78 year old arrested for murder of burglar, *Update: Cleared of all charge but still faces strife,

[palou]

Mr Puggsly said:

palou said:

I speak of law not as a form of punishment, here, but rather as a deterrent for poor choices. Just as you need to deter the burglar from entering the home, you also need to deter the homeowner from engaging in the incredibly dangerous decision of fighting back against the burglar. In terms of culpability, no, I don't think that the homeowner did anything *bad* by defending himself when he was very justifiably frightened.

You aren't necessarily concerned about your legal rights when somebody breaks into your home and is threatening you with a weapon. At that point you're concerned with your life and perhaps protecting your home.

Essentially, you're asking people to go against their natural instincts by doing nothing and potentially waiting to be murdered.

That's a big part of what the legal system is about, to me... help people make decisions that aren't their first instincts, but ultimately lead to better results, in average.

 

It's also part of what you want to ingrain in the collective conscience. A certain sense of order. Think, for example, Japan - where people refuse to cross a red light, even if there isn't a car in sight - because there is a very strong sense of order. And, I think, indirectly, that also contributes to lower overall criminality, elsewhere. In the same way, I think it would be good to *officially*, as much as possible, present using violence to solve any of your problems, in any circumstance, as a bad thing. And then, let happen what happens if people *do* fall victim to their natural instincts in more extreme cases, with a lenient judge.