6/17: Slain African

[Undertoad]

This guy's name is Ring Paulino Deng. Born in Sudan, he found himself in the midst of the religious civil war there. He was kidnapped by military forces, and then was sold into slavery.

He was a slave for four years before his father sold everything he owned to buy the freedom of Deng and his sister. They escaped to Egypt, where they applied to immigrate to the US. Although they were unsuccessful, Deng's Aunt included him in her application, and she succeeded.

Deng moved to Nashville and attended high school for a while, hoping to get a college basketball scholarship. But eventually he dropped out to work at Walmart full-time. He would send most of his money back to his family in Egypt.

One day he drove into his apartment complex and blocked in three other cars. A dispute erupted. Deng was stabbed in the chest and died.

It would be easy to sum it up by saying that the whole story is high irony, and that it proves the US is not the apparent land of promise and security. But 2 million Sudanese have died from war or famine, and it's not clear what role Deng himself played in starting the scuffle that ended in his death.

[verbatim]

i think the US is in really bad shape if we go start fights and there are fatalities for something as dumb as parking someone in. makes me wonder why we dont have tougher punishments for killers to make people think twice before taking someone's life. he was supporting his family out of the country too. its just wrong.

[Chewbaccus]

I feel sorry for this guy, I truly do, but that's how it is.

People hear "Land of Opportunity" and with the rep started out in the Era of Immigration in the early 20th Century, foreigners assume that success and prosperity are guaranteed. They forget, don't acknowledge, or don't realize that a "Land of Opportunity" gives you the same amount of opportunity to fail as it does to succeed.

And Verb, we do have tough penalties for murderers, but how do we strengthen them? Kill the perpetrators twice?

~Mike

[verbatim]

yes! well, no. i just think that if you take one person's life away, on purpose with the intent to kill them, i just find the 'temporary insanity' thing the biggest load of bs since the clinton/lewinsky scandal. i find that the legal system is flawed, and it is not doing its job to protect. we need tough penalties to discourage people from doing it in the beginning, not just punishing them for their actions. (this should be a thread on its own)

[jaguar]

oi, verbatim, i agree, SO MAKE IT A THREAD! =)
Someone has to start them here, I’ve done a couple the political area has been dead for awhile, why not fire it up with this?
Get the idea, this is not a *huge* community, everyone plays an important role, including you.
I've participated in some great debate/discussions here.
It’s why i keep coming back...but back onto topic...

Murder in the US seems to fall into 2 categories, those that get off too easy, and those that die, why not just jail *all* 1st degree murders for life, no exceptions. End of story. Personally i think McVeigh should have been left to suffer in solitary confinement for the next 60 years, for people like that being basically humanely put to sleep is far too nice. Allot of entirely innocent people died because of HIS political views, let him mull that over till he goes insane.

[Griff]

"Allot of entirely innocent people died because of HIS political views,..." Not to nit-pick here but they suffered from his actions, not his views. Hate-crime legislation advocates would like to prosecute beliefs but thats not going to happen.

I'd like to see us get away from the death penalty and move to life in prison. I'm not sure I would advocate mandatory minimums, however, since they've helped create quite a cancer in drug enforcement.

[Chewbaccus]

Now see, I'm in favor of the "penal colony" idea. England had a good idea with Australia, initially using it to store all their convicts and n'er-do-wells.

I say find a nice island chain or some sort of landmass in the heart of the Pacific, and dump all our prisoners there. It gets them away from us, they'd be visited by family more (if for no other reason than to get a nice trip to the beach), and as a bonus, you could probably plant some factories there and make them be productive.

Also, this would allow one to group the offenders by class, ranging from an island where you put all the murderers, child rapists and such on one island (preferably the one with the most carnivores) and one where you put potheads on so that they can watch cartoons all day and play hacky sack.

~Mike

[verbatim]

alright. i will make the thread today.



but the whole penal colony idea--wasnt that covered in a movie a few years back? it was california, and i think it was about to fall into the ocean. i cant remember the name. but you still have to have guards on the island to make sure that nobody gets killed, in or out. it would be easier to put people in solitary confinement for life. (which makes them looney)

[Griff]

Would the moon be a harsh enough mistress?

[russotto]

Originally posted by Tony Shepps

One day he drove into his apartment complex and blocked in three other cars. A dispute erupted. Deng was stabbed in the chest and died.

Did anyone move the car afterwards?

[alphageek31337]

Russ: y'know that's a little bit ill.

Verb: The movie was Escape from LA, and was Tons O' Fun.

I personally believe that everything should be deal with on a case by case basis. If you freak out and kill some dude for schtooping your wife, you get jail time for a while, 20 years or so, then maybe parole. You bomb a federal building, I say we blow out your knees with a shotgun then drop a ton of gravel on you. The only problem I have with McVeigh's death is that it didn't hurt, and we let him talk too much. A media blackout on the whole thing would have been perfect...we kill him, and his 'movement' and beliefs/ideas don't get publicized. All in all, a good thing.

Steve

________
Australia: Nice to know that your great grandfather was the kind of bastard no one wanted to deal with.

[jaguar]

oi!
watch the .sig =)
While i take no real offense i have to point out that most of the prisonsers shipped to australia were of the poltical kind, not murders etc , some were shipped for crimes as minor as stealing a loaf of bread...

<this has been another offtopic post brought to you by jaguar>

[CyclopONE]

Originally posted by alphageek31337
Verb: The movie was Escape from LA, and was Tons O' Fun.

There are many movie versions of the "penal colony" idea. Have you seen "No Escape", "Fortress", "Outland", and the horrible "Alien 3"?

Personally, "No Escape" fits well with the idea of a penal colony on an island, but damn, I hated that warden in that movie.

-Cyc

[Undertoad]

And of course the original, classic "Escape from New York".

[Chewbaccus]

Originally posted by Griff
Would the moon be a harsh enough mistress?

*originally had that idea!

Steve, remind me this summer, I gotta post my King of America plans on our site. When that's done, I'll give the link for them here and you can see what I mean.

Verb, who cares if they get killed? If one murders someone and is sent to an island far away from any societal contact, one would get the idea that it's for the long run. In which case, if murderers kill each other, it would merely thin out the population, and decrease the amount of material required to ship in.

~Mike