What Would The Proper Punishment Be?

Zachary Wester and bride.

According to this CNN article , Jackson County, Florida sheriff's deputy Zachary Wester has planted drugs and drug paraphernalia on hundreds of innocent motorists. His activity was, however, defended by higher Florida authorities which led to the resignation of the prosecutor investigating the affair.

Wester comes from a law enforcement family. His father was also a deputy in the Jackson County sheriff's department. With a record as indicated by this story it's obvious that everyone is in imminent danger, not as much from terrorists or violent criminals as from cops. Since these public servants spend most of their time cruising around in automobiles, if a person wishes to minimize their exposure to false arrest and imprisonment they might be advised to walk, ride a bike or take the bus.

On the basis of the 52 felony counts filed against him, if found guilty of all Wester could serve 13 1/2 years in jail. At the same time, Bernie Madoff, who at age seventy-one,  pleaded guilty to 11 federal felony charges involving losses of $18 billion to wealthy investors, was given a sentence of 150 years in prison.

Rope As A Symbol Of Hate And Discrimination

A teapot tempest has blown through the storied halls of the University of Michigan University Hospital after an employee reported finding a piece of rope knotted in such a manner as to terrorize somebody. An investigation by University police determined that the knot was made as practice in the tying of one used in sport fishing, the "uni-knot".


It's interesting that people who seem to be unable to identify knots that have been in common use for ages should be able to determine that any particular knot has some cultural significance. In this case, and many others like it, a "noose" is deemed to be somehow threatening to particular ethnic minorities. In reality, a common method of execution of all shades of criminals by state authorities through the centuries has been by hanging. The knot used to form the noose used for this punishment is quite similar to the Uni Knot:


While hanging has gone out of style as a method of execution by state authorities, it's still a legal potentiality in both Delaware and Washington. The last such hanging took place in Delaware in 1996.

 

Billy Bailey, hung in 1996 for the robbery/murder of a Delaware couple in 1979.

The Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, authorized the mass hanging of 39 Sioux Indians in Mankato, Minnesota in 1862 in retribution for their part in a short-lived rebellion against the white invaders taking over their land.