Hang 'em high

This Republican represents a district within about 30 miles of me. Here's what Rep. Larry Pittman considers appropriate justice.

“We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner,” Pittman wrote in the email. “If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.”

Surely nothing shouts civil society louder than a good old fashioned public hanging. Or good Christian for that matter. Pittman bills himself as a pastor, shipping worker and a company chaplain who seeks the Lord’s guidance to help him "be a good and effective servant of the people."

Pittman said the email wasn't meant to be public. But the thing is, it's not at all uncommon in this part of the south to hear "good Christians" promote such barbaric ideals. Which reminds me of a story I read recently in the local paper. A black 14-year-old girl was threatened by a group of white teen boys armed with a hangman’s noose.

“She said that they came up to her and they’d made this noose for her,” Parks said. “When she saw it, it caught her off guard. She tried to take it from them so she could tell her teachers. The boy said, ‘No – I’m taking this home so I can put it on my porch with a sign that says, Whites Only.’”

Authorities are trying to determine if this was "a hate crime of racial intimidation or was it bullying?" The boys said it was a joke and weren't suspended at the time. The school superintendent "thinks the encounter was bullying, but was not a hate crime." He "described the noose this way: 'It was white – a real thin rope about three feet long.'" Oh, well it was a "real thin" rope, so that's okay then.

These are my community leaders and neighbors. Any wonder why I've made so few local friends?

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]