Quote:
Originally Posted by ogon_bat
“A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither”. Thomas Jefferson quotes
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I have to wonder about the credibility of one who misquotes Ben Franklin and attributes it to Thomas Jefferson. The quote was actually "Those who would give up
essential Liberty, to purchase
a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
The ah... essential qualifiers are highlighted in bold.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo
It's a big problem to kill people based on what they might do rather than what they have actually done.
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It is not a problem at all: The authority to kill people based on what they might do is an essential respect that society must pay to the brave men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting us.
Let's look at a hypothetical scenario: A police officer on patrol spots a car that is weaving erratically. He turns on his lights and siren and follows the car. The car stops on the side of a street, upon which a person (the suspect) exits the car and starts to run away at top speed. The police exits his car and gives chase. After five minutes of running, the police corners the suspect in a dead end. The police pulls out his gun and aims it at the suspect. The police orders, in a clear and loud voice, for the man to put his hands in the air and turn around. The man turns around, but instead of putting his hands in the air, he reaches into his coat.
At this point, many jurisdictions will allow the police officer to open fire on the assumption that the suspect will extract a deadly weapon. At this point, the suspect has certainly done nothing that would earn him a capital sentence or life imprisonment in most jurisdictions.
Let's continue the hypothetical. Suppose the police does not shoot immediately. The suspect then pulls from his coat a pistol.
At this point, the vast majority of jurisdictions will allow the police officer to open fire on the assumption that the suspect will shoot the police officer. At this point, the suspect has certainly not shot the police officer yet, nor has he done anything to earn him a capital sentence or life imprisonment in most jurisdictions.
It is commonly accepted for police officers to use lethal force based on what a suspect might do, so long as the circumstances give those impending actions a high probability of occurring. If Psycho-Pass can accurately add to the assessment of such impending actions, I see no reason not to use it in determining whether the police officers are allowed to use lethal force.
Frankly, I am shocked at the number of people in this topic who appear unable to accept the idea that the safety of our police officers is more important than the safety of people who are about to commit violent crimes.