White Privilege and Black Rights by Naomi Zack

Author:Naomi Zack [Zack, Naomi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-04-19T04:00:00+00:00

The Rights of the Innocent

It is reasonable that the police would be more interested in who is criminally guilty than who is innocent, because that is their job. But for society more broadly, the well-being of the innocent is more important. Not only do the innocent not deserve invasive suspicion, but they are the numerical majority. There is an interesting moral choice, here: Which is preferable, to punish more guilty people if the only way to do that involves punishing some innocent people, or to allow all or most innocent people to remain unpunished if the only way to do that results in some guilty people remaining unpunished? Something like this dilemma occurs in arguments for and against capital punishment, because a system of capital punishment, while carrying out ultimate consequences for the worst deeds, will inevitably result in death for some falsely convicted innocents. But there is a huge practical difference, because the number of those who are innocent of what police suspected in stop and frisks are readily available (all those let go without further police action), while innocence after conviction in capital cases requires painstaking proof.

Precedent for the idea that it’s more important to save innocents than punish the guilty is found in Genesis:

And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? . . . And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, . . . Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake. And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake. And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake. (Genesis 18:23-32)

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