Death By Firing Squad

Jesse Welles has a few things to say about putting a military execution on public live streaming platforms. Whatever you think about capital punishment (I'm against it), making it into a spectacle is barbaric. Pete Hegseth says that a public execution will be a deterrent, but people already know murder is wrong, even those who do it. If you've ever met people, you know at least half will consider watching a firing squad blow someone away as entertainment, and will want more. It was true in ancient Rome, it was true in medieval Europe, and it was true during Jim Crow, regardless of the person's guilt. 

When I was a child, there was a historical photograph of a lynching displayed at my local state park. The substantial crowd was well dressed for the time, and all turned to the camera to smile, even the children. The victim was barely a dark blob hanging from a tree. We may like to think we are better than that now, but recent history shows that we are not.