The Crime and the Criminals
July 10, 1897
Summary
The Planet speaks to the inequalities of law and the reporting of white journals relative to crime and lynchings.
Transcription
The Crime and the Criminals
We are often led to wonder why some of our people are led off by the arguments of some of our white contemporaries, relative to lynchings.
Whenever a white journal yells that lynchings will cease when crime is eliminated from the world, it is equivalent to saying that the millennium alone will bring an end to its existence.
Law was established with the distinct understanding that crime would be committed. Were there no crime and no criminals, there would be no need for any law.
But, man is a wicked creature. He is prone to do evil as are the sparks to fly upward, and it is not confined to any race of people.
This being true, we should permit the law to exercise its power and not usurp its power. When we do otherwise we produce anarchy, and thereby place ourselves on a par with the villain we essay to punish. This is as plain as anything well could be.
It is not the severity of the punishment which checks crime, but the certainty of it.
History has established this fact time and again. Draco’s laws were so severe that they were said to be written in blood.
He punished the guilt with death for all offences whether slight or heinous, and gave as his excuse that lesser crimes deserved death and he could find no severe punishment for greater ones.
No one will charge that these punishments either eliminated either the crime or criminals.
The law was finally abolished. And so it will always be. The founders of this government realized this and profited by this experience when it decreed that “cruel and unusual punishment” shall not be resorted to.
The worst-whipped child is generally the most disobedient. Judicious punishment counts for all.
The English system is the grandest in the world and lynchers are unknown within the confines of the British Isles.
But, the awakening will come. Our rights will yet be respected. White men will see in our injury their own undoing. Lynch-law must go!
We are often led to wonder why some of our people are led off by the arguments of some of our white contemporaries, relative to lynchings.
Whenever a white journal yells that lynchings will cease when crime is eliminated from the world, it is equivalent to saying that the millennium alone will bring an end to its existence.
Law was established with the distinct understanding that crime would be committed. Were there no crime and no criminals, there would be no need for any law.
But, man is a wicked creature. He is prone to do evil as are the sparks to fly upward, and it is not confined to any race of people.
This being true, we should permit the law to exercise its power and not usurp its power. When we do otherwise we produce anarchy, and thereby place ourselves on a par with the villain we essay to punish. This is as plain as anything well could be.
It is not the severity of the punishment which checks crime, but the certainty of it.
History has established this fact time and again. Draco’s laws were so severe that they were said to be written in blood.
He punished the guilt with death for all offences whether slight or heinous, and gave as his excuse that lesser crimes deserved death and he could find no severe punishment for greater ones.
No one will charge that these punishments either eliminated either the crime or criminals.
The law was finally abolished. And so it will always be. The founders of this government realized this and profited by this experience when it decreed that “cruel and unusual punishment” shall not be resorted to.
The worst-whipped child is generally the most disobedient. Judicious punishment counts for all.
The English system is the grandest in the world and lynchers are unknown within the confines of the British Isles.
But, the awakening will come. Our rights will yet be respected. White men will see in our injury their own undoing. Lynch-law must go!
About this article
Source
Location on Page
Upper Left Quadrant
Topic
Contributed By
Brian Schrott
Citation
“The Crime and the Criminals,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed January 20, 2026, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/1179.