# Uh...wait a minute. Killing pirates is \_bad\_? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 28, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-wait-a-minute-killing-pirates-is-_bad_/405809 "2007-05-28T19:00:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-wait-a-minute-killing-pirates-is-_bad_/405809/21 "2007-05-29T17:57:20Z")
I am not reading this thread due to not wanting Spoilers of the movie, but… “Pirate Utopias” by Peter Lamborn Wilson is an interesting study of Buccaneer free-states. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-wait-a-minute-killing-pirates-is-_bad_/405809/22 "2007-05-29T18:23:45Z")
[QUOTE=Chief Pedant] The fantasies of the poor and disenchanted that their lot is the direct result of institutional oppression (bad government and naughty corporations) will always play well as romanticized story-telling. [/QUOTE] Bear in mind that it’s not **entirely** a fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-wait-a-minute-killing-pirates-is-_bad_/405809/23 "2007-05-29T22:02:53Z")
[QUOTE=mswas] I am not reading this thread due to not wanting Spoilers of the movie, but… “Pirate Utopias” by Peter Lamborn Wilson is an interesting study of Buccaneer free-states. [/QUOTE] David Cordingly is also one of the top living experts on Pirates. His book Under the Black Flag is quite enjoyable: > **[Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates:...](https://www.amazon.com/Under-Black-Flag-Romance-Reality/dp/0156005492)** > > Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates \[Cordingly, David\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates Even better, on the first POC DVD there is a special where they talk about real pirates and interview him! [insert my boyish glee at pirates here] ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-wait-a-minute-killing-pirates-is-_bad_/405809/24 "2007-05-29T22:12:20Z")
[QUOTE=Frank] Which, for argument purposes, didn’t terribly differ from the trial of any felony offender of the day. The “enemy of mankind” thing was to solve jurisdictional problems - any nation could try pirates no matter where they were caught. That’s sort of similar to terrorists today, except, of course, that pirates were actually tried. [/QUOTE] Conversely they were hung and their bodies left to rot as an example to others…or perhaps left staked out at low tide as food for the crabs. Yuck. AFAIK, terrorists haven’t been similarly summarily executed…at least not in vast enough numbers to register on my own radar. Personally, I’d take an indefinite stay at Gitmo (with the prospect that this whole house of cards is going to come crashing down soon enough and there WILL be trials eventually) to the pirate alternative. 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-wait-a-minute-killing-pirates-is-_bad_/405809/25 "2007-05-29T23:53:56Z")
I had a problem with them hanging that kid; you mean you couldn’t take some 11 year old who has been hanging around with pirates, and retrain him and so on and so forth, that you would rather hang the poor bugger than give him a second chance? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2007, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-wait-a-minute-killing-pirates-is-_bad_/405809/26 "2007-05-30T00:03:05Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] I had a problem with them hanging that kid; you mean you couldn’t take some 11 year old who has been hanging around with pirates, and retrain him and so on and so forth, that you would rather hang the poor bugger than give him a second chance? [/QUOTE] The criminal justice system at the time wasn’t big on rehabilitation, and youth wasn’t considered a factor when it came to punishing capital crimes. The youngest person executed in England was 7, in 1708, for theft. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uh-wait-a-minute-killing-pirates-is-_bad_/405809.md?page=1)