Comment by xigency
5 years ago
> Property -- in the form of business and services -- is essential to life.
While that can be true in a literal sense at times, I don't believe shop lifting electronics from Target would have that effect. Even the destruction of local businesses, while indeed terrorizing, is not lethal.
Violent rioting would be something that might require a lethal response, but stealing, looting, robbing, plundering -- no.
> These people are breaking property in their own community and then expect investors or the very government they're protesting to step back in and rebuild.
So you believe that what is right, instead of investing and rebuilding, is that these people should be killed?
> Even the destruction of local businesses, while indeed terrorizing, is not lethal.
Tell that to the poor immigrant family whose business, and thus livelihood in this country, was destroyed. This is how we get roof koreans.
Why don't these rioters go stand with guns outside the state capitol or city hall or police dept? Instead of disrespecting the memory of George Floyd. I hope his death isn't used to defend people's 'right' to steal TVs without getting caught. That would be really really really sad.
You don't have the moral high ground here. Terrorizing and instilling fear in your local community is wrong, whether it comes from the state through the police or your fellow countrymen through riots. Just as an appropriate response to the officer who killed Mr Floyd would have been violence, so is violence towards the rioters. We can't honestly say that just because the police are thugs, thus we ought to also let others be thugs. Both can be wrong.
I don't think I will be able to convince you that no one else should be shot or killed so I won't be participating in this argument anymore. I can't have an ethical argument with someone who doesn't value human life.
You have already stated that you believe that individuals should be shot for theft here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23354190
This is simply a difference of opinion.
> This is simply a difference of opinion.
Right -- I think it's wrong to pick and choose who should be punished for terrorizing communities, and some only believe the police should.
This is not a question of 'valuing human life'. It's about appropriate responses to violence. It's a basic principle of justice that those who commit violence no longer deserve to have their full set of rights respected in the eyes of the law or society. This is how we justify all sorts of things, from basic fines, to jail terms, to full-scale war.
To be clear... I also think no one else should be shot and killed, which is why no one should be lotting or setting things on fire.
> Why don't these rioters go stand with guns outside the state capitol or city hall or police dept? Instead of disrespecting the memory of George Floyd.
Because, unlike the white anti-COVID-restriction protestors that did this, these protestors would be killed for trying something like that. Wake. Up.
You don't live in the same nation as african americans. You are protected in a way that you don't understand.
I am a brown man who would also be the target of police violence so I do live in quite a similar world.
And I will not be forced to come up with an answer to the ridiculous false dichotomy of having to choose between police restraint and having the right to keep my own property. The answer is both and not either or.
Grow up.