Philippines War On Drugs is the real life "Purge"

Philippines newly elected president Duterte said that it is fine for citizens to take the law into his own hands
and it would be all right for them to kill a drug dealer. This form of citizen vigilantism would be as close to
a real life "purge" I would imagine and normal people are encouraged to kill drug lords whom the
president promises a bounty of $108,000.

Police are armed with assault rifles to hunt suspected drug dealers and kill them without trial. The death toll has reached more than 3000.
With hundred of thousands of drug pushers and users surrendering for fear of being shot down, leading to
overcrowded prisons where people are packed like sardines.

I can only imagine it to be total mayhem when people with a personal vendetta against another can just go out
killing someone else without repercussions and even the president himself admit there are cases of innocent deaths
and children who died in this operation but are "collateral damage".

It seems that this method is effective in eradicating the drug abusers and dealers, and I think that he probably feels the innocent lives
shed are for the greater good. But is such a harsh stance really necessary? I do not live in the Philippines, but I feel it would be pretty
frightful to go out in the streets when you know any time there will be a gunfight breaking out.

Sources:
www.dailymail.co.uk... ils-make-caskets-didn-t-escape-President-Duterte-s-crackdown.html

edition.cnn.com...

www.theguardian.com...

I guess we will see what happens
If the drug problem stops how can anyone argue
The death sentence is a very effective method to end crime

originally posted by: Raggedyman
I guess we will see what happens
If the drug problem stops how can anyone argue
The death sentence is a very effective method to end crime

Is there still drug use and smuggling in countries who have the death penalty as a punishment for drug use / smuggling?

The answer is yes so the death penalty as a deterrent is not a deterrent - ask China.

Let the masses stand together and eradicate the minority causing the problem.
Of course there will be people who abuse this privilege and use it to advance their own agenda,
but hopefully they are few and far between.
There will be accidents - 'He looked like a drug runner, I swear'.
There will be drug runners who fight back.

But here's to hoping the loss of innocent life is little and that they dig mass graves for the drug cartels.
That's the way to fix your country - yourself.

"The Purge" is a work of fiction.

So is the news your hearing about the Philippines from the MSM.

I've been here two years, since Duterte took office crime has plummeted. Philippine people are happier (very proud of their President). Corruption is getting removed on a larger scale than any I know of in recent history.

It's all just strangely darkly hilarious...
Duterte said he had been portrayed as a 'cousin of Hitler' by critics

Accepting this portrayal he went on to say:
"If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have ...," he said, pausing and pointing to himself.

"Hitler massacred three million Jews, now, there is three million drug addicts. I'd be happy to slaughter them"

Him and Obama have exchanged remarks too:

Duterte recently told president Barrack Obama to, 'Go to hell'

Duterte called Barack Obama a 'son of a whore'

Obama initially responded by calling Duterte a 'colourful guy'

Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, says the motivation for his brutal clampdown on drugs comes in part from being sexually abused by a Catholic priest as a child.

Ah, that explains everything.
Anyway he's probably fighting the world's most successful war on drugs, by all accounts winning and gaining the approval of 8/10 people. It seems his character is in effect a spawn of the long term hatred for the government inaction regarding drugs, a sentiment many hold.

a reply to: DodgyDawg

Don't you think the problem may be slippery slopes? This isn't confined to drug sellers, but addicts. Once they are all dead, who is next in line to keep him popular?

Hypothetical question, but I'm not sure anyone apart from him is in a position to respond.

This is in part what the people wanted. A free pass to 'fix' the drug problem at all costs.

What they fail to realize is the 'evolution of' this method will mean a bleak judgment to other types of criminals; no matter how petty or goung or old the perpetrators.

But let's hope the people will ask for an end to the madness before it turns into insanity.

originally posted by: Xcathdra

originally posted by: Raggedyman
I guess we will see what happens
If the drug problem stops how can anyone argue
The death sentence is a very effective method to end crime

Is there still drug use and smuggling in countries who have the death penalty as a punishment for drug use / smuggling?

The answer is yes so the death penalty as a deterrent is not a deterrent - ask China.

There is a big difference when the death penalty is being doled out by the State, vs an angry mob of citizens. I think most people would much rather take a lethal injection than to let a crowd have their way with them. Plus these vigilantes wear no uniforms, so the element of surprise is there to fear also.

It's sad people still believe punishing someone because of drug use is the same as helping them. Duterte could allow the murder of every user and dealer in his country and it won't make a bit of difference in the long run. Why? Whether people want to admit it or not, the desire for self-transcendence is right in the middle of humans hierarchy of needs somewhere between food and shelter. People that choose a chemical way to fill that need shouldn't be rounded up in the streets and killed.

originally posted by: Raggedyman
I guess we will see what happens
If the drug problem stops how can anyone argue
The death sentence is a very effective method to end crime

No it isn't. If the death sentence was effective in ending crime, there would be no crime at all in many many countries.

What the death sentence does is create a void for the next wannabe to rise up and fill; until he is cut down and the next one comes, and the next one.

The drug problem in the Philippines is not going to go away, but it will lessen enough to be tolerable. I'm no Duterte fan, by any means, and I don't see his "war on drug users" being 100% successful. I actually see tons of human rights violations. But one thing that Duterte's drug war has done is expose tons and tons of corruption, leading right up to the Philippine senate. So if he's successful at eradicating top level corruption, perhaps the country will re-gain some of the hope that it seems it lost.

a reply to: kelbtalfenek

Maybe the death sentences might lessen the problem so it becomes tolerable then
So be it

I accept that there will always be a problem, I also think there comes a time

a reply to: icyboy771z

The way I see it, their house, their rules.

If crime and corruption are down then I think its good. Kids and innocents die with crime and corruption. If this ends that then its a solution.

originally posted by: uncommitted
a reply to: DodgyDawg

Don't you think the problem may be slippery slopes? This isn't confined to drug sellers, but addicts. Once they are all dead, who is next in line to keep him popular?

Hypothetical question, but I'm not sure anyone apart from him is in a position to respond.

Terrorists.

He's hard at work on ending some of the largest terrorist groups that are kidnapping and beheading people... but that doesn't make western media.

I'm here right now and have been to 3 different islands and there's no purge going on. The people here support his efforts to clean up the corruption and I don't support ejk either but the people are not living in fear.
Most police and security is armed here and I feel safe walking around even in remote areas. I do avoid mindanao but I definitely think the media is trying to make a bad guy out of Duterte and I think that will backfire because he apparently has the support of the majority.

Also remember what he did on Davao, it was once a muder hot spot and his policies cleaned it right up to make it the safest city in the south.

Duterte is easy to understand. He's China's boy. China has cash to throw around and it was only a matter of time before they started buying influence just like the US does.

Why is he focused on drugs? Well it's not hard to guess why. People warned for years that the US was both the one making drugs illegal and selling the illegal drugs around the world. Sounds like they were right. It's a bad habit they picked up from the British Empire.

Thus, China's boy is smartly killing off the people who sell drugs because that money is how the US buys influence in the Philippines in the first place.

Nice 'pivot to Asia,' Obama. It didn't take long to lose the friendliest country we had over there. Relying on dirty drug money in the first place seems to have made it pretty easy for China to turn the Philippines from our ally into their ally.

It's also worth noting that this is another long term consequence of the Clintons giving away the economy to China in the 90's.

originally posted by: Xcathdra

originally posted by: Raggedyman
I guess we will see what happens
If the drug problem stops how can anyone argue
The death sentence is a very effective method to end crime

Is there still drug use and smuggling in countries who have the death penalty as a punishment for drug use / smuggling?

The answer is yes so the death penalty as a deterrent is not a deterrent - ask China.

Its a deterrent, greedy and poor will always have a need
I am not saying I support it or its ideal, it is effective though

Nothing is 100% effective

Yes, this does seem like a "real life purge." The pictures present in the articles provided lend insight into the dire state of the nation--I had no clue it had reached such a peak. Allowing the public to take the law into their own hands, killing accused drug dealers, is not a smart move. This could obviously be twisted to benefit someone's own personal agenda: killing someone that wronged them through simply accusing them of being a drug dealer. It'll be interesting to see what happens further down the line; however, it's a shame that innocent lives are being lost in the process.

~Sovereign

a reply to: Raggedyman
a reply to: Raggedyman

I guess we will see what happens
If the drug problem stops how can anyone argue
The death sentence is a very effective method to end crime.


There is a big difference when the death penalty is being doled out by the State, vs an angry mob of citizens. I think most people would much rather take a lethal injection than to let a crowd have their way with them. Plus these vigilantes wear no uniforms, so the element of surprise is there to fear also.

You are correct so my bad... I failed to explain the difference in what China is doing as opposed to the Philippines method. My overall point though is states that have a "judicial method of punishment" does not serve as a deterrent and even in countries with massive drug issues where rival gangs slaughter each other, like the Mexican drug gangs, we still see a massive drug issue.

I doubt murdering people for drugs will be effective... Even the Gestapo failed in their task and considering the time frame they were active in, coupled with their methods, still did not serve as a deterrent.

...any legal code worthy of the name, restricts the enforcers of law as well as its subjects. There are some things you cannot do.
- Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart
- Wannsee Conference, 1942