Transexuals

[Losty]

When isn't it deserved? I don't think it's something that needs to be deserved.

          Would you feel empathy for someone who assaulted a loved one? Would you feel anger or pity when your in the court room, having to watch as a good defense attorney works the room? When the moment finally arrives and that not guilty verdict is announced, what happens to your humanism then?

Yes. Both. My humanism remains in tact. I don't live my life to exact revenge and I have a different idea of justice than my country's legal system. I feel empathy for everyone. It's not a choice I make, I don't think. It feels pretty involuntary.

[Sterben]

          Would you feel empathy for someone who assaulted a loved one? Would you feel anger or pity when your in the court room, having to watch as a good defense attorney works the room? When the moment finally arrives and that not guilty verdict is announced, what happens to your humanism then?

Yes. Both. My humanism remains in tact. I don't live my life to exact revenge and I have a different idea of justice than my country's legal system. I feel empathy for everyone. It's not a choice I make, I don't think. It feels pretty involuntary.

       A wise response to a difficult question and your able to keep a cooler head then most. I am curious though on your sense of justice, if you mind giving a brief description.

[Losty]

I'm never good at expressing my feelings in words. The important thing, to me, is that justice is for everyone not just the victim. It's not about punishment or revenge. It's about facing consequences and having the opportunity to move on with your life. If that makes sense.

[Sterben]

I'm never good at expressing my feelings in words. The important thing, to me, is that justice is for everyone not just the victim. It's not about punishment or revenge. It's about facing consequences and having the opportunity to move on with your life. If that makes sense.

      For a person who thinks who they are not good at expressing feelings into words you did a good job. I get were your coming from though, you feel that the person who assaulted a loved one deserves a second chance to become a better person and put there past to prevent them from hindering their life. That's a good philosophy on the deeper meaning of justice. Although some crimes that one commits on to others does not deserve the kindness presented in your philosophy.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

When isn't it deserved? I don't think it's something that needs to be deserved.

          Would you feel empathy for someone who assaulted a loved one? Would you feel anger or pity when your in the court room, having to watch as a good defense attorney works the room? When the moment finally arrives and that not guilty verdict is announced, what happens to your humanism then?

I would be sad, but I would take some comfort in knowing that our Justice System worked; he's supposed to have a good defense lawyer, obviously the State did not adequately prove its case, and the person (no matter how much I may "know" they are guilty) was protected by Due Process. It is far more important that we protect ourselves from a runaway court system more interested in revenge than fairness than it is for me to get my personal revenge. That's why we have a court system.

It's also why it's important to fight for better science in the courts and legal system. Courts still rely too heavily on eyewitness testimony, which has been shown in hundreds of scientific tests to be effectively useless as proof because of the way the human mind works, and also the opportunity for tampering-- yet juries love it and believe it, and the courts hide behind the jury's belief in upholding convictions that are often later shown (by science, such as DNA testing) to have been false convictions.

I would much rather someone whom I am convinced murdered my whole family go free than to think of one innocent person rotting in a cage my society built.

[Losty]

I'm never good at expressing my feelings in words. The important thing, to me, is that justice is for everyone not just the victim. It's not about punishment or revenge. It's about facing consequences and having the opportunity to move on with your life. If that makes sense.

      For a person who thinks who they are not good at expressing feelings into words you did a good job. I get were your coming from though, you feel that the person who assaulted a loved one deserves a second chance to become a better person and put there past to prevent them from hindering their life. That's a good philosophy on the deeper meaning of justice. Although some crimes that one commits on to others does not deserve the kindness presented in your philosophy.

Maybe not. Still in that case if somewhere were maybe sentenced to life in prison without parole, that someone is still a human being. They still get my empathy. I will still advocate for them to receive mental health care, be treated with basic human decency, and be allowed to maintain their dignity as a person.

Also, thank you for saying I did a good job wording my feelings

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Maybe not. Still in that case if somewhere were maybe sentenced to life in prison without parole, that someone is still a human being. They still get my empathy. I will still advocate for them to receive mental health care, be treated with basic human decency, and be allowed to maintain their dignity as a person.

Also, thank you for saying I did a good job wording my feelings

Thank you for this, Losty.

[Jackalope]

When isn't it deserved? I don't think it's something that needs to be deserved.

          Would you feel empathy for someone who assaulted a loved one? Would you feel anger or pity when your in the court room, having to watch as a good defense attorney works the room? When the moment finally arrives and that not guilty verdict is announced, what happens to your humanism then?

I can't answer for anyone else, but even though I may wish to see that person punished, that does not prevent me from putting myself in his shoes and realizing that his violence didn't occur in a vacuum. Likely he became that way via the experience of violence or abuse himself. Though I may want him punished, that in no way diminishes his humanity or my capacity for empathy and pity.

It just so happens that I was assaulted and very badly beaten by two young men in 1986, badly enough that I needed emergency treatment. I knew who they were, I reported the crime, and they walked.

I don't hate them, and I'm not bitter over it. People don't generally do such things without past trauma in their own lives. Understanding that didn't make the physical wounds heal any faster but it certainly helped heal me psychologically.

[Losty]

Maybe not. Still in that case if somewhere were maybe sentenced to life in prison without parole, that someone is still a human being. They still get my empathy. I will still advocate for them to receive mental health care, be treated with basic human decency, and be allowed to maintain their dignity as a person.

Also, thank you for saying I did a good job wording my feelings

Thank you for this, Losty.

I get very emotional about this subject. I think because I look at society as a whole and how they view prisoners and it makes me so sad. And often when I try to speak up about it I am attack for being a rape apologist or a murder apologist or a whatever apologist. It's really hard for me to understand people sometimes. It's like I'm on a different brain wave. In my mind, you shouldn't define a person by the bad things they may have done. In my mind, all people deserve empathy.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Thank you for this, Losty.

I get very emotional about this subject. I think because I look at society as a whole and how they view prisoners and it makes me so sad. And often when I try to speak up about it I am attack for being a rape apologist or a murder apologist or a whatever apologist. It's really hard for me to understand people sometimes. It's like I'm on a different brain wave. In my mind, you shouldn't define a person by the bad things they may have done. In my mind, all people deserve empathy.

There is no doubt in my mind that there are people who must be locked up for the protection of society. That said, the USA has dangerously eroded our civil rights, particularly in the courtroom, and thus we incarcerate seven times as many, by percent, as any First World nation. We lock up more people total than China, who have four times our population! 

Even under the notion that every person there belongs there, or for as long as they've been sent there, it is critical that we treat the incarcerated more humanly and humanely than we do... the conditions would appall you, if you knew, and much of it is through the deliberate action of the staff. Showing human empathy even in the face of the utmost wrong is not only humanism, it's what stops us from being as bad as the people we are wishing/trying to harm in retaliation-- all of whom had their reasons (however ill-considered) for doing the things they did.