Claremont McKenna College Gives a Few Disruptive SJWs Suspensions for Shutting Down a Heather MacDonald Speech

Some of these punishments are pretty decent and fit the crime -- a full year of suspension from college is a penalty that fits the crime, and is no joke.

But only three students got that penalty -- out of approximately 170 individuals who participated in the shut-down.

Four other students were penalized -- one barely. Three got a semester's suspension, which is barely a penalty. Another got probation -- which is not a penalty. It's a Formal Declaration of Getting a Strong Talking To.

The other 163 or so have walked with no penalty -- some because they couldn't be identified (and hey, I guess it's time to prohibit masks at demonstrations, huh, upon penalty of suspension or even expulsion...?).

There are two common suggestions for deterring crime:

1. Making the penalty so stiff no one thinks about breaking the law.

2. Increase detection/capture rates so that a much larger portion of law-breakers are sanctioned.

Studies prove that #2 works, and #1 barely works at all. A huge penalty is so huge that everyone assumes "That won't happen to me." Also, there are serious concerns of fairness -- a penalty should be based on the severity of the crime itself. You get into a dubious morality when you say you're going to penalize something much more harshly than the crime warrants, just to "send a message" to other law-breakers.

Penalties should be about individual justice, not "sending messages." It's not really fair if 99% of lawbreakers are not punished at all, and then 1% gets some outsized penalty to make up for all the non-penalties the ones you didn't catch got away with.

So a one year suspension for trying to shut down other students' right to hear a speaker -- sounds good.

But this isn't going to be any kind of deterrent if just 1.5% of the malefactors are punished. You need to catch, and suspend, 25% or more of them to restore order.

And I'm assuming the ones suspended did not commit actual crimes of violence. If they did, then a one year suspension is far too light -- they should be handed over to the police to get their criminal record colored up a bit, and maybe spend some time in the iron-bar college.

posted by Ace at 04:34 PM

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