tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2858603265832941315.post502026356964594065..comments2023-05-11T07:29:43.942-07:00Comments on Poorhouse Dad: Nothing New about Blind PoliticiansPoorhouse Dadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02393746026136007596noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2858603265832941315.post-8262854103222677752010-07-28T21:30:56.333-07:002010-07-28T21:30:56.333-07:00I agree with restorative justice, but failing to p...I agree with <b><i>restorative justice</i></b>, but failing to partner it with punitive justice betrays justice itself. <br /><br />First, "repairing the harm" cannot compensate the victim for intangibles such as violated security, emotional distress, and lost time. Any "justice" that does not greatly exceed the harm will not deter repetition of the crime. <br /><br />Let me illustrate why: Suppose a pick-pocket steals a dollar each from 200 people. (For each criminal caught, dozens of crimes go unsolved, and dozens of criminals escape conviction.) Finally, he gets caught. Restorative justices says, make him give back the dollar to the guy who caught him. The pick-pocket still has $199 that he stole from others. He will pretend to go along with your mamby-pamby, touchy-feely counseling, go straight back to his theiving ways once he's done, and laugh at you for your foolishness.<br /><br />Second, we have a restorative justice system. It's called civil court. So, some gangster takes your car (for which you traded a year of your working life) for a joy-ride and, when done, steals all the removable parts, dumps a gallon of gasoline over it, lights it, and pushes it into a ravine. Since he spent the money he got from selling your hub caps, just how much restoration do you think you will get out of him?<br /><br />I will join Anonymous in favoring restorative justice for crimes against persons, just as soon as somebody can show me how to give back a murder victim's life and how to give back her loved ones all their years of heartbreak.<br /><br />Tell me how you will have a Timothy McVeigh restore his victim's lives or heal KV's spine so she can walk and provide for herself again. <br /><br />Tell me how your molly-coddled rapist will give a woman back her virginity and provide a father to the product of his crime.<br /><br />Third, the "minorities get the most convictions" argument is racist. It's racist because it would leave most victims without justice. Why? Most crimes do not cross racial or economic lines. If convictions of a minority overrepresent their general population, it merely reflects that most victims belong to that minority. The fact that the rich more ably escape justice does not mean that fewer minority or poor should be convicted.<br /><br />Fourth, don't rationalize opposition to the death penalty by changing the subject. So-called "wrongful convictions" are usually reversed on technicalities, not on hard evidence. Of the rest, most reversals fail to exonerate the convicts.<br /><br />The solution to most mistaken convictions for capital crimes is not to devalue life by shirking our responsibility to execute justice. If a witnesses' lie or an investigator's or prosecutor's misconduct results in a wrongful conviction, they cause the imprisonment or even the death of the person convicted. <br /><br />The solution, therefore, is to penalize crimes such as false testimony and withholding evidence with the same penalty that the falsely accused suffers (with appropriate reductions or exceptions for unintended error or so-called technicalities).<br /><br />Did Jesus oppose the death penalty in human judicial systems? Read the Old Testament upon which Jesus based His life ("without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins") and the New Testament which reveals how He willingly submitted to the death penalty.<br /><br />If you can hypothetically accept the Biblical Triune God (why not? accepting God at all may be hypothetical to you), then you have to accept God the Son's authorship of the Mosaic Law. Implying as you do that Christ opposes the death penalty implies that God contradicts Himself. Think on the implications of that if you think He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.<br /><br />To believe that God does not favor the death penalty, you only have to disbelieve everything God has revealed about Himself.Poorhouse Dadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02393746026136007596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2858603265832941315.post-60643889933176602782010-07-28T16:40:17.363-07:002010-07-28T16:40:17.363-07:00Dear Sir,
I was going to say something mighty boo...Dear Sir,<br /><br />I was going to say something mighty boorish "If God is pro death-penalty, then God, sir, is an ..." in response to your words in red, but then I saw your comment about not being boorish, so I will leave the last word for you to figure out.<br /><br />In an odd way, God is at least consistent. He also inflicted the death penalty upon Jesus. Was Jesus pro death-penalty? Think long and hard on that one...<br /><br />And then think on this: punitive justice is horribly ineffective, and often gets the wrong person, and people who are poor and/or of color get the short end of the stick in the US judicial system.<br /><br />Restorative justice (look it up) is a MUCH better solution, if the problem is to make sure that the crimes do not happen again. Not only is it more effective, it's less expensive. Punitive justice penalizes people (and those who love them) for what was often the single worst day of their life, whereas restorative justice seeks to make them whole again.<br /><br />For the tiny few who are truly incorrigible and dangerous to society, quarantine them from the rest of the population.<br /><br />Make no mistake, restorative justice is the true will of God.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com