The Man Who Wouldn't Die

Wouldn’t it be ironic if our failure to kill Romell Broom brings an end to the death penalty in Ohio? Let me be as clear as I can be from the onset: Romell Broom is the scum of the earth. He raped and killed a 14-year-old child and I sincerely wish that would have had the courage and decency to hang himself in his cell on the night of his capture ... or anytime thereafter. The world would certainly be a much better place without him in it … but, with that said, I remain adamant that state-sanctioned killing is wrong under any circumstances.

In 18th century in England pickpockets were hung in public, in front of large crowds. While these public spectacles were being carried out … other pickpockets were working the cheering crowds, picking their pockets; so much for deterrence.

No, the state kills for one reason and one reason only: Retribution. And for some people that’s a good enough reason. But what we’ve done over the years is to try to make the barbaric seem humane by developing “cleaner” methods of execution. We developed lethal injection because electrocution was deemed “cruel and unusual punishment” due to the fact that sometimes it literally fried the condemned person for many minutes … actually causing their blood to boil and sparks to shoot out of their heads in a few documented cases. Not for nothing were electric chairs in most states nicknamed “Old Sparky.”

Why the pretense? Why don’t we admit that since we are among the last so-called “developed” nations on earth to engage in this practice we are no better, no more civilized than the hated members of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda, and if we were honest about our motives we’d bring back stoning. Let’s dispense with the oxymoronic façade of attempting to make a repugnant practice palatable and make planned death as ugly as it should be.

Quit hiring others to do the dirty work. Allow the families that have been so damaged by monsters like Broom to have the pleasure of doing the killing themselves — if this is what it takes to bring them closure. And, once they’ve turned themselves into the monsters they’ve so despised, how well will they sleep at night?

The Man Who Probably Wishes He Were Dead

Let’s suppose you were tired of going to work everyday, so you cut off your foot to claim disability. Wouldn’t someone say, “Hey, wait a minute, you caused your own disability, we’re not going to pay you under those circumstances!”

Shouldn’t that be the case with Kevin (No Machine Gun) Kelly? This dude breaks the law like he has a license to commit crime, and then, when he caught, all of the bitch comes out of him; he stressed, he can’t sleep, he’s eligible for disability … even though his “problems” were caused by his own willful actions. If I were on the PERS board I’d tell Kelly “Hell no, see you in court.” I’d have a judge make me pay him disability … at least that way the board wouldn’t come off looking so bad, and, who knows, maybe a sane judge would see this situation for what it is: A self-inflicted disability.

The Man Who Lives Off Us

Actually, it’s more than one man; it’s a host of them: Developers who prey on our insecurities regarding our lack of development progress. We’re suckers for any developer who says he can bring a project on line that will put some cranes on our skyline.

Now, I’m all for development, the more the better, but why is it that we have to subsidize developers without ever getting anything in return (except the empty promise of thousands of new jobs). Why, similar to the feds who now own a large chunk of the auto companies they bailed out, don’t we take an ownership position in every development that is financed with public dollars?

Or, if we give a developer millions of dollars to jump-start a project, shouldn’t we be entitled to our money back, plus a low rate of interest? Maybe it’s just that I don’t understand high finance, but it seems that the public is always getting screwed in these deals.

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier's From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.frombehindthewall.com.

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