the crime,” notes Dr. Jonathan Groner, an associate professor of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health. “People who commit these crimes are not in a normal state of mind—they do not consider the consequences in a logical way.”
Despite this evidence, Lonsdale argues public execution indeed prevents violent crime.
“Yes, hanging the repeat-violent-bad-guys solves their violence, deters others, and protects the innocent,” he tweeted on December 6 in a follow-up to his original tweet. “Not that complicated unless you’re an idiot leftist.”
Lonsdale’s desire to execute criminals conforms to his radical rightwing political views. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, has been involved in the “libertarian” Koch network, and is a supporter of Elon Musk’s America PAC, a super PAC backing Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. America PAC canvasses for conservatives in battleground states. The PAC can accept and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence voters. “If you sit this election out, Kamala and the crazies will win,” warned an America PAC broadside prior to Trump’s election victory.
