<i>I find it hard to believe that anyone actually holds that opinion. Am I misunderstanding you?</i><p>Withholding my own opinion, I think this is a very common sentiment in the US.   Among other things, this is used to justify the lack of action on inmate-on-inmate violence in prisons.  More generally, you commonly find people cheering the violent deaths of anyone deemed a terrorist by the government.  I don&#x27;t think this is restricted to the US.<p>Separately, I don&#x27;t think &#x27;agarden&#x27; is intends to make any normative statement about the correct attitude.  Rather, he&#x27;s pointing out that &quot;innocent&quot; victims tend to receive greater sympathy.   If there is a bank robbery in which 4 hostages are killed, there will be greater outcry than a bank robbery in which the 4 perpetrators are killed.<p>This doesn&#x27;t mean necessarily that people don&#x27;t care if the criminals are killed, but does mean that they care less than if non-criminals are killed.  Do you doubt this?