Reply #142: Of course the actions would still have been wrong!

[jwcomer]

Given the information at hand, shooting this man was wrong. Whether he turned out to be suicide bomber or not isn't relevant. It’s also true that an apprehended suicide bomber would have useful intelligence value. But that is also beside the point.

In a free society you simply cannot go shooting people willy-nilly without sufficient provocation. And this man had not done anything provocating. I could go to Baghdad and start taking pot shots into the crowds. Sooner or later I'm bound to hit someone who is a bomber or is aiding bombers. But it wouldn't justify all the other innocent people who had been killed without cause. This situation isn't all that different.

Oh and since I live in NYC and ride the subway every day, I'm not being purely theoretical when I say that I prefer justice to security. I think it’s pretty much a given that sooner or later we will have one of these bombings in my neck of the woods. I earnestly believe that it is morally reprehensible to let fear and cowardice paralyze justice.