First, you didn't originally say that it was certainty. You said that it was:
“It works rather well in Germany, which has no death penalty , but keeps murderers locked up.”
That goes to KEEPING murderers LOCKED UP - that is, IN PRISON.
Both countries do this.
But secondly, I have no idea where you get this idea that there is little certainty of punishment for murderers. The vast majority of murderers in the US are caught, at least in the vast majority of localities, and they are overwhelmingly convicted and sent to prison for long stretches.
“As to culture, how does one separate the judicial system from the culture,...”
That's a non sequitur. How does one separate them? Easy. Culture is culture; the judicial system is the judicial system. They aren't the same thing.
“...and if the aim is to keep people safe, then the Germans do a better job than we do.”
Straw man argument. I never said otherwise. In fact, I've readily ceded that the crime rate in the US is higher than in Germany.
“Unless things have changed radically, the Germans do n fear to let their children roam the neighborhood and cower in fear in their airconditioned homes.”
My kids roam my neighborhood. No one cowers in fear in my little part of the United States.
Your stereotypes are generally false and offensive.
There are dangerous places in the United States. I know the same is true in Germany. There are 3.5 million square miles of land in the United States. I haven't visited all of it, but I've visited quite a bit of it. I'd be fine with my kids roaming most of those neighborhoods any day of the week.
By the way, as a result of immigration, crime is up in Germany, and has become a political issue. I will point out that it is the same law enforcement and the same judicial system that enforces and prosecutes against immigrants as non-immigrants alike in Germany, but that the immigrant communities often have a different CULTURE from the non-immigrant communities, and thus higher crime rates.
“The state has the right to execute prisoners and in our country we have the right to bear arms, in part because of the failures of our legal system to protect us against criminals.”
What a load of garbage this is. The state may execute offenders because 1) it's in the Constitution and 2) it is the right of states generally to have recourse to the death penalty against some offenders. This is the constant teaching of the Catholic Church.
As for the right to bear arms, that is a natural right of men. To the degree that a state infringes on this right, the state does something evil and illegitimate. As to WHY the founders included this in the Constitution, go here and watch the interviews with Justice Scalia:
http://www.nationalreview.com/media/uncommonknowledge
Go to the Chapter 4 interview.
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