#4 Musings Beyond The Bunker (Wednesday April 21)
Good morning!
WHAT IS THE POINT OF RETRIBUTION?
These past two weeks feels like a recurring drama of mass killings and police killings. Shockingly, I have opinions on all of these (and I’m willing to bet most of you agree):
Derek Chauvin is a murderer. He killed George Floyd in cold blood. He has been convicted and he should languish in prison for some period of time—as should anyone who intentionally takes the life of another. That said, his sentence should be no greater—nor less than—that of others who commit such acts. Imagine if he had not been found guilty? Would that have stood as the ultimate testament to the notion that the police really are free to do anything? Thankfully, we do not have to ponder the results for our society has this murderer been let off.
The officer who killed Daunte Wright with her gun, thinking it was a taser, did not commit murder. She did not have intent to kill. Society will not be served by her serving time. That said, there are many people in prison today that would not pose a danger to society upon release. Yet they sit in prison due to an antiquated retribution-based system that throws around sentences of a decade or more for drug use and aggravated assault. And the system is such that judges’ hands are tied by minimum sentencing regimes. Our system should instead be based on rehabilitation—certainly coupled with keeping dangerous people off the streets. Many people currently serving prison terms pose no significant risk to society and, through prolonged incarceration without rehabilitation, actually constitute a greater risk upon release than if they had a shorter sentence.
What the misuse of the taser exposed did not appear to constitute intent to kill or even police misconduct. What it demonstrated is that our police are scared for their safety, are quick to act, and are inadequately trained. If we really want to improve police performance, reduce accidental discharges of weapons or the quick use of weapons, we need to be better at (a) who we allow to serve as peace officers, (b) training them better and longer, require sensitivity training, weapons training and de-escalation, and (c) require regular continuing education, training and testing. Many police force training programs are 14 weeks in length. In Germany, their police training programs exceed two years in length.
The various mass murders in the past few weeks have taken many lives (three per day since the George Floyd murder trial began, according to the New York Times). If this isn’t enough of an advertisement for limits on gun ownership and carrying laws, what else could be? I am so tired of hearing friends of mine who are gun owners or collectors arguing that I don’t know anything about how strict gun registration laws are. They point out that buying a gun in a store in most states requires registration, a background check and a waiting period. Big whoop. One can still purchase a gun at a gun show or privately with no such restrictions. And the sky’s the limit for the size of the magazine and the caliber of the weapon. The Second Amendment has no applicability to the silly explosion of claims of individual rights and the need for being armed against the tyranny of the government (like any number of guns might stand up against the government).
WE COULD HAVE SAVED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS MORE
I was struck by a comment made by a former Trump administration official the other day. That person noted that, if we had pursued masks and social distancing earlier, with greater commitment, and with support of the then-president, hundreds of thousands of people would not have died.
The comment resonated with the scene toward the end ofSchindler’s List, when Liam Neeson, as the protagonist, is lamenting his failure, even in the success of saving so many, not to have saved even more people.
Then I thought about the spate of mass armed killings. I can’t fathom why people think AK-47s were imagined by the Founding Fathers, and how requiring registration of private gun sales or licensing and gun education are unreasonable infringements on one’s freedom. It is mind-boggling how one can’t see that the rights of these gun owners to own these weapons impinges upon the rights of other citizens to be safe in public.
How hard would it have been to have more aggressively responded to these challenges? How will we feel in a couple of decades? How will history judge us on:
The slow, conflicting, politically dominated response to COVID
The abundance of guns, not only owned, but permitted in public spaces and in private spaces (many states REQUIRE businesses to permit guns in cars in their parking lots…)
The slavish resistance to masks and vaccination and the lack of concern with the public good. Governors, particularly in Republican-governed states, have cowed before the more uninformed and unscientific among us. For shame.
Our failure to definitively act in the face of climate change.
How many lives will be lost to these politically-motivated, senseless, non-communitarian positions solely motivated by personal desires in the present, without regard for the future? Time, sadly, will tell.
Have a good day,
Glenn