Enough Is Enough: Kill The Criminals

Commentary

by Pedro L. Vega

Puerto Rico's murder rate, after a dip in 2015, has been rising again since

last year, when it hit 20 homicides per 100,00 people. While this rate is st-

ill below that of insane hellholes like El Salvador, Honduras or Brazil, it is

much higher than the United State's national average of 5.3 per 100,000 in 

2016. As the economic situation in Puerto Rico worsens, I think it's safe to

assume that the violent crime situation will also worsen. You would think
that since Puerto Ricans are leaving the island in droves, that that would lo-
wer the crime numbers, but that never seems to happen. The numbers may
ebb and flow, but Boricuas have been fleeing to the mainland US for several
years now, and the murder rate remains stubbornly high. While measures like 

legalizing drugs would help drive crime down immensely, I doubt that that 

would be enough. We need a strong deterrent to make criminals think twice 

before carrying out a barbaric act. We need to bring back the death penalty.

Puerto Rico abolished capital punishment in 1929, starting a long period of
giving murderers and other scum the privilege of getting free housing, 

meals and healthcare for years or decades as a reward for being drains on so-

ciety. Since then, deadly violence in our land has become our daily bread. Ho-

rrific murders of men, women and children make the news almost every day, 

and while many are related to the drug trade, not all of them are. Some are so-

called crimes of passion, some happen as a result of arguments, some are the 

result of robberies. In some cases, people seem to be killed just for the hell 

of it. Regardless of the motive, Puerto Rico's law abiding majority deserves 

to feel safe, anywhere and at any time. Reinstituting the death penalty is 

not just a matter of removing dangerous maniacs from our society, but also 

of administering justice, of giving evildoers what they deserve. And they do

not deserve to live, even if  it's in prison.

For a long time now, it seems as if we worry more about the rights of crimi-
nals than about the rights of victims, to say nothing of the right all law-abi-
ding citizens have to walk the streets in safety. Why should criminals be
allowed to vote? And why shouldn't prison inmates be forced to work in
exchange for the generous support taxpayers give them? And more impor-
tantly, why should those who have taken the lives of others be allowed to
keep their own lives? They certainly shouldn't be allowed to roam the
streets ever again, at the very least. But in an island that is as broke as
Puerto Rico is, can we afford to support criminals for their whole lives?

While our justice system needs to do everything possible to avoid punishing 

innocent people, the guilty must be removed from our midst. Whether they 

had bad childhoods, or their spouse cheated on them or they have "mental pr-

oblems": too bad. Kill them. I don't care how it's done: shoot them, gas them, 

hang them, burn them, electrocute them, poison them. Just get rid of this sub-

human garbage.  We have had enough.

Pedro L. Vega is a freelance writer from Puerto Rico. The opinions expressed in the 

preceding commentary are solely those of the author and do not represent those of 

The Puerto Rico Monitor, its editors or advertisers.