Eastside Defender

Over at the usually-lightweight Northeast Beat, Dan Haugen has posted photos of a makeshift memorial to the two suspected copper thieves who died last week while fleeing police.

As humans, neighbors, and a community, we seem conflicted about how to regard the bad guys. When hearing stories of crime and violence most folks seem eager for justice. When it turns out that the criminal is family or a friend, people are more eager to forgive.

An ideal, in religious terms, is to separate the sin from the sinner. But we are not ideal people. And some sinners sure seem to have made bad behaviour their enduring lifestyle. At some point the crimes and the criminal are no longer distinct.

Yet, all but the most desperate sociopaths retain at least a kernel of human virtue. They are still “Dad” or “Uncle” or some momma’s little baby.

So how do we judge, given that each of us is flawed, and nobody is perfectly evil? I haven't worked that out. But I can say that if we vigilantly reduce the opportunity for crime, and learn to address within our families the troubled aspects of those we care about, we’ll suffer fewer sad memorials like the one on Columbia Parkway.