JUSTICE BLOG one or two, or if you dare, BOTH:)

READ THE TWO ARTICLES AND RESPOND WITH BLOG ONE OR TWO

1. BLOG: Imagine that you, an American teenager, went out one night with some friends and vandalized a car and street signs.

Imagine then that you were arrested by the police. What do you expect your punishment would be? Would it involve jail time, repairing the damage, or some other penalty? How do you think justice would be best served?

2. BLOG: What is the attitude toward vandalism of this nature in your family? In your school? In your community?

Michael Fay Controversy

Background Information

Michael Fay, an American teenager living in Singapore, was arrested in 1994 for possession of stolen street signs and for vandalism of automobiles. The criminal justice system in Singapore sentenced Fay to a series of “canings,” in which the accused is struck several times on the buttocks with a long, rattan cane. Amnesty International has declared this punishment “torture.”

Before the punishment was carried out, Fay’s father publicized his case all over America, hoping that people would be so horrified by the act that they would protest. What the case touched off instead was a huge debate over the effectiveness of such punishments on criminals.

Proponents of caning pointed out that Singapore has very little crime, while America provides its criminals with cable TV. The case dominated much of talk radio in the months leading up to the scheduled caning.

The Clinton Administration did intervene somewhat and was able to get the number of strokes reduced. In the end, Fay was struck four times with the cane, and the case—and Fay—slipped out of the public’s mind.

The Michael Fay case generated a lot of publicity. Newspaper reporters and editorial writers expressed different points of view on whether the punishment was justified.

• If a reporter thought that the punishment was unjustified, what kinds of words and phrases would you expect him or her to use to describe the caning and Fay himself?

• If a reporter thought that the punishment was justified, what kinds of words and phrases might you expect him or her to use to describe the caning and Michael Fay?

Forms of Evidence

When presenting an argument, writers use evidence to support their positions. For example:

• Empirical evidence is based on experiences and direct observation through research.

• Logical evidence is based on facts and a clear rationale.

• Anecdotal evidence is based on personal accounts of incidents.

Anecdotal evidence is the least reliable because it may have been passed from one person to another to another. As you read pages 210- 214, look for the evidence presented to support the arguments. Mark the text to identify each type of evidence, and discuss with peers the effect of that persuasive technique on the text as a whole as well as its impact on the reader.

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Directions: Skim the following two articles from the New York Times and determine whether each writer is a proponent of Fay’s punishment or is opposed to the punishment.

E d i t o r i a l

from The New York Times

Singapore’s founding leader, Lee Kuan Yew, returned to a favorite theme yesterday in defending the threatened caning of Michael Fay, an 18-year-old

American found guilty of vandalism. Western countries value the individual above society; in Asia, he said, the good of society is deemed more important than individual liberties. This comfortable bit of sophistry1 helps governments from China to Indonesia rationalize abuses and marginalize courageous people who campaign for causes like due process and freedom from torture.

Western nations, it is asserted, have no right to impose their values on countries that govern themselves successfully according to their own values.

So, the argument goes, when Americans express outrage over a punishment that causes permanent scarring—in this case, caning—they are committing an act of cultural arrogance, assuming that American values are intrinsically superior to those of another culture.

There is a clear problem with this argument. It assumes that dissidents, democrats and reformers in these countries are somehow less authentic representatives of their cultures than the members of the political elite who enforce oppressive punishments and suppress individual rights.

At times like this, Americans need to remember that this country was also founded by dissidents—by people who were misfits in their own society because they believed, among other things, that it was wrong to punish pilferage with hanging or crimes of any sort with torture.