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I have this habit
ClayTheScribe
Veteran
Whenever I see someone who has committed a heinous crime, such as George Zimmerman, who shot unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, my first feeling and thought is of pity and empathy toward that individual. When I saw his mug shot, all I saw was fear in his eyes and I felt bad for him. This happened when I was covering the sentencing of a serial rapist Brent Brents in Denver as an intern. I just saw him as like a wounded child who wasn't even understanding quite what he did internally but he does as an adult. It's not that I don't feel for their victims and their families, I just see the deep pain in their hearts and realize I have the equal capability to do what they did and maybe worse. It's hard to share these to friends of mine in the United States because we're such a culture of hatred and vengeance and moralism and black-and-white right or wrong. Does anyone else do this and do you have people you can share it with?
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Shantideva said something (paraphrasing) clever about if someone hit us with a stick, we wouldn't get angry with the stick, but then neither should we get angry with the person. The thing we should get annoyed about is the ignorance and delusion that is controlling the person who is holding the stick.
I look at it quite differently. Many times I have heard Buddhists say, or seen them write, that one of the major factors in them adopting Buddhism as a way of thought is that unlike Christianity, where much of life is through God, with Buddhism it is the individual's responsibility for how he or she conducts his or her life.
Now, I don't know George Zimmerman, but I'm going to make some suppositions about him based on what I've seen and read. He sounds a lot like a few others I have known who join quasi-law enforcement groups. The neighborhood watch organizations they join are supposed to be just that -- watch and report suspicious activity. But a few of these individuals take it much further, and they buy into vigilantism. Like Zimmerman, instead of watching, they pursue. They confront. In this case they carry a gun. All a recipe for disaster, and they're the cooks. They're the ones breaking the law and the spirit of the law, as much (or in this case probably far more) than the person they are illegally pursuing. And while there may be reasons, there is no excuse. The person they are pursuing becomes the victim. the family becomes victims, also. The friends become victims.
Do I have some sympathy for Zimmerman. A bit. But, no one else did it. He did it. He acted with malice of forethought. He set up a karmic situation that only one person could have avoided -- himself.
(although, that wasn't his mugshot. that was a mugshot from an earlier arrest, or so I heard)
Obviously, someone who is dangerous should be kept in prison, just like someone who is physically ill should be kept in hospital, but we've never had so many people in prison in the UK, and it's not a good thing. Prisons are like universities for crime; and many other reasons.
As a school principal, the part of my job that I disliked the most was when I would have to suspend or expel a student. And while it certainly wasn't reliably predictable, there were quite a few students (maybe 70-80%) who would do something dopey, get suspended, and then continue what had been a pretty clean record. But then there were the recidivists. Suspension after suspension, and often, finally an expulsion. We'd hold conference after conference with the parents, explain the school rules, explain (in some cases) the state law, set up sessions with their counselor, sometimes go through multiple counselors, in some cases set up sessions with Child Protective Services, recommend a psychologist, and on and on and on...and no improvement. Offense after offense after offense. And, in some cases, I had a lot of sympathy for the kid, knew about a challenging upbringing, and so forth. But I could not allow drugs in my school. I could allow bringing guns to my school. I could not allow brandishing a knife in my school. Because the other 999 students in my school had a right to be drug free, bully free, weapon free, and safe.
My adopted son went through the court system for one stupid lapse in judgment. Was locked up. Literally ruined his life. All for one mistake. One error. One foolish impulse. That's one thing. But, most of the people in court and lockup had been there over and over and over again. And that's what bothers me...that we don't seem to differentiate between the one time jerk off and the consistent offender.
To quote psychotherapist John Welwood: "Here the root of all evil is laid bare: There are no bad people, only badly loved people. If Stalin, Hitler or Osama bin Laden experienced themselves as loved and lovable, what motivation would they have to kill? Feeling love circulating through you makes you want to celebrate and nurture life, not destroy it."
Let me give you a little lesson. In Thailand, I knew a fellow who was in on the ground floor of McDonalds in Thailand. The company is actually a Thai company called McThai. At its inception, it was a Thai national who formed a company, the majority of which had to be owned by Thais (and still is), and they went to McDonalds corporation and asked to franchise. When I visited my friend at the headquarters in Bangkok, I didn't see a Caucasian face. All Thais. In fact, when you go throughout SE Asia, what you tend to see are companies that are related more to China than the U.S. And you seem to forget that many American companies (take Capitol Records, for example) are owned by companies in other countries.
America is not dictating to any other other country what their legal system should be. If anyone is, perhaps the U.N. -- an institution where our influence is not predominant.