America’s equal opportunity troll and purveyor of bigoted sentimentBill O’Reilly is at it again. You’ll remember O’Reilly as the recipient of one of the sickest burns in talk show history, a la Cam’ron, and probably as something of a life coach to your average willfully ignorant racist.
On last night’s segment of TheO’Reilly Factor, the host was discussing Singapore’s capital punishment policy with guest Jessica Tarlov as a possible means of eradicating the drug problem here in America. Here's the exchange:
“I’ll remind you, in Singapore they have no problem. Why? They hang 'em. They hang 'em."
Tarlov interjected, “OK, but we’re obviously not suggesting that as the answer to...”
“I don’t know,” O'Reilly continued. “I mean, look, Singapore at one time had the most pernicious opium problem you could possibly have. It destroyed their entire society. So they said, 'you know what, we’re not going to have this anymore.' And that’s what they did. Bingo, no drug problem.”
(It’s worth noting that the example he used, heroin, has most recently become a problem in white middle-class communities in America. You know, his target demo.)
The Economist reported earlier this year on an investigation by the Harm Reduction International (HRI), which found that 32 countries currently employ the death penalty for drug-related offenses (more specifically, for drug smuggling). However, they also found that only six, including Singapore, regularly execute drug smugglers.
It probably goes without saying, but Singapore’s capital punishment policy for drug traffickers continues to receive global condemnation, with the Guardian writing in 2010 that its treatment of drug offenders “clearly indicates that Singapore continues to exist on the fringe.”
You know who else seems out of step with reality and “continues to exist on the fringe”?
