DOCSLIB.ORG

Whether West Bengal Distanced Itself from Rule of Law: Democracy Being Hurt for Years

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Whether West Bengal Distanced Itself from Rule of Law: Democracy Being Hurt for Years Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal Whether West Bengal Distanced Itself From Rule Of Law: Democracy Being Hurt For Years Voice of YOUTH https://truthandyouth.com/whether-west-bengal-distanced-itself-from-rule-of-law-democracy-being-hurt-for-years/ WHETHER WEST BENGAL DISTANCED ITSELF FROM RULE OF LAW: DEMOCRACY BEING HURT FOR YEARS Posted on May 14, 2021 Categories: Opinion Based Blog, Constitutional Law Copyright © Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal 2021. Page: 1 Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal Whether West Bengal Distanced Itself From Rule Of Law: Democracy Being Hurt For Years Voice of YOUTH https://truthandyouth.com/whether-west-bengal-distanced-itself-from-rule-of-law-democracy-being-hurt-for-years/ Author: Pratap J., 2nd year LL.B. student at Dayanand College of Law, Latur, Maharashtra. Introduction Bengal has distanced itself from rule of law and hurted democracy since long period of time. It doesn’t mean that all the other states are governed with the rule of law but the case of Bengal is different in many ways. The rule of law is being violated in Bengal for the reasons are political ideologies, principles and for power than communal, religion based riots, linguistic riots which are dominant in other states. The people of Bengal are highly and excessively aware about politics so mostly violence takes place during elections among the party workers. Since 2014, Bengal experiences that another ideology peeping out that is known as Hindutva which added to the political violence. Rule of Law Thomas Paine stated in a pamphlet, “The Law is King, in an absolute government the King is Law, in free governments the Law ought to be King and there should not be any other.” The term Rule of Law is taken from French la principe de legalite (the principle of legality) [1] which indicates that a government is based on principles of law and not on men. From this point of view, one can say that the governments did not perform on the principles of the supreme law of the country and the substantive laws which were anti-democratic actions in nature. The situation neither in Congress rule was different, nor in Left Front rule or even Mamata Banerjee’s rule, it will not change violence mark of Bengal politics because the common intention can be seen as ‘Money, Muscle, Superiority and Power’ (MMSP) regardless to the democratic values and the Rule of law. West Bengal marked with Violence It is the democracy where everyone has rights, views and opinions, at the same time, each and every political party has rights to implement their philosophy, ideology and agenda after coming into power otherwise contrary to the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. In the context of West Bengal, more or less every ruling party played a role contrary to this that resulted into violence, riots, massacre, corruption, exploitation etc. West Bengal was marked with Violence all time and in every government’s rule, there is no Copyright © Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal 2021. Page: 2 Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal Whether West Bengal Distanced Itself From Rule Of Law: Democracy Being Hurt For Years Voice of YOUTH https://truthandyouth.com/whether-west-bengal-distanced-itself-from-rule-of-law-democracy-being-hurt-for-years/ exception to it. There are different reasons, different forms and gravity of violence but intention is the same one ‘Money, Muscle, Superiority and Power’ (MMSP). During Left Front rule, it was class and communist ideological violence institutionalized and organized by the party and the government support. During Left Front rule, there was no called Rule of Law and something like Democracy good examples of this five major massacres Sainbari killings (1970), Nanoor massacre (200), Marichjhapi massacre (1979), Ananda Margi Monks Burnt Alive (1982), Singur Massacre (2007). Violent culture of communist was [2] characterised “anything between a fascist and a Mafioso” so called ignorant “Bhadraloks” used to romanticise violence. Trinamool Congress’(TMC) rule also could not escape from the stigma of violence which is unfortunately a legacy of ‘class and communal violence’ in Bengal politics. During TMC rule, it’s form changed from class and ideological to party, personality (Mamata Banerjee like Modi), Caste, and anti- secularism, communal violence. [3] Recently, Election riots took place at Cooch Bihar causing death of four people, openly use of weapons to threaten and kill people. At the end of II term of TMC, the form of violence was same as Left Front as organized by BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) but these are mostly religious and communal which seems anti-secular. Another cause to keep Bengal in crisis was that RSS across Bengal’s districts, in the far-flung tribal areas, and the strands of right-wing conservatism and political ideology that were an [4] inseparable part of Bengal’s history, was the future challenge to the present ruler. Democracy being hurt for ages General concept of democracy is that “it is a form of government of people for the people by the people to govern themselves binding by the rules of law called the Constitution of that country. Such government assures liberty, equality, freedom to follow their religion, customs, practices and tries to establish welfare state.” But all ruling parties in Bengal, to the certain extent, kept away the rule of law and created ‘conflicting interests’ and tried to dominate through class, culture, religion. The people, those who were against and not vote for them, were being spied and deprived from basic facilities. CPI(M) used murder as a political weapon in organized manner, on the other hand the intellectuals were nurtured and created to impress people like fishermen, small traders and hapless farmers to join the [5] party line but were not commenting on the violence. Those who were loyal to the party were awarded with government jobs or other benefits in local governments as well gaining [6] high social status. This policy made clear discrimination among the people on the basis of communist ideology which against rule of law and equality before law. In 2011 Assembly Election, Mamata Banerjee, emerged and won single handed power in Copyright © Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal 2021. Page: 3 Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal Whether West Bengal Distanced Itself From Rule Of Law: Democracy Being Hurt For Years Voice of YOUTH https://truthandyouth.com/whether-west-bengal-distanced-itself-from-rule-of-law-democracy-being-hurt-for-years/ West Bengal by giving clean sweep to Left Front. It was not an easy task for Didi to take over, it was the voice against cruel and ruthless government where freedom of expression had no place. She used “Ma, Mati o Manush” (Mother, Land and People) and ‘Parivartan’ [7] successfully for anti-incumbency. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has arrested several people for criticizing her, including Sanmoy Banerjee, Congress Party spokesperson in the state; Priyanka Sharma, BJP youth leader; Anirban Das, social activist; and Aseem Trivedi, [8] cartoonist. As the assembly election was approaching, Centre ruled BJP took keen interest [9] in West Bengal with the policy of ‘what you don’t have, acquire’ by hook or crook, ‘money, muscle and power’, appealing to Hindus in the name of ‘Jay Shri Ram’ attacking on TMC’s appeasement of Muslims as contrast to the secularism. This strategy conflicted with TMC secularism which resulted in violence before the election being held in West Bengal. BJP started polarising the politics in the name of religion and cultural heritage. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar criticized law and order as state government is misusing power of police to suppress opposition party workers and the people who criticize the state government. "There is no rule of law… democracy is being hurt here.. the police are being politicized… forgetting that we all are accountable to the law. Good governance is impossible without following the law….government employees must be apolitical…. the [10] anarchy of the state continues." Role of Centre While criticizing Bengali political history, one has to notice our centralized federal structure and division of power provides that to keep an eye on the law and order in a state through Governor. The Center Government might have avoided to interfere in Bengal because non-Congress Chief Minister conclave demanding less interference of centre in state affairs specially by Jyoti Basu that was against ‘strong centre-subordinate states’ principle. During Left Front rule, no central government paid attention strict action against the violence and violation of DPSPs and many other substantive laws by the state but the centre-state both had issues like rights over coal mine, Gorkhaland, appointment of [11] Governors, financial powers, imposition of Presidential rule. The then Centre and Governor were neither active nor authorized to central agencies to probe into the state, but in present scenario, both the Centre and the Governor are excessively active to misuse power and constitutional machineries through CBI, ID and Election Commission too. This kind of activeness resulted in inflaming the Bengal violence than controlling it which added to the history of violence in the state. Copyright © Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal 2021. Page: 4 Truth and Youth (TAY) Online Mag Journal Whether West Bengal Distanced Itself From Rule Of Law: Democracy Being Hurt For Years Voice of YOUTH https://truthandyouth.com/whether-west-bengal-distanced-itself-from-rule-of-law-democracy-being-hurt-for-years/ Inactive Judiciary The independent judiciary of the nation was absent when remarkable violence and massacres took place in the state. Neither the High Court nor the Apex Court of the country took cognizance by ‘suo Moto’ power.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Piteous Massacre’: Violence, Language, and the Off-Stage in Richard III
    Journal of the British Academy, 8(s3), 91–109 DOI https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/008s3.091 Posted 15 June 2020 ‘Piteous massacre’: violence, language, and the off-stage in Richard III Georgina Lucas Abstract: Shakespeare regularly stages extreme violence. In Titus Andronicus, Chiron and Demetrius are baked in a pie and eaten by their mother. Gloucester’s eyes are plucked out in King Lear. In contradistinction to this graphic excess are moments when violence is relegated off-stage: Macbeth kills King Duncan in private; when Richard III suborns the assassination of his nephews—the notorious ‘Princes in the Tower’—the boys are killed away from the audience. In such instances, the spectator must imagine the scope and formation of the violence described. Focussing on Richard III, this article asks why Shakespeare uses the word ‘massacre’ to express the murder of the two princes. Determining the varied, and competing, meanings of the term in the 16th and 17th centuries, the article uncovers a range of ways an early audience might have interpreted the killings—as mass murder, assassination, and butchery—and demonstrates their thematic connections to child-killing across the cycle of plays that Richard III concludes. Keywords: Shakespeare, massacre, Richard III, off-stage violence, child-killing. Notes on the author: Georgina Lucas is Lecturer in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in the School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s University, Belfast. Her research focusses upon the representation of mass and sexual violence on the early modern stage, and the performance and reception of Shakespeare during and after acts of atrocity.
    [Show full text]
  • Partial List of Mass Execution of Oromos and Other Nation And
    Udenrigsudvalget 2013-14 URU Alm.del Bilag 174 Offentligt Partial list of Mass execution of Oromos and other nation and nationalities of Ethiopia (Documented by Oromo Liberation Front Information and Research Unit, March 2014) Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere!!! Ethiopia is one of the Countries at Genocide Risk in accordance with Genocide Watch’s Report released on March 12, 2013. •Genocide Watch considers Ethiopia to have already reached Stage 7, genocidal massacres, against many of its peoples, including the Anuak, Ogadeni, Oromo and Omo tribes. •We recommend that the United States government immediately cease all military assistance to the Ethiopian Peoples Defense Forces. We also recommend strong diplomatic protests to the Meles Zenawi regime against massive violations of human rights in Ethiopia Article 281 of the Ethiopian Penal Code : Genocide; Crimes against Humanity Whosoever, with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, religious or political group, organizes, orders or engages in, be it in time of war or in time of peace: (a) killings, bodily harm or serious injury to the physical or mental health of members of the group, in any way whatsoever; or (b) measures to prevent the propagation or continued survival of its members or their progeny; or (c) the compulsory movement or dispersion of peoples or children, or their placing under living conditions calculated to result in their death or disappearance, is punishable with rigorous imprisonment from five years to life, or, in cases of exceptional
    [Show full text]
  • Bengal-Bangladesh Border and Women
    The Bengal-Bangladesh Borderland: Chronicles from Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda 1 Paula Banerjee Introduction Borderland studies, particularly in the context of South Asia are a fairly recent phenomenon. I can think of three works that have made borderlands, particularly the Bengal-Bangladesh borderland as the focal area of their study in the last one decade. Ranabir Samaddar’s The Marginal Nation: Transborder Migration From Bangladesh to West Bengal started a trend that was continued by Willem Van Schendel in his The Bengal Borderland: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia . Both these books argue that the border is part of larger zone or the borderland that at once constructs and subverts the nation. Samaddar goes beyond the security and immutable border discourse and problematises the borderland by speaking of flows across the border. He argues that such flows are prompted by historical and social affinities, geographical contiguity and economic imperative. People move when their survival is threatened and rigid borders mean little to the desperate. They question the nation form that challenges their existence. If need be they find illegal ways to tackle any obstacle that stand in their path of moving particularly when that makes the difference between life and death. Thereby Samaddar questions ideas of nation state and national security in present day South Asia when and if it privileges land over the people who inhabit that land. Van Schendel also takes the argument along similar lines by stating that without understanding the borderland it is impossible to understand the nation form that develops in South Asia, the economy that emerges or the ways in which national identities are internalized.
    [Show full text]
  • Future Technology for Prosperity
    Future technology for prosperity Horizon scanning by Europe's technology leaders [Julian Müller and Lesley Potters] [August – 2019] Future technology for prosperity Horizon scanning by Europe's technology leaders European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation Directorate F - Prosperity Contact Peter Dröll Email [email protected] [email protected] European Commission B-1049 Brussels Manuscript completed in September 2019 This document has been prepared for the European Commission however it reflects the views only of the authors, and the European Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the reuse of this publication. More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu) Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2019 PDF ISBN 978-92-76-09509-5 doi: 10.2777/187237 KI-03-19-551-EN-N © European Union, 2019 Reuse is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. The reuse policy of European Commission documents is regulated by Decision 2011/833/EU (OJ L 330, 14.12.2011, p. 39). For any use or reproduction of photos or other material that is not under the copyright of the European Union, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holders. EUROPEAN COMMISSION Future technology for prosperity Horizon scanning by Europe's technology leaders Julian Müller and Lesley Potters Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 2019 Prosperity Table of Contents FOREWORD .....................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, Instigated by the Pope of Rome
    LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. @fjUF. COFllrin~f l]nJJ CI' ~helf :"R~ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 'rite Ma~~cte of St. 1BatthololIlevv. (ILLUSTKATEDo) PREFAOE - A great contest has begun in onr country. Tile Romau Catho!ic Hierarchy has declared its intention to take possession of this Be-' public, to extirpate Protestantism and compel all mell to bend the knee before its altar~. Order~ have cOllle from Home to destroy our public school system - the corner stone of a free gOTeI'nllJent - and those orders ~re being executed to the utmost. The press is largely under control of the papal priesthood-so much of it as i~ Hot so controlled ,vill no·t publish any­ thing refiecting on the hierarchy for fear of offending theil' Homan Catholic readers, anrl so 108in~' subscribers. 'fhougb this remark applies more partie­ ularly to the secular press, yet those religIOUS pnblications - the Ol'galls of the \Tarious protestant clmrcbes s£'em timid and fear to set fortlJ the whole truth respectiNg the eyil designs or Rome upon the liberties of the people of the United States. Still, siIlce the late bold a.ttack - of Home upon our school system, whiclt attack seemed to culminate in Boston, the American peop . l.ve begun to inquire as to this fearful power, ~which has its bend in I u foriegn land. What are its principlrs, wha.t its history, and its aims in this country, are some' of4ihe inquiries now being made by thousands of American citizens. To meet the demand for such information about 20 independent newspa.­ pel's have come lllto existence, a,lld they are telling tile wllOle truth without fear or favor.
    [Show full text]
  • Mexico's Drug Trafficking Organizations
    Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Rising Violence June S. Beittel Analyst in Latin American Affairs September 7, 2011 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R41576 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Mexico’s Drug Trafficking Organizations: Source and Scope of the Rising Violence Summary The violence generated by Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) in recent years has been unprecedented. In 2006, Mexico’s newly elected President Felipe Calderón launched an aggressive campaign against the DTOs—an initiative that has defined his administration—that has been met with a violent response from the DTOs. Government enforcement efforts have successfully removed some of the key leaders in all of the seven major DTOs, either through arrests or deaths in operations to detain them. However, these efforts have led to succession struggles within the DTOs themselves that generated more violence. According to the Mexican government’s estimate, organized crime-related violence claimed more than 34,500 lives between January 2007 and December 2010. By conservative estimates, there have been an additional 8,000 homicides in 2011 increasing the number of deaths related to organized crime to over 40,000 since President Calderón came to office in late 2006. Although violence has been an inherent feature of the trade in illicit drugs, the character of the drug trafficking-related violence in Mexico has been increasingly brutal. In 2010, several politicians were murdered, including a leading gubernatorial candidate in Tamaulipas and 14 mayors. At least 10 journalists were killed last year and five more were murdered through July 2011.
    [Show full text]
  • Calderón's Caldron
    Calderón’s Caldron Lessons from Mexico’s Battle Against Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and Michoacán Vanda Felbab-Brown The Brookings Institution 1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW SEPTEMBER 2011 Washington, D.C. 20036 brookings.edu Calderón’s Caldron Lessons from Mexico’s Battle Against Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and Michoacán Vanda Felbab-Brown Acknowledgements wish to thank Mauricio Cardenas, Michael O’Hanlon, Theodore Piccone, and Seyom Brown for their I invaluable comments on the paper. Erasmo Sanchez and Gustavo Rivera provided excellent re- search assistance. My deep thanks also go to the many people I interviewed during the fieldwork in Mexico or consulted with beforehand and afterward. They all provided unique and important per- spectives and insights. These include officials of the U.S. and Mexican governments, members of the Mexican military and police forces, U.S. and Mexican academics, policy experts, and NGO representa- tives, members of the U.S.-Mexico business community, Mexican journalists, and foreign correspon- dents in Mexico. And I am also deeply grateful to the many other Mexican citizens who despite secu- rity risks to themselves and their families were willing to speak with me. For security reasons, many of my interlocutors must remain anonymous. The fieldwork and research were generously supposed by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. Calderón’s Caldron Lessons from Mexico’s Battle Against Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking in Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and Michoacán ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements.......................................................................ii Preface . iv The Tijuana Law Enforcement Model and Its Limitations . 1 Ciudad Juárez and the Evolution of Mexico’s Security Policy..................................8 Socioeconomic Policies for Combating Organized Crime: The Case of Ciudad Juárez .
    [Show full text]
  • Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations
    Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations Updated July 28, 2020 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R41576 SUMMARY R41576 Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking July 28, 2020 Organizations June S. Beittel Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) pose the greatest crime threat to the United States Analyst in Latin American and have “the greatest drug trafficking influence,” according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Affairs Administration’s (DEA’s) annual National Drug Threat Assessment. These organizations, often referred to as transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), continue to diversify into crimes of extortion, human smuggling, and oil theft, among others. Their supply chains traverse the Western Hemisphere and the globe. Their extensive violence since 2006 has caused Mexico’s homicide rate to spike. They produce and traffic illicit drugs into the United States, including heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and they traffic South American cocaine. Mexican DTO activities significantly affect the security of both the United States and Mexico. As Mexico’s DTOs expanded their control of the opioids market, U.S. overdoses rose sharply according to the Centers for Disease Control, setting a record in 2019 with more than 70% of overdose deaths involving opioids, including fentanyl. Many analysts believe that Mexican DTOs’ role in the trafficking and producing of opioids is continuing to expand. Evolution of Mexico’s Criminal Environment Mexico’s DTOs have been in constant flux, and yet they continue to wield extensive political and criminal power. In 2006, four DTOs were dominant: the Tijuana/Arellano Félix Organization (AFO), the Sinaloa Cartel, the Juárez/Vicente Carillo Fuentes Organization (CFO), and the Gulf Cartel.
    [Show full text]
  • National Terrorism (Riots)
    0 ALL TERRORISTS ARE MUSLIM Someone said, “ALL TERRORISTS ARE MUSLIM. SO WE HATE ALL MUSLIMS, WHETHER HE IS BEARDED OR CLEAN SHAVED WHETHER SHE IS IN HIJAB OR WITHOUT HIJAB.” Of course its quiet easy to say that “All terrorist are Muslim’’. But whenever it comes into the terms of facts and figure then I think it will be much more easy to say that “ARE ALL TERRORISTS MUSLIM’’? Let’s analyze then: WHAT IS TERRORISM The root of the word terrorism is taken from a Latin term that means “to frighten”. It became part of the phrase terror cimbricus, which was used by ancient Romans in 105BC to describe the panic that ensued as they prepared for an attack by a fierce warrior tribe. Many years later that fact was taken into account during the bloody reign of Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. Terror is a feeling of intense and overwhelming fear, and that is exactly what Robespierre brought to the people of France. Following the execution of Louis XVI, Robespierre was made the de facto leader of the French government. He was a member of the Jacobins political party, and used his new found power to attack his political enemies, the Girondins. Thousands of people were executed at Robespierre’s request, and it became one of the bloodiest times in French history. Most of the victims were beheaded using the guillotine (BEHEADING), which was often referred to by the title “The National Razor”. Any opposition to the power of the Jacobins was immediately squashed, and people lived in fear of retribution.
    [Show full text]
  • Chiapas's Anti- Chinese Movement and State
    NATIONALISM CONSTRUCTED AGAINST “OTHERS”: CHIAPAS’S ANTI- CHINESE MOVEMENT AND STATE FORMATION IN POSTREVOLUTIONARY MEXICO A Thesis by YUXIU WU Submitted to the Graduate School at Appalachian State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2016 Department of History NATIONALISM CONSTRUCTED AGAINST “OTHERS”: CHIAPAS’S ANTI- CHINESE MOVEMENT AND STATE FORMATION IN POSTREVOLUTIONARY MEXICO A Thesis by YUXIU WU August 2016 APPROVED BY: Jeffery L. Bortz, Ph.D. Chairperson, Thesis Committee Benno R. Weiner, Ph.D. Member, Thesis Committee W. Scott Jessee, Ph.D. Member, Thesis Committee James R. Goff, Jr., Ph.D. Chairperson, Department of History Max C. Poole, Ph.D. Dean, Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies Copyright by Yuxiu Wu 2016 All Rights Reserved Abstract NATIONALISM CONSTRUCTED AGAINST “OTHERS”: CHIAPAS’S ANTI- CHINESE MOVEMENT AND STATE FORMATION IN POSTREVOLUTIONARYMEXICO Yuxiu Wu B.A., Radford University M.A., Appalachian State University Chairperson: Dr. Jeffery Bortz A handful of historians such as Evelyn Hu-Dehart, Degaldo Robert Romero Chao, Juan Puig Schivonme, and Gerardo Rénique have provided a solid foundation for the studies of the Chinese in Mexico. Their studies have explored vast spans of themes regarding global migration, ethnic relations, Chinese settlement and resistance, and questions of national identity, etc. in Mexico. This thesis, while providing a review of the majority of this literature, discovered that most of the modern scholars focused on the early coolie labor and transnational movements of Chinese immigrants who settled mainly in northern Mexico and the borderland region. Few, except for M.L. Guillén, had conducted studies of the Chinese in the southern region of Mexico.
    [Show full text]
  • The Psycho-Social Factors That Influence Public Mass Murder
    Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 5-2009 Status and Slaughter: The Psycho-Social Factors that Influence Public Mass Murder Stephen G. Van Geem Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd Part of the Criminology Commons Recommended Citation Van Geem, Stephen G., "Status and Slaughter: The Psycho-Social Factors that Influence Public Mass Murder" (2009). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 470. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/470 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STATUS AND SLAUGHTER: THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PUBLIC MASS MURDER by Stephen VanGeem A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Sociology Approved: Christy Glass Patricia Lambert Major Professor Committee Member Michael B. Toney Amy Odum Committee Member Committee Member Byron R. Burnham Dean of Graduate Studies UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2009 ii Copyright Stephen VanGeem 2009 All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Status and Slaughter: The Psycho-Social Factors that Influence Public Mass Murder by Stephen VanGeem, Master of Science Utah State University, 2009 Major Professor: Dr. Christy Glass Department: Sociology, Social Work & Anthropology Even though public mass shootings are relatively rare, they represent an atypical form of violence that is both sudden and yields an unprecedented amount of carnage; for these reasons, an inordinate amount of scholarship has been produced in order to isolate both the causes and effects of these rampages.
    [Show full text]
  • The Massacre and History
    INTRODUCTION THE MASSACRE AND HISTORY Philip G. DwyerR and Lyndall Ryan Massacres have occurred throughout recorded history and are even known to have existed in pre-recorded times. Archaeologists have found, for example, evidence of a Neolithic massacre in Talheim, Germany, which is believed to have taken place over seven thousand years ago. The remains of thirty-four victims, male and female and ranging in age from two to sixty, were unearthed during digs in 1983 and 1984. They were bound and most killed by a blow to the left temple before being thrown into a pit.1 There is more than enough evidence to suggest that as agricultural societies expanded in Neolithic times, so too did disputes over territory resulting in an increase in the frequency of massacres.2 In recorded times, one of the earliest known reports of a massacre is to be found in the Bible, which details how, around 1350 BC, Joshua and the Israelites, after laying siege to Jericho, ‘utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword… And they burnt the city with fire and all that was therein’.3 It is a scene that has been played out countless times, almost as though it were part and parcel of warfare, although until quite recently scholars have paid scant attention to and failed to explain the dynamics and indeed the psychology of massacre. Much of the scholarship surrounding mass killings has come out of genocide studies.4 Indeed, the words ‘massacre’ and ‘genocide’ are still often used interchangeably, especially in genocide research where mass xii Introduction killings of innocent civilians come under scrutiny.
    [Show full text]