Respectfully, I think you're creating a false dichotomy: Judge Posner famously wrote about a third option, strategic recklessness, where you make "mistakes" that you know will injure/kill the person you want to injure/kill while allowing you plausible deniability. Is that person an obvious assassin about to kill Trump? Well, I'll just be confused about whether or not a local sniper would be pointing his weapon TOWARDS the president and/or wearing civilian clothes and/or without any support because I don't care if I'm wrong as long as I can claim as I only wrong, rather than complicit. Cops who want Trump dead can be "confused" about going on the roof because that's what they'll say when Trump's dead as a result. I could go on, but NONE of these people acted like anyone would have acted had they wanted to stop this killing - instead, they acted EXACTLY like you'd act if you wanted him dead w/o being implicated in the killing. They were strategically reckless. They knew their "mistakes" could kill & they were fine w/ that result because they wanted Trump dead but they didn't want to go to jail for killing him. The law has long recognized that "mistakes" can be the moral & legal equivalent of intentional actions precisely because they can be. It's not stupidity when you know what your stupidity will do AND YOU WANT THAT RESULT! It's just being clever. These were clever murderers - but they ARE murderers in that they knew or should have known what their "mistakes" would do & their "mistakes" did exactly that. If I had a bomb to a toddler, I know what's going to happen & I'm a murderer. Same principle. They knew what these "mistakes" would do & they loved it.
Thank you so much for eloquently spelling out the jumbled mess of my own thoughts this morning. This is exactly what I have been thinking since yesterday and I was having a hard time getting these points across. Nice job
And the fact they kept letting Trump’s head be exposed after the shooting and all the way to the van for two minutes. Grateful for Trump’s fast ducking behind the podium!
Respectfully, I think you're creating a false dichotomy: Judge Posner famously wrote about a third option, strategic recklessness, where you make "mistakes" that you know will injure/kill the person you want to injure/kill while allowing you plausible deniability. Is that person an obvious assassin about to kill Trump? Well, I'll just be confused about whether or not a local sniper would be pointing his weapon TOWARDS the president and/or wearing civilian clothes and/or without any support because I don't care if I'm wrong as long as I can claim as I only wrong, rather than complicit. Cops who want Trump dead can be "confused" about going on the roof because that's what they'll say when Trump's dead as a result. I could go on, but NONE of these people acted like anyone would have acted had they wanted to stop this killing - instead, they acted EXACTLY like you'd act if you wanted him dead w/o being implicated in the killing. They were strategically reckless. They knew their "mistakes" could kill & they were fine w/ that result because they wanted Trump dead but they didn't want to go to jail for killing him. The law has long recognized that "mistakes" can be the moral & legal equivalent of intentional actions precisely because they can be. It's not stupidity when you know what your stupidity will do AND YOU WANT THAT RESULT! It's just being clever. These were clever murderers - but they ARE murderers in that they knew or should have known what their "mistakes" would do & their "mistakes" did exactly that. If I had a bomb to a toddler, I know what's going to happen & I'm a murderer. Same principle. They knew what these "mistakes" would do & they loved it.
Thank you so much for eloquently spelling out the jumbled mess of my own thoughts this morning. This is exactly what I have been thinking since yesterday and I was having a hard time getting these points across. Nice job
And the fact they kept letting Trump’s head be exposed after the shooting and all the way to the van for two minutes. Grateful for Trump’s fast ducking behind the podium!
excellent comment