The Criminal Lawyer’s Guide to Criminal Law (with pictures!)
Part 2: “Take That!” — Punishment
Page 1: Introduction
The State
NARRATOR
One of the State’s functions is to deal with crime. In this role, the State is a little like a MOTHER…
THE STATE
Like a what, now?
NARRATOR
Like a mother, she has to PROTECT us from threats, TEACH us right from wrong, and CORRECT us whenever we ourselves do wrong.
[Note, these sections were originally posted in their entirety as single long pages on Tumblr. They’ve been broken into individual pages for easier reading and commenting on this site.]
The law’s protection is distinctly dubious. Mostly it protects itself from us, or its friends when they want to take advantage of us rather than actually protect us. And its definitions of teaching and correcting are also self-serving.
Ever met that bitch called state? No? Go look into a mirror.
“Protect”, “Teach”, and “Correct” are all defined in a self serving way. The law has a rather un-mother-like goal of protecting it and its friends from us, not protecting us.
Both perspectives are skewed. I’d say that, sure, sometimes the law is like a mom… and, sure, sometimes it is self-serving, or is enforced/enacted/whatever in a self-serving manner… but the fact is if some guy in a bar busts your teeth in with a beer bottle, you’re happy it’s there. So shaddap.
So it’s more like a parent who happens to be a bit of an ass?
Besides, at this point he is talking about the principle, not the practice.