elasto wrote:Sure. Noone would argue that the guilty should be punished. The question is how much should the innocent be punished in order to get to the guilty?If I have to suffer at the hands of the law for my misbehavior, if that is right and just according to everyone I know and it is b/c THEY told me so
Maybe they were wrong to tell you so? Even if you did something wrong (who hasn't), maybe what they did to you was greatly disproportionate? But if we don't want what happened to you to happen again, society actually has to move towards being less intrusive and judgemental overall, not more.
Sure, when there's a dramatic news story, there's the clamour for a knee-jerk responses. But there always has to be questions as to what the collateral damage would be.
Take Gitmo for example. It's now clear that most people held there tortured for years on end were innocent. Was it still worth it because some of them were guilty? Some would say yes, I would say no.
I'm getting too into the thread so. Anyways spoilers for abuse, twisted thoughts, innocence cray cray girly-girly feelings, triggers everywhere you have been warned