by Greg Krehbiel on 29 April 2015
A long time ago I read a debate in First Things about the death penalty. People were trying to interact with modern Roman Catholic teachings that the death penalty is unnecessary and should rarely be used.
John Paul II argued that since the state has the means to imprison people and keep them away from the general population, that is preferable to executions. Drawing on his experience as a judge hearing awful cases, Robert Bork replied that the pope didn’t know what he was talking about. Some people are so incredibly violent, Bork said, that putting them in jail is a serious threat to other inmates and to the guards.
This reminds me of a discussion I had recently on Facebook about shooting looters and arsonists. People don’t like the idea of the police using force or injuring rioters, but it’s not as if it’s a binary choice. People seem to think that we have simple choices in life — choices that have no other ramifications.
When people are burning down buildings, throwing molotav cocktails at police, etc., failure to contain that kind of chaos puts emergency responders in danger. E.g., firemen might die trying to stop the city from burning down.
All this came to mind when I saw this story: ‘Why I killed Jeffrey Dahmer': Prisoner reveals how serial cannibal taunted inmates, fashioning limbs out of prison food
Prisoners and prison guards have rights to. So do policemen, firemen, EMTs, and so on.
-- 2015-04-29 » Greg Krehbiel
Source:
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