Ethics Class, Monday, 2-4pm

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"Angelus is gone," Tara informs the class solemnly. "Now, I know you've all heard the 'evil soul' excuse before, and that you're sick and tired of it. I am too. It would be nice if you could just trust that each person had only one face. However, with the number of unrelated identical twins running around the place, that was never going to happen, so let's all just let it go and deal with what is. Angelus is gone, and Angel is here.

"Most of you know that Angelus and I are Sunnydale expatriots. I assure you that I am in a better position than almost anyone you can think of to guarantee that he and Angel are very, very different people.

"With that in mind, today's discussion is about punishment for crimes done - and I say with that in mind, because if Angel does have the courage to walk through that door today, I will not tolerate anyone accusing him of crimes that were committed through his mouth and hands, but without his knowledge or consent. Please think of him as an unrelated identical twin, as different as Archie and Lee, or Cameron and John Crichton."

Comments

Fines

[brambless.livejournal.com]

(defined: You can break the law if you can pay the price.)

Re: Fines

[soldtoarmenians]

This one always seemed like pretty much a crock to me, on the bigger scale.

Doesn't mean I want to go to jail for a speeding ticket; I get that some fines are there just to keep people from doing petty stuff that could be dangerous or they could get away with it scot free if they're lucky. So it's to make things safer.

But things like fines for industrial pollution? Stuff in the thousands and millions of bucks range? Anything with a fine that big -- or puts people in danger that much -- seems to me like it's not something somebody should be able to buy their way out of.

Re: Fines

[master-of-fear.livejournal.com]

This seems to be an extremely classist form of punishment. Those who are very rich don't mind paying a fine, and the more money they have, the more they can pay. Those with comparitively less money aren't able to get away with the same things. If you're a billionaire, who cares about a $100 ticket? But if you work 2 jobs and you and your famlily are living paycheck to paycheck a $100 ticket can break you.

Re: Fines

[egyptianlove.livejournal.com]

Evelyn sighs. "Fines are pretty much useless. It sets a double standard: those who are rich can do whatever they want, and the poor just get poorer, or go to jail." She frowns. "Besides, does it even make people stop?"