USA to live-stream public execution, confirmed by Pentagon

[LoveheartBear]

This is absolutely barbaric. Just when I thought Pete Hegseth/Trump etc couldn’t sink any lower.

I just saw this on the news absolutely horrified, Pete Hegseth is absolutely unhinged.

What the hell are we doing to our children? This world has always been cruel but going down this route is a new depth of depravity, it WILL come home to roost in future generations.

And we think we are progressive beings. Poor kids.

Hegseth is ISIS in a suit.
Poor USA having so many toxic men in charge. We'll have USA refugees over here too at this rate.

Have the Democrats even sorted out who's running in 28?

It absolutely does make it worse. This isn’t about “not hiding” the death sentence being enacted. The intent from the government here is glorifying the death penalty, humiliating the convict and their family, and desensitising the population to violence. It’s the kind of thing that is one of those “small things” that make up the slippery slope to things like the Hunger Games or the Running Man in dystopian fiction. The death penalty is evil in itself, but broadcasting it like this is even worse.

The only people who tune in will be sickos and those who already support the death penalty. Anyone uncomfortable with it isn’t going to watch. The footage and the prior commentary on the broadcast will do everything it can to hype this up as justice or a good thing. So I totally disagree that “maybe people seeing this will change their minds about the death penalty”.

If it was part of a serious, planned “if the state will carry out this sentence, footage should be available for scrutiny by qualified independent parties in an audit capacity”, obviously that would be very different.

I can’t imagine they’ll want the last words of an Islamic extremist broadcast live right before he’s executed by the American military.

I mean, talk about an ideal platform for a martyr.

I would never watch something like this. Absolutely barbaric.

I do, however, think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that anyone who isn’t deeply traumatised by watching an execution has something wrong with them and needs therapy. A bit of context is needed. There are medical and prison staff who are required to watch executions in the US along with journalists who choose to cover stories about the death penalty* and family members of the victim. Some of them may find it traumatising and some won’t because they think the victim deserves to die. They carry on with their lives and are fine with it all. Would I label them psychopaths? No.

Personally I wouldn’t watch the state sponsored murder of someone who killed my child but I completely understand why another mother might choose to watch the person who eg raped, tortured and killed their child being put to death and would walk away afterwards feeling relief the perpetrator is dead.

All that said, I do agree that actively choosing to view a firing squad execution simply out of interest is ghoulish and very disturbing.

I was reading an article earlier about the November elections. Apparently Texas is a key state for Trump and he has lost a lot of support there, it is possible that he will either lose in the mid terms, or that the Republican majority will be so greatly reduced that even Trump will notice. I wonder if the death penalty streaming debate is what Trump sees as an sweet incentive to get the undecided to the poll stations.

So many young, already damaged young boys and men will watch this - particularly in the US, where they have easy access to guns. So we can expect more mass killings and male violence

And the kind of home in the gun toting US where children have access to guns. Monkey see, monkey do.

Just goes to show that Trump's America is complete shithole with a thin veneer of wealth.

You beat me to it OP. He did a terrible thing, but even so I don't agree with the death penalty on principle, and livestreaming it is horrendous. It is barbaric not just for him (even though I don't much care about what happens to him as an individual) but it is dehumanising for the people watching. People should be better than that. And for those who see it, they can't unsee it.

On average 44,000 gun deaths a year not all murders some accidental.
But hey it's the Land of the Free
If you agree with Trump.
Not so much if you don't.

The execution live stream as others have said running man connotations.

An American colleague once told me that most gun related deaths are linked to suicide so America doesn’t have a gun crisis, just a mental health one😵‍💫

Two comments spring to mind

The first is Sergeant Wilsons' 'Is this wise Captain Mainwaring?'

the other is from a friend of mine old enough to remember when we still had the death penalty in the UK, he felt that it coarsened society.

I cannot imagine that many in the US army who will be carrying out the sentence will be happy with the live streaming decision

I'm not worried about MY child seeing it.

This might be absolutely mind-blowing for you, but many of us care about children as a whole. Children who we've never met, even. I know, it's wild, but I don't think a child not being exposed to a man have his head blown off live on TV should depend on having decent parents.

It definitely won't. They'll probably do a post-execution show.

I agree. I think many will watch out of morbid curiosity and deeply regret it when the reality hits.

I still think he at least deserves execution

You think someone dying in real life isn't as bad as what you'd see in a made up film? Good lord.

Nope. That's not what I said.

I said it's not as gory or dramatic.

She has a point, though, sadly. People are not as traumatised by watching live deaths as they should be. Watching public executions used to be commonplace in this country, and it still is in other parts of the world.

Im very sorry about your family member.

As I understand it, people who have lost a loved one to a murderer are allowed to watch their execution in the States. The mother of Christa Pilks victim watched her botched execution. However, that is very different to live streaming it to the general public.

The Americans are barbaric hypocrites. They condemn other countries for public executions, pretend that they care about civil frights and freedom then behave like animals drunk on blood lust.
This will be everywhere, it’ll be copied, shared. Eventually all our kids are going to come across this even when they don’t want to.
Hesgeth is mentally ill, a religious fanatic put in charge of one of the largest militaries in the world.

‘The only people who tune in will be sickos and those who already support the death penalty. Anyone uncomfortable with it isn’t going to watch.’

Unfortunately there will be no way to avoid the footage after the fact. That’s the way the internet works. I never wanted to see the footage of Kirk being shot and I was very careful to stay off sites that might show it like X and yet, I have still seen it.

So it’s better to emulate the depravity of other nations, than to take the moral high ground? Which is what I think the USA would have aspired to, once upon a time…