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This might not be an improvement. If they can no longer turn you over to the authorities, they may feel compelled to gather a mob. A large part of the reason w

by tropo 8y ago

This might not be an improvement. If they can no longer turn you over to the authorities, they may feel compelled to gather a mob. A large part of the reason why we have criminal law is to suppress people's urge to take things into their own hands. When the legal system is unsatisfying, people turn to more instinctive methods of dealing with things. At least the authorities were unlikely to torture you to death.

DoreenMichele 8y ago
Sometimes, there is value in it being obvious that the people attacking you are in the wrong. It may be a tragedy for that individual, but sometimes it helps the rest of society go WTF? and give more push back. Kind of like when that girl was brutally raped and murdered in Turkey and the men rose up and posted pictures of themselves on social media in mini skirts to protest the idea that a girl in a mini skirt was "asking for it." Sometimes, when the people attacking you and ruining you are too polite and proper in how they shit all over you, it's harder to fight than if they are clearly brutal and horrible in their mistreatment of you.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> A large part of the reason why we have criminal law is to suppress people's urge to take things into their own hands Well, yes, but largely by criminalizing taking things into your own hands (and enforcing that prohibition), whether or not those things are cognizable as crimes. If your notional government is unable to constrain lynch mobs, and you are hated, then you are going to be subject to them whether or not the conduct which motivates antipathy toward you is legally cognizable as a crime, so you don't actually benefit from it being criminalized. Before the US managed to get lynching under control, the fact that targets were charged with crimes (or actually detained in jail waiting trial for them) did not stop then from being lynched, often with the cooperation of public authorities.

by tropo 8y ago

DoreenMichele 8y ago

Sometimes, there is value in it being obvious that the people attacking you are in the wrong. It may be a tragedy for that individual, but sometimes it helps the rest of society go WTF? and give more push back. Kind of like when that girl was brutally raped and murdered in Turkey and the men rose up and posted pictures of themselves on social media in mini skirts to protest the idea that a girl in a mini skirt was "asking for it." Sometimes, when the people attacking you and ruining you are too polite and proper in how they shit all over you, it's harder to fight than if they are clearly brutal and horrible in their mistreatment of you.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> A large part of the reason why we have criminal law is to suppress people's urge to take things into their own hands Well, yes, but largely by criminalizing taking things into your own hands (and enforcing that prohibition), whether or not those things are cognizable as crimes. If your notional government is unable to constrain lynch mobs, and you are hated, then you are going to be subject to them whether or not the conduct which motivates antipathy toward you is legally cognizable as a crime, so you don't actually benefit from it being criminalized. Before the US managed to get lynching under control, the fact that targets were charged with crimes (or actually detained in jail waiting trial for them) did not stop then from being lynched, often with the cooperation of public authorities.