@ISIDEWITHQuestionsCriminal Issues7yrs ago

Should drug traffickers receive the death penalty?

Since 1999, the executions of drug smugglers have become more common in Indonesia, Iran, China and Pakistan. In March 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump proposed executing drug traffickers to fight his country’s opioid epidemic. 32 countries impose the death penalty for drug smuggling. Seven of these countries (China, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore) routinely execute drug offenders. Asia and the Middle East’s tough approach contrasts with many Western countries who have legalized cannabis in recent years (selling cannabis in Saudi Arabia is punished by beheading).

Answer Overview

Response rates from 26 South Africa voters.

27%
Yes
73%
No
15%
Yes
62%
No
12%
Yes, but only if there is proof someone died from the drugs they trafficked
12%
No, sentence them to life in prison without parole instead
0%
Yes, but only if they are repeated offenders
0%
No, I do not believe in the death penalty
0%
Yes, as long as they are given a fair trial

Historical Support

Trend of support over time for each answer from 26 South Africa voters.

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Historical Importance

Trend of how important this issue is for 26 South Africa voters.

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Unique answers from South Africa voters whose views went beyond the provided options.

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 @MercifulFr33m4rket from Florida submitted…1yr1Y

Mexican Drug Cartels Expand Under "Hugs, Not Bullets" Policy

Gangs affiliated with Mexico’s two largest drug cartels—battling to the death over market share—have grown in number and influence since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in 2018. He eased up under a policy he called “hugs, not bullets.” Arrests by Mexico’s national guard, created under López Obrador to replace federal police, fell to 2,800 in 2022 from 21,700 in 2018, according to the national statistics agency.More than 200 criminal gangs are engaged in turf wars compared with 76 in 2010, according to the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank that studies violent conflicts worldwide. Most of the disputes involve the Sinaloa or Jalisco cartels, among the world’s largest criminal organizations and the top traffickers of fentanyl—the low-cost, high-margin synthetic opioid that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year.Criminal gangs behind the U.S. drug epidemic are seeing accelerated growth, commanding greater control over more territory in Mexico, where they are largely free to murder rivals, neuter police, seize property and strong-arm municipalities into giving them public contracts.In December, farmers from a village in the state of Mexico attacked local cartel members with machetes and sickles, revolting against demands they each pay as much as $600 to work their own land, authorities said. The fight killed 10 gang members and four farmers.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…7mos7MO

CEOs Love Talking About Their Fast-Food Jobs

A stint in fast food is a badge of honor for business leaders who want to be viewed as humble and relatable—and proof that they worked to get where they areBut what does flipping burgers or rolling burritos have to do with running a company?A lot, say high-level managers who’ve done those jobs. Sweating in cramped kitchens and taking orders from hangry diners teach you how to handle pressure and deal with all kinds of people, executives say. Some are eager to find employees who hustled like they did, figuring someone who boxed McNuggets for minimum wage early on isn’t likely to be a quiet quitter.“Any job where you’re on the lowest tier is a really good job to have done in your life because it shows your character,” says Heather McLean, who worked at McDonald’s in high school and is CEO of McLean Forrester, a technology consulting firm in Illinois. “I always took the attitude to bloom where you’re planted so, yeah, I was just taking orders at McDonald’s—but I was really good at it.”Being a model employee is easier when you’ve got bigger and better career prospects ahead. Executives who worked in fast food say they learned empathy and gratitude by toiling alongside colleagues who didn’t have other opportunities and were trying to make a living at or near minimum wage.Fast-food kitchens were long among the few places where future CEOs and low-wage lifers mingled and learned from one another. And because just about everyone orders a burger or pizza now and then, the customer base is a cross section of the American public.

▲  2512 replies1 disagree

 @ISIDEWITH submitted…6mos6MO

L.A. Times Owner Declines To Endorse Harris Over Stance On Gaza War

As the nation counted down this fall to a bitterly polarized election, the editorial board of The Los Angeles Times drew up a detailed outline for an endorsement that seemed obvious for an institution that had leaned liberal for generations: Vice President Kamala Harris should be the next president of the United States.For days, readers in overwhelmingly liberal Southern California speculated angrily about a decision that was widely regarded as a favor to Mr. Trump and a vote of no confidence in Ms. Harris.Thousands of readers canceled subscriptions. Three members of the editorial board resigned. Nearly 200 staff members signed an open letter to management demanding an explanation, complaining that the decision this close to the election had undermined the news organization’s trust with readers. The Times’s News Guild, the newsroom’s union, lodged a protest. In social media posts and subsequent interviews with his own news organization, Dr. Soon-Shiong framed the choice as an attempt at neutrality.But in a statement on Saturday that was swiftly challenged by the paper, his daughter, Nika Soon-Shiong, 31, a progressive political activist who has frequently been accused of trying to meddle in the paper’s news coverage, said the decision was motivated by Ms. Harris’s continued support for Israel in its war in Gaza.“Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process,” Ms. Soon-Shiong, who has no formal role at the paper, said in a statement to The New York Times. “As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.”The editor of editorials, who was among those who have resigned, said she was taken aback by the daughter’s assertion. “If that was the reason that Dr. Soon-Shiong blocked an endorsement of Kamala Harris, it was not communicated to me or the editorial writers,” Mariel Garza, who resigned on Tuesday, said in a statement. “If the family’s goal was to ‘repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children,’ remaining silent did not accomplish that.”

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…5mos5MO

FBI Director Chris Wray Will Resign

The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, told bureau employees on Wednesday that he intended to resign before the Trump administration begins, bowing to the reality that President-elect Donald J. Trump had publicly declared his desire to replace him.Mr. Wray made the disclosure while addressing employees Wednesday afternoon in remarks that tacitly acknowledged the politically charged position the F.B.I. now faces with an incoming president who openly scorns the agency.“I’ve decided the right thing for the bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down,” Mr. Wray said, adding, “This is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.”The director spoke wistfully about his time at the F.B.I. “This is not easy for me,” he said. “I love this place, I love our mission and I love our people.”The announcement comes after Mr. Trump said in late November that he intended to nominate Kash Patel, a longtime loyalist, to run the F.B.I., and more than two years before Mr. Wray’s 10-year term would have expired.Paul Abbate, the deputy F.B.I. director, is set to retire in April but would typically serve as acting director until Mr. Patel is confirmed. It is not clear who would replace Mr. Abbate, the most senior agent in the bureau.Over more than seven years, Mr. Wray oversaw one of the most consequential and tumultuous periods in the bureau’s history, juggling high-profile criminal investigations of political figures, heated congressional inquiries and two attempted assassinations of Mr. Trump.

▲  177 replies