BIO BLOG
4/4/13
Crime Stories
Crime Stories
Is it
morally right to put innocent people into jail? Is it okay for people to
deceive us in such a harsh way that we actually start to believe what we know
really isn’t true? Is it okay that the people we trust most lie to us? In this
case, the people lying would be the police. Is this right?
In this
story, 14-year-old Michael was accused of murdering his own sister. Michael’s
sister was in her room when someone came in through her window and murdered her.
The police automatically suspected that it had been an inside job so they
brought 14-year-old Michael in for questioning. The police officer asked
Michael who murdered his sister. When Michael answered no, the officer told
Michael that he was going to hook him up to a device that can read when a
person is nervous (basically a lie detector). Naturally Michael was nervous and
scared but he answered every question honestly. When the officer came back with
the results, he told Michael that there was a lie detected in his answer of
“no” to the following question: “do you know who killed your sister?” When
Michael tearfully promised that he did not know who killed his sister, the
police started lying to him. The police told him all kinds of false evidence
such as the fact that her blood was found in Michael’s room. The police quilted
Michael into thinking that he might have actually killed his sister. In the
end, the real murderer was found. The murderer was a homeless man who had been
wondering around the neighborhood for some time.
My personal
response to this horrific story was disgust and disbelief. I couldn’t believe
that someone who Michael was supposed to trust and feel safe around would lie
to his face and actually guilt trip him into honestly thinking that he might
have killed his own sister. I don’t understand why they immediately tried to
pin the murder on someone who had no positive evidence for murdering someone.
Why couldn’t they look at the bigger picture? So I ask you, if stories like
these continue to happen how are we supposed to trust authority? Or better yet,
how are we supposed to trust the people who are supposed to be protecting us?
