Not in my name

[jigsawpig]

For some reason, possibly because I am surprisingly dim, it never really dawned on me that England had any laws, apart from obvious practical ones about not parking on zebra crossings, and not taking other people's stuff without their permission. I suppose I have a fairly pragmatic view of the role of the state in enforcing behaviours, namely that

Comments

Re: Simple pig

[perthman]

The deranged man in Baghdad you refer to has apparently murdered thousands of innocent people, and has now been convicted of at least some of those murders. I guess you could consider that as being a nuisance to the general public. I'm personally opposed to the death penalty in all cases, but can't help thinking that some sort of punishment is probably in order for this chap.

The issue of justice for victims isn't necessarily about compensation or revenge. From my perspective it's more about ensuring that the damage the perpetrator has inflicted is made good by the perpetrator himself. If he made me suffer, he should work to make good that suffering. Of course, this bloke has made thousands of people suffer by slaughtering them and their loved ones. It's probably tricky for him to make that up, but I'd like to see him spend the rest of his life being made to try.

Just because a mass murderer has been prevented from slaughtering any more people, but I don't think I could turn my back and saunter away from such crimes in the relaxed manner you apparently can.

Re: Simple pig

[jigsawpig]

I guess there are two issues - one is the 'reparation' side of things, which I think probably does have some logic to it, the other is 'revenge', which I can't see has any justification in either logic or morality. There does seem to be a tradition of treating revenge as a type of reparation, though.