host

If we aren't trying to be civilized, then who are we to call what we do to apprehend, try, convict, and sentence law breakers, "bringing them to justice"?

You've got a cynical, "cop mentality", evident in your posts. If it isn't about a system that sincerely attempts to find out who actually "did it", responsibly and reliably maintains the chain of evidence, keeps meticulous records and zealously weeds out corrupt cops, prosecutors, and judges, and provides an adequate defense counsel for indigent accused facing potential jail time, and complies with all obligations under rules of discovery, by gathering and sharing with the defense, both incriminating and potentially exonerating evidence collected in police investigations, every shred of it.....than what would it be that "the people" are doing when they arrest, charge, try, convict and sentence a "law breaker"?

Why have any "system" if it is not one that is totally committed to actual justice and avoidance of falsely convicting any innocent accused?

Do you trust any authority to mete out a penalty that it cannot end or reverse if it turns out that the target does not deserve to be convicted and punished?

How is your attitude andy different than the "get 'er done" attitude of a lynch mob? It seems as if your saying that state operated killing of the guilty or of an occasional innocent, is "no big deal".

If you are saying that, I think you should compare your present views with those you can recall before you served in a combat theater of operations. There has to be a purpose for law enforcement and criminal justice, that closely matches the rationale for creating and paying to maintain it, and if you don't think that it matters if we delegate the power to execute people in our country, to a flawed and unethical authority, then...where does it stop? Should we even continue with the pretense of investigation, evidentiary hearings, and criminal trials?

Why don't we just give the cops a wink and a nod as we let them loose to "use their own judgment" to take out the scum who don't even deserve the time and expense of a trial?

The cops know who society would be "better off" without. We've tied their hands by insisting that they establish "proof" before seeking arrest warrants.
Isn't justifying the arrest of someone that the cops have known for a long time, is "dirty", a nicety that we can dispense with?

What stops you from agreeing to let the cops deliver street justice, as they see fit?