The Sun Tracks Down Nazi War Criminal

[garbon]

He has been arrested, finally.

Basic reaction from people in my office: WTF a 97 years old? whats the point?!!

A lot of people here think like this, too. (So does Neil). I disagree. There are crimes for which you should be hounded by the Kindly Ones until the day you die. His are of that kind.

Seems like a waste of our resources. He's highly likely to die soon anyway.

[Josquius]

Ah I love the Sun's writing style. Straight in with the "HE KILLED THOUSANDS" and the snide "sadist, xxxxxx".


I read another article about this earlier today, apparently a lot of Jewish groups too are questioning the point of this and saying the money would be better spent countering modern far right idiots.

[The Minsky Moment]

Seems like a waste of our resources.

"Our resources"?
Are you a News Corp shareholder?

[garbon]

Seems like a waste of our resources.

"Our resources"?
Are you a News Corp shareholder?

Well I meant "our" in terms of government resources in the West.  Presumably NewsCorp isn't holding him for arraignment/trial.

[Eddie Teach]

If the government's handed these guys on a platter, the trial expense is justified IMO.

[The Minsky Moment]

Well I meant "our" in terms of government resources in the West. 

Hungary?

[garbon]

Well I meant "our" in terms of government resources in the West. 

Hungary?

Sure, I'll claim affinity with Tamas.

[garbon]

If the government's handed these guys on a platter, the trial expense is justified IMO.

That isn't the only expense. There's also prison holding expense - I mean you're basically having the state take over financial care for him.

[Viking]

Well I meant "our" in terms of government resources in the West. 

Hungary?

Sure, I'll claim affinity with Tamas.

I'm gonna save this and file for later use.

[garbon]

Well I meant "our" in terms of government resources in the West. 

Hungary?

Sure, I'll claim affinity with Tamas.

I'm gonna save this and file for later use.

Have fun.

[Eddie Teach]

If the government's handed these guys on a platter, the trial expense is justified IMO.

That isn't the only expense. There's also prison holding expense - I mean you're basically having the state take over financial care for him.

That's true with any convict. If we can afford to feed and house small time drug dealers and petty thieves, why not somebody who murdered thousands 70 years ago?

[garbon]

If the government's handed these guys on a platter, the trial expense is justified IMO.

That isn't the only expense. There's also prison holding expense - I mean you're basically having the state take over financial care for him.

That's true with any convict. If we can afford to feed and house small time drug dealers and petty thieves, why not somebody who murdered thousands 70 years ago?

Not worth it?

[The Minsky Moment]

Sure, I'll claim affinity with Tamas.

I'm sure he'll be touched by your new-found interest in the protection of the Hungarian fisc.

But the bigger problem with your position is the one that Peter notes in his post hust above: it could be applied to many particular cases of criminal activity.  There are plenty of criminal cases where there is little or no recidivism risk and the costs of taking a case to trial far exceed any direct benefit to society from that one conviction.

The money allocated to a criminal justice system is not spent to achieve a net economic benefit for each individual case as measured by some CBA.  It is spent to buy effective rule of law.  And the rule of law is undermined if the message is sent that heinous acts will go unpunished if the economics of punishing them don't break even.

[garbon]

I'm not sure it is undermined if after 70 years a state declines to prosecute.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm not sure it is undermined if after 70 years a state declines to prosecute.

If you're not sure, why take the risk?