diman ....

A wise man once said “a eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”

You lay out a nice plot line for a comic book.  You present incredibly shallow characters with only one pre-programmed function in you scenario.  You ‘relatives’ only want revenge (and to avoid taxes).  You villain is evil gang members who can only be bad guys.

The proper function of a society is to keep its member safe.  By arresting the gang and putting them into jail, that’s accomplished. 

Plus, a society guides its members by its legal actions. When the society sanctions revenge killings by law, then you’ll see more violent revenge actions by people in the society who emulate what the society itself does.  Is there no point where we can draw the line and say ‘enough killing’?  If we can’t come together as a society to do this, how can we expect individual members of society not to continue killing as well?

You never know what can happen with a life.  Your comic-book bad guy gang killers can turn out to surprise you. What if just one of them sees some light and twenty years from now starts trying to work with younger prisoners to help them change their lives?  If even one other life is changed, then was it worth it?  I’m sure someone who wants bloody revenge murders (and to avoid taxes) would say no.  And I’m not saying its a sure thing. I’m just trying to break your comic-book-style characterizations with some thought about how complex a human life lived for a lifetime can be .... even if its a life spent in prison.

Does everyone get to object to their tax dollars being spent for a purpose they don’t like?  Well, why do I have to watch my tax dollars being used to end other human lives?  Why do my tax dollars have to be used to fund your revenge killings?

A family of four including two young children, returning from a vacation on the Black Sea shore, massacred while on the road, children and their mother finished off with a knife after being shot at point blank distance with a shotgun, their father a weathered special forces veteran never had a chance to protect them. This murder shocked everybody in Russia, an investigation was launched discovering several similar cases in the same region perpetrated by the same gang. Now before we all go self-righteous here, what are the relatives of these families supposed to do in case these animals are tried and given a life term in prison? Pay taxes every year, knowing that a portion of their hard earned money goes to the penal system budget, so the murderers get fed and dressed and given books to read? I’m not in favor of the death penalty either, it doesn’t do anything except to satisfy sort of biblical revenge, i just tried to put myself in the shoes of the relatives of the murdered.

Excellent. Congratulations, Russia! You’re more civilized than we are.

what? this doesn’t jive with the evil empire propaganda i was raised on…

this is very good news indeed!