It is almost impossible to read the news about the recent spate of attempted or carried out murders of women without sympathizing with the victims or imagining their pain. But I fear that, when discussing the subject, President Lula has allowed himself to be carried away by his emotions, considering that he holds a position that requires at least a measure of rationality.
In a speech at a ceremony held in Pernambuco, Lula said that “even death is easy to punish a man who commits violence against women.” It is a complex statement, especially coming from the leader of a party that has been a relentless advocate for human rights and has not been insensitive to arguments for retributive humanity.
What is implied in Lula’s sentence is that even the death penalty would not be sufficient for the killing of women. The appropriate punishment for the perpetrators of these crimes must go beyond the death penalty. Historically, humanity’s “solution” to deal with this type of emotion has been the application of “pre-mortem” torture methods, the cruelty of which was limited only by the narrowness of our imagination.
True, Lula was thinking out loud. He did not instruct the Prime Minister in the Chamber to introduce a Judicial Implementation Commission to expand the possibilities for applying the death penalty, which still exists in the Brazilian legal framework in times of war. But I cannot shake the idea that if the same sentence had been uttered by Jair Bolsonaro or Guilherme Diret, the human rights group, of which I am a member, and the leftist journal would have rightfully fallen on top of them.
However, the president’s rhetoric was almost unaffected by these usually vigilant groups. Report from Bound About this event, on Friday (5) morning, when I wrote the column, there were only 20 comments, most of which agreed with Lola.
If we want to overcome the emotional polarization that clouds national politics, the first step is to stop defending principles so selectively.
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