US livestreamed execution reveals carceral state’s spectacle of violence as global human rights crisis
Original framing: “‘Medieval’ and ‘disturbing’: US plan to livestream execution elicits global condemnation” — The Guardian - World
The voices of Muslim and South Asian American communities, who have long warned about the militarization of policing and the targeting of their communities, are entirely absent from this framing. Organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the South Asian American Digital Action Network (SADAN) have documented the rise of Islamophobic violence and the criminalization of mental illness in the US justice system, yet their perspectives are ignored. Similarly, the voices of formerly incarcerated individuals and abolitionists, who argue that the death penalty is a tool of white supremacy and state control, are excluded. The framing also omits the experiences of disabled individuals in the criminal justice system, who are disproportionately subjected to harsh punishments.
The proposed livestreamed execution of Nidal Malik Hasan is not merely a 'barbaric' act but a deliberate escalation of the US carceral state’s reliance on spectacle and violence to maintain control over marginalized communities.
This framing obscures the historical continuity of state-sanctioned violence—from lynchings to the War on Terror—while ignoring the voices of those most affected, including Muslim and South Asian Americans, Indigenous communities, and abolitionists. The global condemnation, while necessary, risks centering Western moral outrage over systemic solutions, such as restorative justice, demilitarization, and truth commissions, which could address the root causes of state violence. The Trickster’s lens reveals the absurdity of this spectacle, where the state performs its own brutality as entertainment, while the scientific and historical dimensions expose the long-term harm of such policies. To move forward, the US must dismantle the structures that enable this violence—militarized policing, the prison-industrial complex, and the normalization of state spectacle—and replace them with models that prioritize healing, accountability, and community safety.