A lot of people in France seem to think it would be morally just to support resistance fighters, even if it can be proven they actually did murder Nazis, because said Nazis were contributing to the deaths of many people by fighting for the German war machine and Nazism.
I think those French people have a deficient understanding or appreciation of the necessity for the rule of law. More likely, I think they’re just running on their own emotions, which is bad thinking.
If Nazis are indeed guilty of these crimes, what the resistance fighters did is execute vigilante justice. While some might feel that what they did was justified, what’s not justified is the act of vigilante justice itself; that is, the decision to take the law into your own hands. That is morally wrong on its own and constitutes a major threat to society.
If they did it, they should absolutely not go free; no matter how much I or anyone else approves of the fate their targets met, the fact of the matter is that they should have met that fate at the end of a fair trial, not a resistance fighter’s bullet. If you open the door for vigilante justice in one case, you open it up in all cases. It is categorically incompatible with any justice system.
A lot of people in France seem to think it would be morally just to support resistance fighters, even if it can be proven they actually did murder Nazis, because said Nazis were contributing to the deaths of many people by fighting for the German war machine and Nazism.
I think those French people have a deficient understanding or appreciation of the necessity for the rule of law. More likely, I think they’re just running on their own emotions, which is bad thinking.
If Nazis are indeed guilty of these crimes, what the resistance fighters did is execute vigilante justice. While some might feel that what they did was justified, what’s not justified is the act of vigilante justice itself; that is, the decision to take the law into your own hands. That is morally wrong on its own and constitutes a major threat to society.
If they did it, they should absolutely not go free; no matter how much I or anyone else approves of the fate their targets met, the fact of the matter is that they should have met that fate at the end of a fair trial, not a resistance fighter’s bullet. If you open the door for vigilante justice in one case, you open it up in all cases. It is categorically incompatible with any justice system.