Comments | graymalkn: thoughts on Minorty Report

graymalkn

thoughts on Minorty Report

Apr 24, 2007 21:00

Last week I watched Minority Report again and it occurred to me: if it's possible to prevent all murders by showing up in time to stop them, why put people in jail/stasis? I mean it isn't like they're a danger to anyone - the very premise precludes it. It may mean a bit more work for detectives since the would-be killer might try again at some ( Read more... )

law, movies, ethics

Comments 13

funranium April 25 2007, 19:22:25 UTC

That would work fine if the cause of the murderous urge was removed. For prevented unplanned murder, "crimes of passion", you now let the person know their urge and they know why. It is possible that they would now become premeditated murderers.

What do you do with them? You have merely thwarted one plan. Think they can't come up with more or that they'll get bored of it?

graymalkn April 25 2007, 23:48:44 UTC

I think the large majority of murders are crimes of passion (e.g. bar fights and jealous lovers) or convenience (e.g. killing someone to make a robbery easier). There might be a few who are dead-set on killing a certain person, but I think after a short while they'd get bored. Let's say you have one such person in custody for a few days to keep them from killing their intended victim. Assuming the window of foresight is about four days for premeditated crimes (which IIRC the movie assumes), once you let them out you can be certain that they'll be no trouble for four days. If they have a history of repeated attempted murder (or would it be attempted attempted murder?) the police might want to put a tracking device on them for convenience, but I think after a while they'd just get bored. If not, the occasional super-dedicated wannabe killer might have to locked up, but I think such cases would be vanishingly rare ( ... )

Minority Report lovelylira April 25 2007, 23:34:34 UTC

You are Waaaaaaay too Nice! I don't know that jail is the answer, but if someone tries to kill me, I want them put somewhere for at least a while.

Re: Minority Report graymalkn April 25 2007, 23:49:15 UTC

Why? Assuming the system works as advertised, they're no threat.

Re: Minority Report sponsz April 26 2007, 00:05:29 UTC

yes but they wanted to kill, there is infallible evidence and proof of this, and that is as good as killing. Ergo, jail.

Re: Minority Report graymalkn April 26 2007, 00:13:22 UTC

Why? The only two purposes of jail are protection of society by keeping dangerous people locked up and deterrence against others trying the same thing. But since if one could succesfulyl murder, both are moot.

Thread 6

buzzlghtyr April 26 2007, 14:15:48 UTC

Perhaps they are punishing the fact that they would have killed had they not shown up to stop it.

So you get 10 years in a deep freeze for "almost" killing.

graymalkn April 26 2007, 16:04:20 UTC

Right, but why? What good does it do? It doesn't keep you from doing it again (the precrime system does that) and it isn't needed to deter anyone else (since precrime will catch them even if they do try).

buzzlghtyr April 26 2007, 19:02:20 UTC

cause you want to send a message that you shouldn't kill people, want to kill people or even think about killing people. The precrime group will stop you and still toss you in the freeze for being "evil". 8)

I wonder if they could stop a suicide bomber, or like the Dennis Hopper's character from Speed?

buzzlghtyr April 26 2007, 19:02:56 UTC

BTW, that "evil" is in my doctor evil voice too...

Vimes' Law: Follow the Money anonymous May 2 2007, 15:23:04 UTC

After all, if someone succumbs to the urge to kill once, they're likely to repeat offend. Even someone coldly considering murder is likely, to repeat. It's a flaw in their character. So you take the repeat offenders out of the equation, because that's the majority off your repeat business. And in the future, I'm sure it's cheaper to put someone on ice than it is to hire a second squad of Goldberg-machine-worshipping cops.