Northampton man gets 3-5 years in state prison for firing assault rifle into neighbors’ home

[In God We Trust]

I’m not sure if you’re being serious but I’ll try to respond as if you are.

I haven’t seen anyone say lock away based on who they voted for. And if there are people who said that, they’re such a small minority that they aren’t going to be taken seriously. Not sure why that was your thought.

There are, however, people saying that certain violent behaviors establish an individual as one that needs to be excluded from society forever. Acts or attempts of terrorism and mass murder, child rape, and shooting into your neighbors f***ing apartment because you believe your dog told you to, would be good places to start.

My suggestion on how to fund it is to remove all non-violent offenders from prisons and have them repay whatever debt they owe society through acts of community service or repayment of those that they’ve wronged. And use what otherwise would fund the imprisonment of those folks, to house these other ones that actually are a threat to society.

But if you think that taking aware their gun license is a better solution to prevent them from murdering people, god I hope you’ve also found a way to keep them from obtaining fertilizer and diesel fuel.

I’m not picking on you personally, I just called for libertarians in general.

My point is that there is never a good one size fits all solution and when people say things like “he is too dangerous to be out in society” there has to be someone that makes that decision. Some cases are easy like this one, some not so much and good luck finding a handful of people that are going to agree.

I was also hoping I could get a libertarian to admit that some amount of tax money is required to run a civilized society, but they still think everybody will work for free and at the same time have money to donate in order to help their fellow man. All that spare money they will have while volunteering their time.

 

[Foudre]

Anyone living in Northampton is already in a mental institution.

 

[LakeTrout]

I’m not picking on you personally, I just called for libertarians in general.

My point is that there is never a good one size fits all solution and when people say things like “he is too dangerous to be out in society” there has to be someone that makes that decision. Some cases are easy like this one, some not so much and good luck finding a handful of people that are going to agree.

I was also hoping I could get a libertarian to admit that some amount of tax money is required to run a civilized society, but they still think everybody will work for free and at the same time have money to donate in order to help their fellow man. All that spare money they will have while volunteering their time.

No system of justice is a one size fits all solution. Thats why there are different punishments for different crimes.

What we have to get away from is the concept of justice being linked to the concept of punishment. The concept of justice should be concerned first and foremost with protecting the good and innocent people that make up society. Punishment should be secondary. And the first step toward protecting society is removing people from it that pose a perpetual threat to it.

We aren’t going to agree on where to draw the line for less obvious cases. But there are some that are pretty damn clear, like this one, where we should start.

Taxing people a percentage of their income and letting politicians do as they will with it is a bad idea. That’s where we are at and it’s not working. Taxing should be done to pay for the services that an individual uses at the cost to use them. If I don’t send a child to school, I don’t feel that I should have to pay for that service. And if someone else doesn’t drive, they shouldn’t have to pay tax money for their towns road maintenance. Does that make me a libertarian? I don’t know and don’t care.

But a hell of a lot of us that do have those opinions volunteer an awful lot in our communities. And you know what I don’t see? I don’t see the people who “are happy to pay taxes as long as it makes a better society” in the trenches with us. It’s generally the people who want less government and more liberties and are compelled to do good deeds for eachother.

And if you don’t think that people will volunteer to go out and do those things, id ask you to look at the fire service in America as an example. The vast majority of it is made up of volunteers. And if they’re willing to do something like that for their fellow man, at the expense of their health and safety, I’m confident that we can have a society that’s willing to do quite a bit for eachother if we get our cultural values in line and focus a little more on unity and a little less on diversity.

 

[Foudre]

Taxing people a percentage of their income and letting politicians do as they will with it is a bad idea. That’s where we are at and it’s not working. Taxing should be done to pay for the services that an individual uses at the cost to use them. If I don’t send a child to school, I don’t feel that I should have to pay for that service. And if someone else doesn’t drive, they shouldn’t have to pay tax money for their towns road maintenance. Does that make me a libertarian? I don’t know and don’t care.

This is why taxes fall apart, because instead of keeping things simple and only funding essentials, over time the government comes up with new bullshit and malicious uses for tax money and you are then forced to pay for shit you might object to. Lots of MA residents are in some way financing the housing and healthcare for illegals in the country; if not by buying junk off amazon, it's through taxes.

 

[Toast]

What we have to get away from is the concept of justice being linked to the concept of punishment. The concept of justice should be concerned first and foremost with protecting the good and innocent people that make up society. Punishment should be secondary. And the first step toward protecting society is removing people from it that pose a perpetual threat to it.

I think I disagree with this.

I think the concept of justice is to protect those who violate society's norms from the good and innocent people who make up that society. That system prevents the good and innocent (and I'm not using those terms ironically) from stringing the local burglar up on the nearest lamppost, which is what typically takes place in the absence of a functioning legal system.

I also think our society has strayed from being functional in that respect, with serious crimes being gamed away while the courts are used (via "the process is the punishment") to force the typical people to submit to the "elite's" whims without questioning why they are doing so.

 

[Yazz]

So was the dogs name Sam?

 

[In God We Trust]

So was the dogs name Sam?

In the Berkowitz case, the dogs name was Harvey I think.

 

[LakeTrout]

I think I disagree with this.

I think the concept of justice is to protect those who violate society's norms from the good and innocent people who make up that society. That system prevents the good and innocent (and I'm not using those terms ironically) from stringing the local burglar up on the nearest lamppost, which is what typically takes place in the absence of a functioning legal system.

I honestly can’t tell what you’re trying to say. Might be my fault. Not trying to be a dick. I’m just not sure of the point you’re trying to make and I don’t want to respond while mistaking you.

 

[Agnotology]

Dogs tell me shit all the time.

"That's my tree! Stop peeing on it! DAMNIT. Now I have to reload on water and re-piss on it."

"Get the peanut butter! BUT DON'T PUT IT THERE AGAIN!"

"Did you know you can tell male and female squirrels apart just by biting them? Listen for the nuts to crack."

"The answer is yes. The question is, 'Do I want to go for a ride?'"

"You have been petting me for 25 minutes straight. This is not long enough. CONTINUE THE BUTT SCRATCHES!"

"Where did my nuts go?"

 

[Toast]

I honestly can’t tell what you’re trying to say. Might be my fault. Not trying to be a dick. I’m just not sure of the point you’re trying to make and I don’t want to respond while mistaking you.

I don't believe the police exist to protect the general public. I think they exist to keep the general public from taking matters into their own hands and meting out whatever justice seems appropriate at the time of capture. The public gave up the habit of executing justice immediately at the time and place of the crime in exchange for expecting the police and government to administer it appropriately. In our current environment where that is not taking place, I think the system is going to break down and it will get ugly once the general populace stops thinking the right thing to do is call the cops.

 

[DispositionMatrix]

If it was an automatic rifle, as the article states, where are those charges?

Hard to tell, but it is statistically far more likely the rifle was _not_ automatic and therefore _not_ an assault rifle.

Same general idea with this recent story: https://pix11.com/news/local-news/b...-gun-into-subway-station-resists-arrest-nypd/

The media runs with "automatic" or "machine gun" whenever possible for dramatic effect. Probably gets put right into Shooting Tracker that way, too.

 

[1sern]

Guy is nuts, I'd never listen to a dog they don't have good judgement

 

[LakeTrout]

I don't believe the police exist to protect the general public. I think they exist to keep the general public from taking matters into their own hands and meting out whatever justice seems appropriate at the time of capture. The public gave up the habit of executing justice immediately at the time and place of the crime in exchange for expecting the police and government to administer it appropriately. In our current environment where that is not taking place, I think the system is going to break down and it will get ugly once the general populace stops thinking the right thing to do is call the cops.

I think this is fair enough. I kinda think a good deal of this is correct and probably a good point.