Les Jones

News > No Sympathy for the KKK

So someone thought Eugene Volokh was harsh in his treatment of a KKK member who got shot during an initiation ceremony. (I was even harsher.)

I guess one could cry for the KKK guy getting shot, and then laugh when the KKK burns a cross in a black family's yard, but, no, that's backwards. Better to laugh at the KKK guy and cry for the black family.

Some people would say that you should cry for both, but that's wrong. The KKK guy causes you to cry for the black family being terrorized. Crying for him is counter-productive. If he dies or stops his evil ways, that means there's that much less evil in the world. Unless you're just fond of crying, there's no reason to cry for him.

The correspondent's posted a reply to Volokh.

As far as we know, Murr has done nothing except hate a group of people because of their skin color. I would not condemn a man to death, or a life of paralysis or other incurable injury, because he potentially may have "victimized or terrorized" minorities, even minority children.

Pending evidence that he actually did something other than be initiated into a hatemongering group with bad fashion sense, I cannot help but feel sorry -- not for him, necessarily, but for his family (if he has one).

No one "condemned" this person to injury: it was an accident, albeit one that may have prevented harm to an innocent person. Human compassion is finite, and I think it's wise to save one's tears for people who are worthy of sympathy rather than waste them on the wicked.