Word: ganging
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...same day as the Waco raid, an ATF investigator, working with a New York City bomb-squad detective, found the vital shard of evidence that broke the World Trade Center bombing case. Agents from the bureau's office in Charlotte, North Carolina, recently took down a murderous street gang and sent a dozen members to prison, many for life terms. And last month Charlotte agents played a central role in capturing carjackers believed to have killed an Oregon businesswoman, the kind of case special agent in charge Paul Lyon sees as the bureau's "salvation." He feels Congress...
...obvious question which Altman fails to answer concerns the reasons for restoration of the chain gang system: the need for criminals to understand the consequences of the crimes which they freely chose to commit. In a further statement of his blundering genius, Altman condemns the death penalty, which he apparently considers the next logical step beyond the contemporary chain gang. Granted, death penalty recipients--not victims--cannot recount the last painful moments of their wasted lives, but neither can the murdered victims of cruel and unusual crimes confide to loved ones the final painful, tortured moments of their abruptly extinguished...
...labor, or executions, because these unsightly necessities remind society of its weaknesses, the maintenance of order within society nonetheless requires a system of justice. A better agenda for Altman might relate to the prevention of crimes, a policy which has the positive effect of creating neither victims nor chain gang convicts...
Although Altman alludes to Nazi and Soviet death-labor camps--extreme examples of human inhumanity--the idealist editor fails to describe the nature of contemporary chain gang labor. Instead, Altman compares the disease-ridden prison camps of early 20th century America to the most horrible places of extermination know to recorded history. Alabama prisoners who today collect waste from the roadsides, and who suffer through heat, cold and embarrassment, face only the indignity which they brought upon themselves, rather then the certain and horrible death which millions of innocents endured merely because they were born. Mr. Altman, comparisons such...
...question of image also pervades the debate over the chain gang. Why do southern politicians such as Edwards gabble so eagerly about the prospect of lines of predominantly Black prisoners chained together and working for virtually nothing? Chain gangs were arguably the last concrete remnant of slavery in this country, and they lasted for almost 100 years after the Empancipation. From a completely pragmatic point of view, their revival could hardly contribute to further racial understanding and respect...