Pete Hegseth, the United States’ Secretary of Defense, said in a recent interview that the execution of Nidal Hasan will be livestreamed to the public by the Pentagon. Hasan, convicted of the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, killed 13 people and injured 32 others. The execution is scheduled to be carried out by firing squad on Dec. 3. The Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution will only hurt the citizens they are meant to protect, and set ridiculous standards of punishment for violent crimes.
The last legal public execution in the United States took place in 1936 when Rainey Bethea, a young Black man, was convicted of rape. It is estimated around 20,000 people crowded the area to watch Bethea be executed. This turned the death of a man into a circus for pure entertainment. Currently, all 27 states allowing the death penalty do not allow for public executions.
Inviting and encouraging the public to watch an execution will only do what it did before: cause a carnival of cruelty. We have begun to see this on social media with the mass amount of violent videos and pictures posted and livestreamed every day.
Watching content such as this can have long-lasting emotional effects such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, depression and anxiety. On the other hand, graphic content can cause desensitization. Watching violence should result in an emotional reaction. You should feel sad, overwhelmed or stressed. When people become desensitized to violence, there can be an immense impact on their ability to empathize with others. This is especially relevant when it comes to children. When adolescents begin to lack empathy due to continuous exposure to violence, it can cause antisocial behavior and an increased risk of aggressive behavior.
When Hegseth claimed the execution will be livestreamed, he didn’t say which platform or how the livestream will work. There is no explanation of how the Pentagon will safely broadcast the execution to ensure children are not watching. Furthermore, the people who do choose to watch the footage will either be desensitized or traumatized by the content, neither of which are healthy. It is completely absurd that our government would want citizens to watch such content.
Hegseth also said that he wants the execution to be livestreamed because, “people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these things.” This statement is ridiculous and insinuates that the people are incompetent. It is obvious that killing 13 people and injuring 32 others will lead to consequences and punishment. People do not need to watch someone being killed by a firing squad to understand the law. This is simply a way to instill fear in the people. In fact, filming and broadcasting executions are consistently associated with terrorist organizations whose main goal is to instill fear.
Livestreaming an execution also provides gore content to harmful corners of the internet. One internet forum known as WatchPeopleDie provides graphic pictures and videos of people being murdered, executed and tortured. In recent years, at least eight mass attackers were active on WPD before committing an act of mass violence.
Although it is very disturbing, there are people who enjoy watching videos of real-life violence. These videos may not explicitly encourage people to carry out such acts, but it does normalize it. The government should be monitoring this content, not providing it.
Hegseth also stated the execution will occur at Fort Hood on a Thursday at 1 p.m. and by firing squad because it is symbolic. We cannot set the standard of bringing every mass shooter back to the scene of their crimes to execute them by firing squad. It is absurd and a ridiculous waste of taxpayer dollars in the name of symbolism.
We do not live under the law of “an eye for an eye,” because such societies only lead to corruption and cruelty. If we begin to set this standard the line of where to stop will blur until it is no longer visible.
Amelia Henson is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Amelia about their column? Email them at ah300723@ohio.edu.
