Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote in a social media post that Pete Hegseth “has recommended - and President Donald J Trump has approved” that the December 3 execution by Army firing squad of Nidal Malik Hassan be livestreamed, with Hegseth adding,“We want to make sure that people are able to watch it.”
Make Killing Great Again.
The last known case of a military firing squad execution was November, 1945.
As Paul Daley writes in The Guardian, “NOW we have execution TV. Tune in to the livestream. State sanctioned killing as entertainment!”
In Rome, from AD 80 to 404 the execution of common criminals, early Christians and non-citizens of Rome in the Colosseum was a “mid-day spectacle” watched by ordinary Romans.
Is Livestream TV the new Roman Colosseum? Where is our human decency? Our moral compass?
I give this a giant thumbs down. We are better than this. We can do better than this.
November 3 cannot come soon enough.