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Comment by burtonator | Hacker News Reader

I argued this with my dad saying that people deserve our compassion and someone could discover a cure for cancer.

He said he'd rather die from cancer than help someone who committed a felony.

I actually don't have a problem with him choosing to die rather than helping a felon. What's important is that he not be allowed to determine criminal justice policy.

this is one of those old biblical sayings, one who bites off their nose to spite their face. The face who is given to them out of the goodness of someone's heart if done through the process of enriching society with their work, I guess we'll be damned if they've helped the public let everyone die so we can punish that one person.

Revenge never improve the lives of anyone besides providing a momentary moment of peace, but society can be vengeful as well when you eliminate a brain who could improve the lives of others. This conundrum exists everywhere. Every religion, every person on the planet has seen this happen.

Incarceration as a form of punishment is absolutely not 'revenge'.

Unfortunately a very american view. Hope new generations can right our wrongs.

I've heard this from the EU, China, Australia, India, Canada and Japan... It seems to be popular in "law and order" societies.

I am not sure if i call all of the countries in this list "law and order".

It kind of just sucks that people and their offspring has to suffer through a bad decision this bad. I wish we had better use of the downtime they have in prison, to societies benefit, onstead of the private corp that is the prison operator.

You are making an unfounded assumption that prisoners on the whole desire to benefit society. I certainly know convicted felons and former inmates who truly do fit that mold, but I also know vastly more who could not be bothered to give a single seconds thought for society or what benefits it.

I too have personal examples on both sides.

I have an acquaintance who was convicted of fraud, sentenced to 5 years, got out early due to performing community service in jail. Haven't heard much from him after he got out though.

I have another friend who was convicted of manslaughter, he's been a very productive member of society since he was released and I feel that he's very trustworthy. I've known him for 15 years and maybe he's had some parking tickets...

A former peer was convicted of sex crimes in the early 2000s, he's reoffended in multiple countries.

A friend of a friend was convicted of eco terrorism, they've been on the run but keeping in contact somehow, they've apparently destroyed millions of dollars in properties and have yet to be caught again.

If you look at the police blotter in my city, its pretty much all repeat offenders.

That's tough :(

Judging from comments in all of the posts about psilocybin and MDMA that reach the front page, a nonzero population of HN is guilty of a felony.

Or driven over the limit 3 or more times.

Outside of maybe DPRK and France (I kid but they do take their speeding seriously) speeding is a civil crime. Speeding by some large amount (20+ in most of the US) can be a misdemeanor at the cop's discretion. You'd have to do something far beyond speeding, like provoke a police chase or something, to catch a felony. I'm unaware of any state where you can catch a felony charge from speeding and only speeding (delusional prosecutors trying to charge people with things that have zero hope of sticking notwithstanding).

Sorry, I wasn't clear. By "over the limit" I meant blood alcohol content, not speed. In many states, the third time you drive over the legal BAC limit, it's considered a felony.

That said, I do know someone who was driving recklessly (30+ mph over the limit). His kid was in the car, so they did charge him with a felony (endangering a child) and he served prison time.

Is this really true? I doubt many HN users are much above 'simple possession', which is a misdemeanour in most states, including California.

Simple possession of a federally classified CDS I (which all psychotropic substance are) is a felony in almost ALL 50 states. It may be a misdemeanor in a few, but that is not ‘most’ states.

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