Joe Doakes from Como Park emailed me about something Glenn Reynolds wrote, that I wanted to write about anyway:<\/p>\n
Libertarian, explained in six sentences:
\n“So, I\u2019m skeptical of the death penalty\u2019s administration because the criminal justice system is a disaster. But, assuming guilt, I don\u2019t really care much about the morality of killing people. The nation-state is all about killing people. Its sole reason for existing is that it\u2019s better at killing people in large numbers than any other form of human organization. If you don\u2019t like the idea of the state killing people, you don\u2019t like the idea of the state. If you don\u2019t realize this, it\u2019s because your thinking is confused.”<\/p>\nGlenn Reynolds, Instapundit, 8:34 a.m. July 25, 2014\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Far be it from me to disagree with the esteemed Prof. Reynolds, but I think it’s his thinking that’s confused.<\/p>\n
We pay taxes to a state that excels at carrying out violence for the same reason we buy a pistol and get a carry permit; we are responding prudently to a threat by giving ourselves the means to defend ourselves, singularly and collectively, from what the law calls “an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm” or it’s state equivalent, conquest and destruction. Judgment is called for \u2013 but not “due process”. <\/p>\n
I don’t necessarily trust the state to “get self-defense right”, but where the alternative is being conquered by someone much worse, I’ll accept the risks.<\/p>\n
Criminal justice is not self-defense. It’s not about life or death (for the crime victim, anyway) \u2013 not anymore. The perp is in custody. It’s about making things right, which involves getting things right.<\/p>\n
Except the state can’t get things right \u2013 not 100% of the time.<\/p>\n
There is no alternative to self-defense \u2013 you live if it works, and if it doesn’t you die. There is a reasonable alternative to the state botching executions, or, worse, killing the wrong person entirely (as they have certainly done more than a few times). <\/p>\n
I tolerate the idea of the state defending us imperfectly because there is no rational alternative. There are plenty of rational alternatives to the state botching the judicial execution.<\/p>\n
There. I hope I’ve settled that once and for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Doakes from Como Park emailed me about something Glenn Reynolds wrote, that I wanted to write about anyway: Libertarian, explained in six sentences: “So, I\u2019m skeptical of the death penalty\u2019s administration because the criminal justice system is a disaster. But, assuming guilt, I don\u2019t really care much about the morality of killing people. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[284],"class_list":["post-45930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment","tag-death-penalty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45930"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47602,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45930\/revisions\/47602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}