They should be arrested and locked up (Wow…radical concept, huh?). I really don’t care how you “feel” because you weren’t legally allowed to blow someone’s fucking head off for stealing a car. If you want to live in a society where the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, there are places like Afghanistan who will oblige you, I’m sure.
Auto theft is a property crime, not a violent crime. YOU are the violent criminal if you kill someone for stealing your stuff.
Are current penalties a deterrent? Well, I have no idea how to answer that. But if you think someone needs to die over a car theft, you place entirely too much value on your stuff. I think locking them up for a longer period would be a better choice.
Why not make all theft a felony? Because it’s too harsh for most crimes. The bastards that should be locked away forever…the Enron crooks and their ilk…won’t be. Your grand theft auto scenario pales by comparison.
It seems to me that that the defense will have to try and make it a defense of person case, which, to be effective, means that either White or his girlfriend will have to take the stand and say one of the two in the car put them in fear of imminent use of bodily harm. Of course, the fact that they said they didn’t even hear shots when the police interviewed them at the scene doesn’t help, nor does the fact the police didn’t find any weapons, but juries can find reasonable doubt anywhere. Especially in iffy cases like this, where the victims are non-sympathetic.
I do not think deadly force should be justified in protection of property cases. You will, of course, have people like Ludovic and Clothahump who feel I heir property is more important than a human life and that the death penalty is appropriate for theft, but I disagree. But that’s probably just 'cause I’m soft on crime.
Listen folks, the thought I made it clear that the question of what people deserve is different from what actual punishment should be. And I don’t believe, for instance, that stealing cigarettes or bubble gum deserves to be met with death (in that case, it depends on your state of mind: if it’s just a joke or a whim, that’s one thing, but if you think you deserve it or are doing it for monetary gain, you do deserve to be, how shall I put it, “taken down a peg or two”.)
That’s the problem. You feel they “deserve” to die for stealing something. Most people in civilized society don’t feel that way. If bubble-gum theives don’t deserve death, tell me…at what point do thieves deserve to die?
That’s the thing: feeling isn’t necessarily rational. While the two cases are clear-cut to me, I haven’t thought about it enough to delineate the actual line, since it will almost certainly never be used.
Clear-cut cases:
Spammers (which of course is sometimes a fine line, but I’m talking the classic, forged-address, won’t-remove-from-mailing-list spammer. Death. I’m serious. If there were perfect knowledge and we gave several months notice I’d have no problem lopping their heads off.)
White-collar criminals stealing $10,000 or more
Car thieves
Burglars (no matter what the value.)
Muggers (no matter what the value.)
Scammers (no matter what the value.)
I have to admit that applying the DP to some of the worst Spyware providers out there is tempting. But I honestly don’t think that Life would be too much as a maximum sentence in the worst Spyware cases. Spammers, Virus writers & Spyware providers should certainly pay a more serious price for their crime than they usually do now.
I can see Ludovics point about Muggers & Burglars- and certainly I’d add Rapists. Not that I’d want to apply the DP to them (I am generally against the DP), but that after being robbed, burgled or raped the victim is never the same anymore. With a clear conscience I could send a repeat offender of any of those crimes to prison for the rest of his life- and in the more heinous cases of rape “repeat” would not be absolutely nessesary.
I would think that having the death penalty for all muggers, burglars and rapists would just result in more muggers, burglars and rapists who murder their victims.
If you’re going to get the death penalty for mugging someone, you might as well kill them and eliminate a witness so that it’s less likely you’ll be caught.
No, but I did think of him when constructing the OP.
If you read through that link you’ll notice that the guys that Bernie shot went on to lead stellar lives in the criminal world, except for the guy in the wheel chair.
But I honestly don’t think that Life would be too much as a maximum sentence in the worst Spyware cases. Spammers, Virus writers & Spyware providers should certainly pay a more serious price for their crime than they usually do now.