If only things were so simple in real life where liberty is often abused so as to threaten the safety of others.
The historical trend has been the other way around: as societies have become more free in general, they have also become safer in general. I would much rather live in the liberty of the United States, where I enjoy a crime-free neighborhood, than in the one-party dictatorship of China in the 1980s, where I saw more fights among strangers in public in three weeks in three different cities than I have seen in an entire lifetime traveling all over the United States.
See Steven Pinker's new book
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0...
for more about increasing safety of human societies over time (when the long-term trend has also plainly been in the direction of greater individual liberty for all aspects of human behavior).
The problem is that many restrictions on freedom can give the illusion of security, and too many people are willing to sacrifice their own and others freedom for those warm fuzzies.
Only one deserves punishment.