It is the weirdest time to be a teacher of criminal law because it is weird to teach about the things that the law prohibits and makes unlawful when there just are so many examples in real life about people getting away, literally, with murder. #LawNotes [thread]
Questions that ran through my mind about the murderer cop: (a) is there recidivism or habituality? (b) what about habitual delinquency? Since there were multiple acts, is it right to say "double murder" or should it be two counts of murder? #LawNotes
If it turns out that he was already facing homicide charges (thus the recidivism question), what was the internal police machinery doing? Could a strong administrative machinery which could impose and enforce preventive suspensions and disarming erring cops have prevented this?
What about the Ombudsman for Military and Law Enforcement? What role did they (not) play in preventing something like this?
Are there mandatory anger management classes? What about the "entitlement" culture? None of these questions have easy answers; many of these don't get asked until an incident happens--and then it would be too late.
Yes, be angry, very, very angry! Yes, demand that the murderer (proper technical term) be held accountable. But also, address the reasons why he felt so enabled to kill--why he felt he could shoot with impunity.
And, no, it is not a reason to reinstate the death penalty. Not now, not ever.
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