Barbaric Conduct in London
Tibor R. Machan
The
apparent murderer in London declared on a video that "The only reasons
we killed this man ... is because Muslims are dying daily," he said in
video aired by CNN affiliate ITN.
Of
course, this is a dodge, once again: “we” didn’t kill this man. The
guy with the bloody hands and cleaver did that. And there was every
reason to think this was barbaric: no trial, no evidence, no due
process, no defense mounted, nothing. It is in the jungle where matters
are handled like they were in London this time. That others carry on comparably
is no excuse.
The
mere fact that the apparent killer--and he admitted to being the
one--spoke reasonably clear English doesn’t make this any less barbaric.
After all, many vicious murderers are well enough educated. Nor is it
any excuse that “Muslims are dying daily.” People are dying daily
everywhere but none of that justifies going out and butchering other
people.
And please don’t give me that ridiculous excuse of “blow-back.” That metaphor is absurd. We aren’t talking about the weather! We are witnessing an out of control young man lash out in a most uncivilized fashion.There is no excuse for that. If you cannot bring those you are charging with murder to justice, you need to stand down, not go crazy with a cleaver. You need to insist on handling the situation in accordance with principles of justice. Oh, I guess this was wild justice. But that’s no justice at all unless nothing else is possible. But in London if you know of a crime and work hard to bring a culprit to justice, it may take some time and patience but that what amounts to being civilized. (Just consider how long many who are accused of a crime linger in prison or jail!)
