I don't know enough about El Salvador's politics to know whether the mass imprisoning brought down the gang murders and improved stuff on the street, but why, once you've got people trapped and unable to do harm, can't you go back through them using officials you audit for gang influence or whatever and have individual trials? Instead, they did a farcical hundred-person-at-a-time show trial for the people they imprisoned, so who knows what portion were guilty. What it makes clear to me is that there's no interest here in identifying the innocent or guilty, but plenty of interest in keeping the undistinguished mix caged up like dogs in a kennel for the rest of their lives. What excuses do you make for that?
How about caring for both? How about that as an idea? It’s impossible for you to accept that you can arrest and jail all those people to protect the lives of regular citizens but also not torture them while they are in jail?
Of course there is. Freedom is a pretty fundamental human right. We don't mind taking it away from some people, sometimes permanently. Then of course the death penalty is a thing.
Now organised abuse, or even not taking steps to prevent such abuse is accepted to be a bad thing by most of society so that shouldn't happen. But my concern isn't directed in any way towards violent gangsters that held an entire country hostage.
I’m excited to see what positive coverage CBS has of this great development in human rights in El Salvador.