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In Lawrence Lessig's essay titled "Prosecutor as Bully", he writes the following in his last paragraph: Somehow, we need to get beyond the "I'm right so I'm ri
by numbsafari 14y ago
In Lawrence Lessig's essay titled "Prosecutor as Bully", he writes the following in his last paragraph:
Somehow, we need to get beyond the "I'm right so I'm right to nuke you" ethics that dominates our time.
If that's the case, threatening "vigilante justice" based on 25,000 signatures would seem to indicate those who want to see action against the prosecutors have failed to learn that lesson and are only interested in continuing the downward spiral.
- olefoo 14y agoI would suggest that asking that someone be removed from a position of power that they are to all appearances misusing; is not vigilante justice. In point of fact, it is the proper procedure to ask that someone who has abused the public trust and shown a lack of judgment be removed from a position that requires trustworthiness and judgment. Vigilante justice would be hacking into her personal files and threatening her life; asking her boss to fire her is the furthest you can get from that. Speaking of which; if anyone is thinking about acting directly against Ms. Ortiz or Mr. Heymann, I would discourage that as strongly as possible; it would be counterproductive as well as criminal.
- numbsafari 14y agoI agree with you. My comment is not in response to the petition itself, but into the threats that are going around with respect to actual vigilante justice as described in the original article and by the original comment.
- npsimons 14y agoLet's try to eliminate the equivocating, shall we? One the one hand, we have someone who was being threatened with being imprisoned for half his life, for doing something that couldn't have possibly merited that kind of retribution. On the other hand, we have a person being threatened with being removed from an position of power so that she (hopefully) can't abuse power over others again. She most likely will be able to get another job, and more importantly, won't have to live most of her life behind bars.
- ryguytilidie 14y agoYeah I love how people keep acting like "oh, his life was ruined so now you need to ruin hers?" NO, we need to make her not have the power to ruin more lives. If because of this, her and her millionaire husband manage to rationalize this as their lives being ruined while not caring about the kid's death they are responsible for than that really tells one everything they would need to know about the content of their character.
- mcantelon 14y agoHer losing her position would prevent her from having the power to ruin more lives, no?
- jlgreco 14y agoYes, I think that is what he was getting at.
- ryguytilidie 14y agoThat was my entire point.
- mcantelon 14y agoAh, I misread... apologies.
- numbsafari 14y agoI'm not referring to her losing her job. I'm referring to the threats of vigilante justice that seem to be going around, as mentioned by the linked article.
- AnthonyMouse 14y agoVigilante justice is what happens when actual justice is not available. If you don't like vigilante justice, ensure actual justice.
- rolux 14y agoJust a - friendly - reminder that the field that such ethics operate on isn't always symmetrical. At the other end of every "I'm right so I nuke you" you will find some "I'm right but they nuke me", and if you're looking for a rational explanation why rational people may consider "vigilante justice", you'll probably find it there.