Tarring and Feathering

Chancellor Angela Merkel now has a problem. As a Christian, she shouldn’t have said that Osama bin Laden’s death made her happy. And as Chancellor of Germany? The U.S. president has a problem. He should have stubbornly stuck to the earlier version of events wherein bin Laden died in a shootout, or at least shortly after the shootout. The reason is that every western fan knows you don’t gun down an unarmed man, only the outlaw who goes for his gun. Otherwise, it’s just murder.

Merkel’s critics also admit that they, too, are relieved by bin Laden’s death. Relief is appropriate, but joy isn’t? That’s how great the differences are in judging an event that isn’t itself being questioned. To call “killings” murder demands application of a law that those in the wild West practiced in their moral superiority — at least, in the United States, without benefit of judge or jury — and always done to the bad guys.

An overdose of Wild West justice has meanwhile ensconced itself into executive branches in the West. The preventative detention practiced in Germany also came from the cowboy movie genre. Those who criticize it are accused of having too much empathy with the felons. Even if the German Supreme Court (again) reversed itself and continues to approve of it, their latest decision had to do with those already sentenced.

Protecting ourselves from alleged criminals shouldn’t mean we use the Wild West as an example — nor should we immediately start handing out tar and feathers.