December 02, 2005

Sanctimonious Piffle

I must say the ongoing sobfest throughout the media about Nguyen verged on the ridiculous today.

As usual, they were led by Fairfax - as the SMH devoted half of its front page to headers like this.

smh.JPG

Come on people, the man was a convicted drug dealer. He knew the risks. Sure, you can argue the sentence was excessive, but....Jeebus...

...the man wasn't a hero.

Don't make him into a martyr.

Oh, and in all the "growing anger against the death penalty"...somehow, this seems to have been ignored.

AS THE last days of Nguyen Tuong Van's life slipped by, public sympathy for him diminished. A recent Morgan Poll found 47 per cent of Australians believed the Melbourne man should go to the gallows, compared with 46 per cent who said the death penalty should not be carried out. Seven per cent were undecided.

However, 57 per cent said if an Australian is convicted of trafficking drugs and sentenced to death in another country where the death penalty applies, the death penalty should be carried out, while 36 per cent believed it should not. Again, 7 per cent were undecided.

Don't you hate it when the public stubbornly refuses to go along with the script?

Posted by Quentin George at December 2, 2005 05:08 PM
Comments

There should be no exceptions made because he's Australian. I'd rather die than spend a life-time in gaol, me thinks.

Bit of bad luck for wearing his glasses through a metal detector.

Posted by: Engels at December 2, 2005 06:01 PM

Where was the live web stream of the hanging? Pfft, 21st century indeed...

Posted by: Dan at December 2, 2005 06:06 PM

It's a pity no one ever caught that old Welsh drug smuggler. He wrote a book called "Mr Nice Guy" or something. Every hippy and drug-addled backbacker from Bangkok to Hanoi reads it.

The guy must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Posted by: Engels at December 2, 2005 06:06 PM

I'm sick of these criminals who think they can reep the benefits of crime without any consequences, and I think most Aussies agree with me.

I reckon he should be nominated for a Darwin award.

And what about all the grief over the people who have died from using the drugs he was smuggling. Heroin, unlike hanging, is a slow and painful way to die.

Posted by: jonny at December 9, 2005 12:57 PM