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No Capital Punishment, Says Jersey. Condeming the State to Death is Another Matter.
City Journal ^ | Dec. '07 | Steven Malanga

Posted on 12/13/2007 5:40:17 PM PST by T.L.Sink

The state legislature is in the process of repealing Jersey's death penalty amid great debate. It would be the first state in the country to abolish executions legislatively since states were forced by a 1976 Supreme Court decision to re-write their death-penalty laws. While politicians rush to eliminate the death penalty, they've paid little attention to the murder rate - which since 2000 has jumped 44% in Jersey, up from 3.4 murders per 100,000 people to 4.9, while declining modestly across the nation. Jersey's increase in murders has been the sixth-highest in the nation. Meanwhile, the state has earned a reputation for having some of the meanest streets in America. Three of its cities are among the nation's most dangerous. Death penalty foes argue that most murders are spontaneous acts of passion committed by people who know their victims. Yet these crimes clearly aren't Jersey's problem. What's happening in some of Jersey's toughest communities is a virtual breakdown of order: thugs, not cops, rule the streets. Jersey was once among the safest and most prosperous states, a place of stable communities that was hospitable to families and business. But Jersey's politicians have managed to squander much of that peputation through high taxes, toxic business regulations, and inattention to crime. Jersey's rate of citizen outmigration is now among the highest in the country. It's important for the rest of America to realize that the state that becomes the first to abolish the death penalty legislatively is a place of rising crime, where thugs rule some neighborhoods and the criminal-justice system in unraveling.

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: deathpenalty
Here in the Sunshine State we witness the arrival of refugees from the Garden State every day. I think we should take one of our 67 counties and rename it Essex County.
1 posted on 12/13/2007 5:40:20 PM PST by T.L.Sink
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To: T.L.Sink
Another nail in the coffin called New Jersey as a livable place.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

2 posted on 12/13/2007 5:45:40 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: T.L.Sink
This is exactly the way our Founding Fathers envisioned their system working.

The states are laboratories for social and political ideas. Let people in the other 49 states see for themselves what works or doesn't work in a particular state and then decide whether or not they want to implement that idea in their state.

If New Jersey wants to become a magnet for murderers, so be it.

3 posted on 12/13/2007 5:46:23 PM PST by Texas Eagle (Could pacifists exist if there weren't people brave enough to go to war for their right to exist?)
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To: T.L.Sink

I know just the county and it is also waterfront property in parts.
We just have to rename that big lake to Lake Essex.


4 posted on 12/13/2007 5:47:07 PM PST by bill1952 (The right to buy weapons is the right to be free)
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To: T.L.Sink

I keep telling my friends in Texas that I want to move from New Jersey down there, and they keep telling me stories about 3 foot long cockroaches and hailstones the size of basketballs. Apparently Texas is Hell on Earth. I’m sure glad they let me know before I made a big mistake and left good ol’ New Jersey.


5 posted on 12/13/2007 5:55:03 PM PST by gridlock (Recycling is the new Religion.)
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To: T.L.Sink
On the news I heard a NJ Pol stating that "Maybe it is OK in some place like Texas, but not here in New Jersey" in a very condescending way.

I almost laughed myself out of the chair. I'm sure all the organized crime guys had a hoot too.

6 posted on 12/13/2007 5:58:09 PM PST by BallyBill (Serial Hit-N-Run poster)
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To: T.L.Sink

7 posted on 12/13/2007 5:59:03 PM PST by Psycho_Bunny (Islam is the E-Ticket ride at Nutsberry Farm)
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To: T.L.Sink

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.


8 posted on 12/13/2007 6:10:40 PM PST by PGalt
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To: T.L.Sink

I hereby volunteer to donate the City of Philadelphia to New Jersey to make up for all the folks moving away. The corrupt cesspool in our largest city is a natural fit for the State of New Jersey.


9 posted on 12/13/2007 6:28:16 PM PST by Vigilanteman (Are there any men left in Washington? Or are there only cowards? Ahmad Shah Massoud)
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To: gridlock

You know they were fooling you. The cockroaches are at least ten feet long.:)


10 posted on 12/13/2007 6:38:46 PM PST by WinOne4TheGipper (Now more popular than Congress!* *According to a new RasMESSen Poll.)
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To: gridlock

I used to live in Point Pleasant Beach a couple blocks from the ocean and it was a wonderful town. But I’ll take FL over NJ anytime for a million reasons. COME ON DOWN! It’s better even with an occasional hurricane!


11 posted on 12/13/2007 7:58:45 PM PST by T.L.Sink
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To: T.L.Sink

Anybody who thinks there’s no capital punishment in New Jersey should go back there and dredge the swampland.


12 posted on 12/13/2007 8:01:56 PM PST by RichInOC (New Jersey: Fuggeddaboudit.)
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To: Vigilanteman

Philly needs another Chief Rizzo. Remember him? I did some graduate work there and at the time the population was about 2 million and very safe for a city that size. I used to sometimes ride the Market Street and Broad Street subways after midnight. Those days are long gone. From what I’ve heard on the news the mayor is aiding and abetting the decline of the city. Is that true?


13 posted on 12/13/2007 8:10:18 PM PST by T.L.Sink
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To: gridlock

I Gar-Ran-TEE ya that’s all true! The ONLY state worser than Texas is Florida...not only 12-foot cucarachas, but filled with poisonous snakes and ‘gators that roam the streets and schoolyards lookin’ for their next snack.


14 posted on 12/13/2007 8:22:00 PM PST by TrueKnightGalahad (When you're racing...it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.)
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To: BallyBill

At least in Texas, and here in Florida, law-abiding citizens can exercise their Second Amendment constitutional rights and use a firearm to protect their lives and property. That’s one reason the gun-grabbing states have higher violent crime rates. I can tell you a personal horror story about NJ with its extremely harsh gun control laws. John Lott was right: “More Guns, Less Crime.”


15 posted on 12/13/2007 8:32:01 PM PST by T.L.Sink
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To: T.L.Sink
No Capital Punishment, Says Jersey. >>

and plenty of abortion. NJ leads the nation in TEEN abortion and is not far behind for Partial Birth Abortion,

what they didn’t tell you is that nobody has been executed since 1963!

Further, there are former death-row inmates who have walked the streets FREE, one is cop-killer, tom trantino.

16 posted on 12/13/2007 9:24:22 PM PST by Coleus (Happy Chanukah)
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To: Coleus

Right - and another irony is that any middle-aged person who gets capital punishment will die of old age by the time the never-ending court appeals and legal reviews are exhausted. That alone shows our judicial process to be a farce.


17 posted on 12/13/2007 9:41:23 PM PST by T.L.Sink
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To: Coleus; jocon307; Alberta's Child; Pharmboy; Calpernia; Malsua; dead; nj26; OldFriend; Clemenza; ...

bump & a ping


18 posted on 12/14/2007 8:14:41 PM PST by neverdem (Call talk radio. We need a Constitutional Amendment for Congressional term limits. Let's Roll!)
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