Sunday, March 22, 2009

Lame Police Doesn't Understand What Law Is For

A little news in Kompas today (22/3/2009). Chief of South Sumatra Police Department gave an award to a driver who killed two robbers by crashing them with his car. See the problem? Yes, you don't need the police. Average citizens, go kill the bad guys.

Equally saddening is the tone of the news. The journalist who wrote sound proud of that killer driver.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I used to agree with you, Aco. Until I read this news today.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/sex-slave-teen-murder-charge-dropped-20090327-9d3g.html

tirta said...

daniel: which means that, from now on, the appropriate punishment for rapists is death and mutilation?

Unknown said...

Tirta: I didn't say that. I am just saying that in some extreme cases, it may be "understandable" to take the law into one's own hands.

Aco said...

Daniel, sorry for late response. That news you linked to makes me, and maybe everyone else who's normal, angry. But I see that as a call for improvement in law or law enforcement, not for "taking the law in one's own hands"...

tirta said...

daniel, aco: on the same boat as you are.

from a psychological standpoint, this conflict - between what is 'understandable' and what is 'right/just' - stems from the two brain systems mediating human decision making.

the intuitive/emotional system screams "kill the rapist!"; the reflective/rational system says "but what will happen to society at large?".

recent research in moral psychology aims to understand the nature of these two systems, and how they interact when we make moral judgements.

Aco said...

tirta, that's interesting. any finding so far?

tirta said...

aco: too many to discuss here, so here are some links to skim or follow through:

- on how the brain works when processing personal vs impersonal moral problems:
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~jgreene/GreeneWJH/Greene-et-al-Science-9-01.pdf

- on how some neurology patients are the most utilitarian (perhaps also 'rational'?):
http://dericbownds.net/uploaded_images/vmpfc.pdf

- a popular book on the moral psychology field as a whole, with a particular spin on why morality operates like language:
http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Minds-Nature-Designed-Universal/dp/0060780703

Gun said...

Wow! Sounds it will be complicated there. I will just pray for the two dead souls, may they rest in peace.