{"id":27,"date":"2010-10-05T20:33:51","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T00:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/2010\/10\/05\/the-boondock-saints-genocide-of-the-wicked\/"},"modified":"2010-10-05T22:11:59","modified_gmt":"2010-10-06T02:11:59","slug":"the-boondock-saints-genocide-of-the-wicked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/2010\/10\/05\/the-boondock-saints-genocide-of-the-wicked\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boondock Saints: Genocide of the Wicked"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the mid-nineties, a struggling musician and bartender named Troy Duffy was appalled when he came home to his Los Angeles apartment and witnessed a cadaver being taken out of a drug dealer's apartment across the hall.\u00a0 That night, out of "sheer frustration and not being able to afford a psychologist," Duffy began the cathartic process of writing his first screenplay entitled The Boondock Saints<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Boondock Saints<\/em> is the story of a pair of fraternal twin brothers from South Boston.\u00a0 The Irish Catholic duo ends up killing two members of the Russian mafia in self-defense after they try to shut down a friend's bar on St. Patrick's Day. After the Saints turn themselves in, the media hails them as heroes and the two blue-collar brothers resolve to continue killing evil people in the name of God.\u00a0 At one point, they are nearly caught by a cunning detective, however, the detective joins forces with the Saints after he decides that what they are doing is a necessary evil.<\/p>\n

In today's world, we turn on the news and are greeted with a barrage of horrific stories detailing villainous acts.\u00a0 The same honest, hard-working citizens who fall victim to these monsters then have to pay tax dollars to keep criminals alive in prison.\u00a0 Even if an inmate is sentenced to death, the appeals process can be so long and arduous that capital punishment can end up being more costly than incarcerating a prisoner for a life-sentence.\u00a0 The idea of dealing out a swift brand of justice in the form of vigilantism can be a tempting fantasy, although it can lead to a number of ethical dilemmas.\u00a0 Although the Saints are breaking the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," they believe that they are saving more lives than they are taking.\u00a0 This justification is valid in the sense that they kill a number of mob bosses who are indirectly responsible for the suffering and death of hundreds of people.\u00a0 However, many question what gives the Saints the right to murder in accordance with their own belief of what is good and evil.\u00a0 They claim that rape, murder and theft are sacrilege regardless of your personal faith, but many believe that there is a spectrum of criminality, and some cases require special consideration rather than a black and white form of justice.<\/p>\n

Troy Duffy argues that everyone has a breaking point, and that anyone who is constantly exposed to the shortcomings of our justice system will eventually want to act out against the criminals that it sets free. As our culture becomes more and more politically correct, perhaps it is necessary to have heroes such as The Boondock Saints<\/em> in order to keep our sometimes overly-lenient treatment of criminals in check. The righteous have nothing to fear.<\/p>\n

"Never shall innocent blood be shed, yet the blood of the wicked shall flow like a river. \u00a0[The Two] shall spread their blackened wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of God."<\/p>\n

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In the mid-nineties, a struggling musician and bartender named Troy Duffy was appalled when he came home to his Los Angeles apartment and witnessed a cadaver being taken out of a drug dealer's apartment across the hall.\u00a0 That night, out of "sheer frustration and not being able to afford a psychologist," Duffy began the cathartic … Continue reading The Boondock Saints: Genocide of the Wicked<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geoff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/psyc449\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}