Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1902-08-04
SYMPATHY WITH CRIMINALS.

men 70 carry flowers 70 convicted GRIM
inals, especially those who are con-
demned 10 death for murder, has been
often a subject for severe criticism by
the press TO many people II is mex
pIcable. why intelligent yirtuous, and
tenderhearted women should desire to
visit and condole with brutal men. who
have savagely imbrued their hands In
the blood of a fellow creature, or In
other ways wilfully taken human life
with malicious intent is a marvel to
common-sense and ordinary people
Those fearful sympathl2ers with the
criminal, seem 10 have no compassion
for the surviving victims Of the crime
who have been deprived of some loved
one through his guilt, but the whole
tide Of their sympathy runs out toward
the wretch who. by law and the verdict
of society is pronounced unfit to lve'
Such feminine eccentricity Is surely q
symptom OF a certain kind Of insanity.
Akin to this Is the feeling that some-
times finds expression IN the exclama-
ton: 10 he is good fellow and am
sorry for him." when some culprt Is
sent to prison for deliberate and contn-
nous stealings, or schemes TO swindle
his employers or associates, giving evil
dence OF intentional and persistent
oriminallty. The sentiment Is wrong
and abnormal, and should be frowned
down by honorable and thinking people.
Public opinion and public speech
should be in favor of law and order.
Sympathy ought to be extended, not to
the robber but to the robbed to the
bereaved not TO the criminal who has
caused the bereavement, Flowers would
look more appropriate on the tomb Of
the victim than in the cell Of the as
sassin. Every rlghtmnded person
should discourage exhibitions Of mis-
placed sympathy and the spirit that
leads to them. On this subject there
Is a very timely editorial in the I'm
provement Era for August, from the
pen Of President Joseph +. Smith,
which we here insert in full
There is a deplorable tendency among
the people Of this nation to sympathlze
with murderers, bank defaulters, evil
adventures. and hundred other
classes OF criminals who are at large
or who have been arrested or con-
vcted Of breaking the law. Such a
tendency is not alone manifest in the
various States and Territories Of our
Nation, it is also apparent among the
Latter-day Saints, This sympathy
for criminals Is entirely abnormal, and
has tendency to lower and destroy
the moral sentiment Of any people who
INDUCES in IT, For Latter-day Saint
to sympathige either with crime or
with criminals, is a burning shame,
and It is high time that the teachers
of the community should stem such
tendency and inculcate a sentiment
that would make II extremely abhor.
rent to commit crime in our State.
Recent examples in our country
show to what extremes people will 80
In sympathzing with outlaws who
should be condemned by every right
thinking individual. Criminals should
not look for sympathy from anyone 1t
Is only some weeks ago that a woman
eoped with certain murderers setting
the whole Nation agog and many there
were who sympathized with her daring
flight rather than with the murdered
man and his kin.
We have had Instances recently IN
Utah IN which condemned criminals
nave received undue sympathy from
weak women and foolish men, Any
person who sympathizes with a
criminal because he is a good fellow"
avs himself liable to the suspicion that
ne himself is a criminal. and openly
advertises the fact that Il anything
should occur to cause him to break the
aw, that he would look for like sym.
'athy from his friends under similar
circumstances.
Newspapers give fun room to criml-
lal affairs and occupy their valuable
space to lay bare to the public every
Indecent detail Of crime, because the
ublic demands IT, and the newspaper
hat would not do It would be consld-
red behind the times. hence, we have
he discomforting spectacle Of having
pread before the community every
morning and evening the horrible de-
ais Of murder, adventure, robbery and
,ther violations OF law The result Is
hat unthinking people, in addition TO
becoming criminal unwIttIngly in their
own thoughts, make heroes out OF
aimlnals by expressing unnatural !
ympathy for them.
1t is highly proper to encourage
ointment among Latter-day Saints |
and In our associations entirely con-
rary TO this. that would sympathlze
absolutely with law and Order honesty
md virtue and every other good doc.
line and deed, and that would con.
mn unsparlngly every man or wo-
nan who Is a criminal, or who In any
ay sympathizes with crime. ! wish
time would come when our people
ar the details Of crime, ana when II
ould he considered low and vulgar to
end any time in reading OF criminal
aidents, and when, in every other
ay, people would exercise their innu-