Quote:
Originally Posted by milt
I can't say I disagree with that. But, I'm sure the cop feels better instead of offing the guy. That's gotta be brutal psyche wise.
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I agree completely. It would be less than human to not feel a great deal of remorse over shooting someone under those circumstances. The cop really did do the "right thing".
I guess as I grow older, though, I have become very torn, or conflicted, over the whole crime and punishment thing. There exists an entire class of people living among us that will never contribute to the greater good, with many of them resorting to criminal activity as a way of life. They drain society as a whole with their non-stop, petty thievery and thuggery.
Sometimes we catch them, but most of the time we don't. My cop and former cop friends and family members tell me they think they are doing well if they can catch, prosecute, and jail this class of people for even 10% of the crimes they commit. And, when they do get a conviction, the crook is back out all too soon, right back at it. It's a never ending cycle with some of them. This class of habitual offender places an enormous financial and emotional strain on society.
I think we need to revisit our entire criminal justice system. It is currently structured around the false premise that "everyone can make a mistake", and that "everyone deserves a second chance". Well, how about a third, fourth, fifth, twentieth chance? At some point, it becomes apparent that an individual will just never amount to a law abiding, contributing member of our society. I like the "three strikes" laws, but they don't go far enough, in that they only apply to felony convictions. That, and the rest of us are burdened with housing and feeding them for the rest of their days, to the tune of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars each. And we get nothing in return.
I guess I don't really know where I'm going with this. The logical end of my line of reasoning is that we simply euthanize them at a certain point, but that would be rather barbaric. Maybe I am simply ruing a lost opportunity, but that really isn't thinking of the poor cop that would have to live with himself afterwards. Hell, I don't know. I just feel something isn't right in all of this.