Quote (Goomshill @ Feb 11 2022 11:55am)
People running from a fire have a reasonable fear for their life that justifies taking dangerous action. People proactively joining a violent riot and engaging in lawless action are not motivated by an immediate threat that justifies their actions.
I don't see deindividuation or herd mentality as mitigating anything, and I don't see any reason for why it should. The idea of social vulnerability or pressure is present in most every crime and every criminal motive. If people didn't have reasons for their actions, they wouldn't be doing them. There's no diffusion of responsibility in regards to the actions of an individual, its not a crime of necessity, or a first offense, or a minor role among co-offenders. Its simply trying to discard personal responsibility. And since combined violent actions of a group of people are more dangerous than the sum of their individual capabilities, the conscious decision to join with others committing wanton violence should be taken as an aggravating factor. Like how in this case, not only was there nobody to put out the fire in the midst of the riots, but the overall damage from the riots was so severe it took months before the rubble could even be cleared away and the ripple on the social fabric of the city has carried on for years to the point we're at this:
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2509528897868/wcco-s-mike-max-calls-downtown-minneapolis-a-hellhole?noAds=1&_f=app_share&s=a7&share_destination_id=MTcyMzk5MzQ2LTE2NDQzNjYwMDgzOTI=
I say that collective actions are more culpable than individual actions. You bear responsibility for your own conduct as well as those you throw in with.
"justifies their actions" = mitigating factor for innocence.
we're talking about mitigating factors for sentencing.
no one, not me, not the judge, not the defense, are claiming he's innocent. he went to a riot, he lit a fire. ive stated several times the political motivation raised for sentencing is dumb, i'm supplanting that with mob mentality and tempering the negligence by logically stating a closed business can be somewhat, although not entirely, assumed to be empty of residents during a downtown impending riot shutdown order and a stand-down order by the police. whomever died in that fire made a foolish decision to be there too, not criminally foolish, and not so foolish that i dont feel bad they died, but if i know a riot is coming im not gonna hang out in it's way.