Silicon Valley CEO who allegedly kicked girlfriend 117 times gets 1 year in jail
While the headline is designed to spark outrage, after reading the article, not only do I understand why the sentence is so light, I&#x27;m <i>glad</i> it is. The police were way out of line and completely disregarded the accused&#x27;s rights. The only effective way to incentivize the police&#x2F;prosecutors not to behave this way is to let people we strongly believe to be guilty all but get away with it. No monetary fine has ever been effective in changing public servants&#x27; behavior, and threat of being fired doesn&#x27;t seem effective either. We have to admit that criminalizing rights violations in any but the most egregious circumstances is unreasonable and could barely be enforced, let alone passed as legislation for political reasons. So what choice does society have left to change this behavior but leverage bad actors&#x27; conscience and, frankly, pride, by throwing away their hard work? (Well, the work was not hard enough, that&#x27;s the point.) Society must bear the cost as well, but as long as it does so consistently, then the cost will be worth it.