Blog 13 & a half

Martin Daniels

Minority Report Response

            The Minority Report presents a future where concerns about crime and security have turned society to extremes, such as punishing criminals before the crime is even committed and privacy no longer exists. Luckily we don’t live in a society like that but to be honest I don’t think we are that far from a situation similar to this.  In the beginning of the movie there was a man who was arrested based on the premonition of what was known as the Precogs.  These Precogs could only see one version of the situation, which always showed the person committing the murder.  But as we know in that specific situation the person was more than likely going to kill his wife and the adulterer she was with.  I personally think the ethics behind such a system don’t exist seeing how the system was proved flawed by it’s own creator.

            I think we as a nation can find way more ethical ways to combat and beef up our security against dangerous crimes and other wrong doings.  For example in the United States someone is arrested every 39 seconds for a marijuana related charge.  Over time this has added up to 600 billion dollars worth of expenses, cop hours and valuable space in prisons that can be held by actual violent criminals who should be incarcerated.  I think the most ethical solution in that case would be to decriminalize marijuana, which would allow for more time to investigate more hardcore pressing issues in the everyday security of our nation.  Another ethical solution that we could derive at would be to educate criminals while they are in prison to better ensure the chances of rehabilitation when finally released.  I personally think that there should be programs set up for men and women upon there release from prison to help ease them back into society as to not feel the need to return to the prior life of crime which led them to prison in the first place.

            The movie Minority Report in my opinion was a movie that basically showed the need for humans to have to be helped from themselves but, the fashion in which the police in the movie carried out their job was unethical and proved to be flawed.  People should always be given the chance to change their mind, but however should we let it go before we should actually help the person from himself or herself.