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Comment by justwannasing | Hacker News Reader

I find these articles interesting but get disturbed when the titles typically point the finger at me but, I have never been arrested, or in prison, and know no one who has ever been in such a situation in my 63 years of living.

I am not in a closet or a holy roller either; nor are any of my friends or family. I live in a mid-sized city and grew up middle-class, became poor when out on my own, and am now well off.

I would never put myself in such a situation to shame myself or my family or harm others. But I was brought up that way.

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Thanks for pointing out the linkbait "you" in the title. We missed that one.

It's a pet peeve of ours, too, when titles abuse "you". Headline writers use this trope because it grabs attention, which is their job; and it's our job to undo their grating gimmicks. In the present case, that's as simple as deleting the bogus "you".

The problem with that attitude is in this day and age you can't make your way through life without committing felonies. The federal legal code is so long and convoluted not even the lawyers understand it outside their own narrow specialties.

Of course everyone knows it's illegal to rape or murder, but how many people know what "structuring" is? There are people sitting in federal prison for doing things normal people don't realize are crimes.

Well it is not politically correct to mention personal responsibility in any fashion, which is actually the heart of the problem.

Personality grows out of the environment you are in. Teaching personal responsibility to someone who is on the street associating with gangs can be a lost cause.

I think prison can serve to change someones environment to such levels that they are willing to change themselves. Maybe not 30 years of prison though.

Parents have a lot to do with outcomes but that cannot be legislated.

Like the personal responsibility not to shoot a guy with his hands out?

Or the personal responsibility not to continually push for the hardest sentences you can because it'll help your career?

Or the personal responsibility to recognize that what consenting adults put into their own bodies in privacy isn't something you should have a say in?

One of those?

I suppose if you made heroin and coke legal you would end quite a few occupations, but I doubt they would join the daily grind.

Your first line references a bald-faced lie so your stance is in jeopardy.

http://news.yahoo.com/video-released-shows-police-killing-un...

I dunno...sure seems true to me.

It's not about political correctness. It's just useless to bring up personal responsibility when discussing policy. Personal responsibility comes down to, "don't do that. But some people will not follow that command. What do you do with them? Repeating "don't do that" accomplishes nothing.

What do you do with them? Isn't that the entire purpose of the justice system?

I don't think it's unreasonable for society to expect people not to commit crimes and punish them when they do.

Yes, of course that's the entire purpose of the justice system. And we're talking about the justice system, and different ways it might be adjusted to achieve better outcomes. And then along come the people I replied to talking about "personal responsibility" which is completely useless to bring up in context.

Nobody cares about your "personal responsibility" concern trolling. At the end of the day, you either simply want to punish, or you're actually interested in figuring out the problem.

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