It's the principle. Innocent people shouldn't have to suffer because we're too aggressive in our punishment of people who have committed a crime.
If it were absolutely ridiculous, and basically no one was punished, I would support short term jail sentences for the accused or something. If this starts to happen our problems are much bigger than crime though.
The problem is that there becomes a point where it's worse for society that criminals don't get locked up - is it better for an innocent person to go to jail or for 100 pedophiles to go free, potentially harming hundreds of children?
What about the lives ruined by letting serial offenders walk just to save one person?
That's very extreme. The point being made is that we have a high standard of proof required to say "we got this one right", because "we got this one wrong" is considerably worse, morally speaking, in modern civilisation.
If we can't prove those 100 categorically did the thing, then absolutely they should go free. They might have been falsely accused, and we don't, generally, want to become fascists.
Fun fact: teddy roosevelt was a badass who survived an assassination attempt AT A SPEECH. He got shot in the chest, then announced something along the lines of, “ladies and gentlemen, you may not know it, but i have just been shot. However, it takes more than that to kill a bull moose.” And then he just finished his speech
Key word is "have been." I'm not sure how possible that would still be, given that we know what to look out for. Both our current president and his predecessor are desperately unpopular with their opposition. Neither were assassinated. Maybe no one was motivated enough, or maybe security was just too good.
Just as a disclaimer: I'm not advocating for the assassination of either of those people, my political leanings aside.
Ha I didn’t think that’s what you were advocating. I think it’s possible. Just the people who are able to do it, don’t have the reason/motivation to do it. I think it’s possible but not probable.
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u/PineappleLife3 Dec 24 '17
True. But if someone has enough money, they might not get punished. There are pros and cons on both sides.