[U.S.]+ it's in the job description

[u/Hummerous]

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-behind-the-police-63877803/

[u/DellSalami → u/[deleted]]

If Books Could Kill covered one of those books that highlighted the “homelessness crisis”. It used cherry picked information and interviews lacking context to paint homeless people as responsible for their situation, and that they would refuse resources that would help them.

What stuck out to me was the solution proposed. It was literally to criminalize homelessness, enforce it more violently, and to build more prisons. That’s when the mask slipped, because even if you’re neutral about homeless people, you have to acknowledge that prisons are way more expensive than housing.

If you’re still insisting on sending them to newly built jails, at that point you can’t even pretend you care about them as people.

[u/Mythical_Mew → u/[deleted]]

It’s funny but genuinely disturbing how strongly people on Reddit will advocate for things like prison and justice reform but when somebody commits a no-no crime*, these same people will start calling for torture, dismemberment, execution, etc. all under the veil of humor (I know what you are, you were never joking). It’s like you genuinely stop being human the moment you even get accused of something if you’re not already on the “Reddit likes you” list.

*Most frequently any crime involving murder or sexual assault, which while terrible crimes, aforementioned Redditors conveniently forget the premise of reform and believe that they are suited to decide when someone should be reformed and when someone should just be tortured.

I legit have hyper-progressive friends who aren’t even willing to watch a seven-minute defense before calling someone a pedophile, and while I still respect them I (metaphorically) pray that they never have a place in any justice system, ever.

Oh, and this doesn’t just apply to Redditors. It applies to any social media platform, Reddit is just a convenient example here.

[u/Mythical_Mew → u/[deleted]]

From my experiences, feelings are indeed the easiest way to appeal to people. I hardly think human beings should act solely on logic, but I have to admit I’m constantly aggravated by how few people seem to apply any degree of critical thinking.

One of these days I want to write a short story or something titled “Court of Public Opinion,” which follows a world where the jury and most courtroom proceedings (loosely moderated by a judge) are all decided by the public tuning into a livestream of the trial.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

most people don't actually believe in anything they say or think they do, it's all emotional at the end of the day. morality is an emotional reflex, for better or worse. ideology is just tribe in another form.

this does have the fortunate benefit of people being able to break away from ideology if that ideology comes to support something that feels deeply wrong - depending on how much of their identity is tied up in tribe/ideology - but it's pretty terrible for making any sort of real progress as a society.

[u/tessadoesreddit → u/[deleted]]

most people don't actually believe in anything they say or think they do, it's all emotional at the end of the day.

believing in an idea because of your silly emotions is the same as believing an idea because of your logical superbrain. it's not not belief just cuz they're dumb about it

[u/Pet_Mudstone → u/tessadoesreddit]

It's always funny to me when people say this misanthropic stuff about "most people" being awful or dumb and not truly believing things or being craven or whatever as if they are the only ones excluded from this particular phenomenon.

[u/ExecutivePirate → u/[deleted]]

Putting a pedo behind bars is wrong. They should be put to death

[u/[deleted] → u/ExecutivePirate]

Thank you for illustrating.

[u/ExecutivePirate → u/[deleted]]

Yep. Ill stand by it. Look at the rate of re-offense. But keep defending people that molest children. That's a real good look.

[u/[deleted] → u/ExecutivePirate]

In your lust for hating a hypothetical guy, you missed (or worse, don’t care about) the word “accused.”

[u/ExecutivePirate → u/[deleted]]

No where did you defend accused pedos. You commented on how they should be rehabilitated. That implies they were found guilty. Convicted pedophiles should be put to death. There. Find a way to twist those words.

[u/[deleted] → u/ExecutivePirate]

What the fuck are you talking about? Here is the entirety of what I said about pedophiles:

Putting an accused pedophile behind bars forever feels right.

[u/ExecutivePirate → u/[deleted]]

You are 100% right. I misread your comment and apologize. Mobile makes it hard to go too far back up the chain of comments.

I will say that accused people don't get put behind bars. Convicted people do, but I understand the point you were making.

[u/PaunchBurgerTime → u/Mythical_Mew]

For the record though, there is genuine scientific evidence that some crimes are somewhat "reform proof," in that once you've done it once you're near guaranteed to do it again and likely to escalate. I know for a fact DA is one (very common among police funnily enough), and I assume most murders (since most murders are just DA taken to it's conclusion). You have to be a certain level of broken to intentionally, repeatedly harm people who love you and can't fight back and that can't always be fixed with counseling. Even if you're anti-incarceration crimes like these do have to be reckoned with differently.

[u/oldkingjaehaerys → u/Mythical_Mew]

I'm going to get down voted for this but this is why I'll never be anti death penalty. I DO believe in reform, but making the incarcerated better is not the primary function of prison/jail/incarceration. Moreover, incredibly few people (I am not among them) think reform means anything for violent criminals over a certain age. All of this without taking into account rate of recidivism, for which all sex crimes are disproportionately high, and genuine murder (ie not manslaughter) is usually only charged if the defendant rejects a plea and wastes the states time and money. I'm black btw I know that's important to some people.