Paraphrasing from the Mishnah, it is said that one who saves a single soul saves an entire world, and one who destroys a single life also destroys a world. (Sanhedrin 4:9). I am not a talmudic scholar and therefore have no idea if that is an accurate quote However, the words were lyrics to a song we sang on the Chapel on the Hill at Camp Harlam and I have been thinking about them a lot the last few days.
Detroit police were given a no-knock warrant to search for a 34 year old man wanted as a suspect for a brutal murder. They "announced their presence" at 20 to 1 in the morning by breaking down the door, throwing a stun grenade, and storming the apartment building where the suspect was thought to be hiding. The suspect was caught, although it is not clear where, but in the confusion, where stunned family members were dealing with what seemed like a raiding army in the middle of the night and police were left with a crowded apartment in the pitch black, 7 year old Aiyana Jones was shot dead by a policeman's bullet in front of her horrified family.
I recognize that accidents happen. I recognize that tragedies happen. I recognize that the police are sometimes confronted with dangerous criminals and put themselves at risk in many situations. However, as a society, we need to decide whether we are willing to tolerate a system where an innocent person is killed to capture an allegedly guilty one.
It is not only a question of the use of the controversial "no-knock" warrant which has led to many fatalities among innocents. We see it all the time with high-speed police chases as well. Suspect tries to flee, officer gives chase, situation devolves into a high speed chase and either the suspect or the police officer crashes their car and an innocent is hurt or killed. As a society, do we tolerate the high chance of an innocent being hurt or killed in a high-speed chase in order to catch the alleged bad guy? Does it matter if he is wanted for murder or driving with a suspended license? There are legitimate arguments on both sides. If we forbid police from giving chase, we encourage suspects to simply flee. If we give police the ability to give chase, too many innocents are at risk.
Many would argue that no-knock warrants serve a vital purpose. They protect the lives of police who do perhaps the most dangerous job in the entire force. Supporters would argue that without no-knock warrants, executing a warrant would more often become a death trap for the police.
While this argument certainly has value, we do not tolerate such collateral consequences in other areas. The law imposes strict liability on defendants if a death happens as a result of a crime. If a defendant went into a store with a fake gun, stole a pack of tic tacs at "gunpoint" and the clerk has a heart attack and dies, the defendant has committed "felony-murder" and is tried as if he committed murder.
At the end of the day, our entire system of criminal justice is premised on the belief that it is more important to protect the innocent than it is to punish the guilty. The Founding Fathers recognized that sometimes a society has to tolerate letting the "guilty" go free in order to protect the innocent. The tragedy of a person wrongfully convicted far outweighs the pain from letting a "guilty" person go free. And no suspect is worth the life of an innocent 7 year old girl.
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