Public Display Quotes
There was, and still is in some parts of the world, this belief taht one of the main reasons for capital punioshment with visible and public executions was to deter others from comitting crimes by seeing the example of what happens to the transgressors. For these people, exemplified by this quotation of Dr. Johnson's, public executions are crime prevention. This notion tirned out to have been a fallacy. In England they found that during every public hanging, skilled pickpockets would steal from the onlookers who were tranfixed on the macabre secene--this despite the fact that pickpocketing was a hanging offence.
Some CIA and other agents who questioned prisoners in the Iraq War, forced the prisoners to remain naked throughout the day and night which was against the U. S. Military rules of how prisoners should be treated. Fife offered this seemingly stupid and feeble explanation. His intellect was not thought very highly of by the nation’s military leaders. See {620028}.
The Shereth Israel congregation was the first organized Jewish congregation in America. Traditionally, in Europe the congregation would appoint a butcher to ritually slaughter animals and sell them to the congregation members at controlled prices. However, a New York butcher of the time decided that since America was a free country, he would sell directly to Jews and not go through the congregation, thus avoiding the price fixing which he thought unfairly low. The congregation responded as they traditionally had in Europe and asked the civil authorities to enforce their right to control religious activities in the community. The City Council then passed this law. The butcher appealed to the courts which ruled that he had the right to sell his meat regardless of the congregation—that the American law may not be used to enforce any religious tradition. The case set important precedents regarding the relationship between church and state, monopolies, and individual commercial rights.
