"Over emotional", moi? That's a bit rich...Originally Posted by spudchucka
O.K., let me spell it out. The analogy depends on the following parallel: In both situations society is aiming to achieve a benefit. If capital punishment deters, or at least removes potential re-offenders, everyone in society gains, except the occasional innocent victim executed by mistake. If police chases deter, or at least take off the roads dangerous drivers, everyone in society gains, except the occasional innocent victim. In both cases the innocent victim can be seen as an unavoidable cost of achieving the benefit. If capital punishment continues to be applied it is because society as a whole is comfortable with the ratio of benefit to cost. Likewise with road chase fatalities. The intention is not an issue. A judicial system does not set out to execute innocent people. The police do not intend, and genuinely regret, the deaths of innocent people. However, faced with the suggestion that the cost is too high, and that the existing policy should be abandoned, rather than honestly conceding the brutal reality of an acceptable level of collateral damage, they squirm and hedge and avoid the question by shifting the debate to the responsibility of the offender. The proponents of capital punishment used to insist that mistakes were impossible; faced with undeniable evidence to the contrary, they have at least had the courage of their convictions (as it were) now to admit that it does occasionally happen, but continue to insist that this is a price worth paying for the greater good.
From one ethical point of view, there is an argument that says it is better for 100 guilty men to go unpunished than for one innocent man to be condemned.
Most people familiar with the harsh realities of law enforcement would reject that notion as impossibly idealistic. I have never maintained that policing was anything other than arduous, challenging and frustrating work in which compromises have to be made at times. All I want to see is openness, integrity, commonsense and the willingness to engage in meaningful dialogue. Dismissing reasoned argument as over-emotional nonsense is a cop- out.
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