I have written on this subject in my head and on paper three times and I am dissatisfied with the result.  You see, I have problems with the death penalty and official murder of murderers. TV and papers here in Florida are filled with news about the killing of a police officer and wounding of three others in a very public tracing of the story until the perpetrator was hunted down and shot to death.  I understand the outcry about men and women who protect us who themselves are victims of senseless murder and attack by instruments of death used in war by strange people here at home.  I sympathize with rage to revenge ourselves against such murderers.  But, I think the tooth for a tooth and life for a life instant reaction is not worthy of us as a people and there may be a better way.

Here is a radical proposal for you.  Unless the perpetrator of a crime commits suicide, every effort should be made to capture him or her alive.  It is in this way we can learn the whys of someone denying others of their right to live.  In a real sense, tracking this man down and shooting him to death, prevents the world from learning: Why?  We might have learned a great deal from studying an individual who deservedly was slain by the police. Instant visceral reaction may not be best for the rest of us.

We have SWAT teams in local police forces that use maximum force to destroy an accused.  This denies all of us the ability to learn about the whys and wherefores of a seriously disturbed individual or a member of a terrorist group planning on some major disruption of our lives.  It is possible that a team of sharpshooters could be developed that would lead the way in DISABLING the alleged wanted individual. We would all be benefited by study of that person and get him off the streets. We have the tools and skills to wound rather than fulfill our wish to tear him apart. We learn nothing by putting him in a morgue.

Bullets that fly in the attempt to put down an accused put all of us in danger. Putting down a human should not be like destroying an alligator, snake or mountain lion preying on humans as well as its natural foods. The confrontation of a single or several armed unknown individuals has elements of the attack on the compound which was destroyed with possible innocents inside while trying to extract the extremists.

A story from many years ago suggested that convicted criminal have given up their rights to live their own lives and will remain behind bars until they die. Since this is reality, society can benefit from their incarceration.  We have learned a long time ago that chain-gangs and leased work have lowered somewhat the cost of incarceration.  Prisons in farmland may permit the prisoners to raise the food they eat and thus reduce the cost of incarceration.  Sending them to school or bringing school into the prison may reduce recidivism when they finish their term.

Retribution is one thing. Reformatories were erected to change people. Penitentiaries were erected to have them muse on their evil ways. Refraining from revenge and the state murdering murderers and other troubled individuals might be a better way.  Keep them alive so we can study and learn from them.