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> I hope she takes the government to the cleaners for an extremely large sum of money. Millions of pounds at a minimum. The problem with this kind of punishmen
by qrendel 11y ago
> I hope she takes the government to the cleaners for an extremely large sum of money. Millions of pounds at a minimum.
The problem with this kind of punishment is that when we refer to taking "the government's money," we really mean making taxpayers pay because of the government's mistake. How many police departments (or school districts[1], for another example) are going to go bankrupt because they got sued into the ground for doing something abominable? Would that really be a net benefit for everyone if they did?
Ideally, the cost would force taxpayers to force the government to institute some kind of reform, but the repercussions are usually far too indirect to create real reform incentives, so we basically just end up paying taxes to people we hurt because of our bad policies, while nothing really changes.
Lawsuits against public sector entities without reform are basically useless. They have no reason to care when it's not their money. Rather, I'd prefer to see the careers of everyone responsible for these things thrown into the gutter, maybe criminally prosecuted for it, to send a real message that such things will not be tolerated.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School...
- jacquesm 11y agoYes, it's the taxpayers money. And that's a good thing because those taxpayers voted for the government that makes travesties like these possible. Money is the only thing that seems to be able to send the message and if enough people in situations like these get very large sums of money to compensate them for their lost lives then maybe this will end. > Lawsuits against public sector entities without reform are basically useless. No, they send a very clear message about what is and what is not appropriate behavior on the part of government entities and their representatives. Note that it still won't give her back those 6 years of her life and it will not heal the psychological scars. But it will send a message. As for the careers of those involved: good luck bringing criminal charges, the star witness and principal agent made off to the United States.
- openfuture 11y agoWhat you are describing is how things work today. In my experience 'taxpayers' (or 'people' as I like to call them) don't feel like they have any control over how the government spends money and don't vote based on how court cases go (information like that gets lost in the noise of "big issues" come voting time). What the grandparent is suggesting is making sure that the signal doesn't have to travel as far to have an effect, which is a good thing.