Sunday, May 5, 2013

Blog#5 “Empire of Death”

Maureen Mai
Section A02


“Empire of Death and the plague of civic violence” is an article by Darrel Y. Hamamoto, about the research of different types of murders and the possible causes. Through the different examples of murder cases, there is an obvious relationship between militarized society and the rise of serial and mass murder. In cases such as Charles Joseph Whitman, Jack Wayne reeves, and Richard Munoz Ramirez, they were all U.S. Military veterans. Many times murders like them blame it on post-traumatic stress disorder caused from their military service in Vietnam War. What’s infuriating is the see the government lessen the punishment, in Ramirez case, “was granted a presidential pardon that allied him to escape punishment” even after all the atrocities he had committed against Asian women. The crimes committed on Vietnam women in America, reflected the crimes committed in the Vietnam War. However, it was not surprising to me that mass murderer is predominately white and male. For centuries white supremacists have conducted many violent acts on people of other races, the extermination of native American, the murders executed by the KKK and other hate crimes. What’s more frustrating is the ongoing indifference allowing whites to get away with the crimes they committed and avoid proper punishment. The quote that leaves me thinking the most is “Killing… stands as the core of what it means to live in a human society.”
Question: What is the U.S. Military response to the affiliation of ex militarily men and murder cases and are they doing anything about it?

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