Torturing rape suspects?

[booklooker]

An Indian minister says she made rape suspects beg for their lives and ordered police to torture them.

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-38928860

The irrational part of me says YES!

But the rational and humantarian part of me knows it is wrong.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

Yes it's wrong. Human rights is human rights. Were any of them found not guilty?

[booklooker]

I'm glad you agree.

I don't think the article informs of how many were guilty.

But isn't there a 'WE BELEIVE' element her

[AssassinatedBeauty]

I don't know what you mean about a "we believe" element?

[Datun]

It might sit better with me if they were convicts instead of suspects.

The gang rape of a mother and her child is very emotive. I can easily see people getting a sense of justice out of the perpetrators being physically punished.

It's all the additional implications that can make this dodgy. What if they weren't guilty? And only confessed because of the torture.

Fitting a punishment to a crime generally has the feeling of satisfaction. Punishing someone who is innocent, has the opposite effect.

[booklooker]

sorry if that sounded crass.

I meant the 'we believe rape victims' cause.

[Seachangeshell]

Of course it's wrong. It's barbaric.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

Well I believe the women and children, but I'm not sure what that has to do with torturing the suspected perpetrators?

[FloweringDeranger]

There's a difference between believing that rape occurred and attacking men at random.

India's women seem to have found a voice, which is wonderful. Extremsm (starting with India's appalling record against women) begets extremism. Most people want it to stop and use the centre ground of due process of law.

[PigletWasPoohsFriend]

Of course it's wrong. It's barbaric.

I agree.

[booklooker]

India's women seem to have found a voice, which is wonderful

I hope that's true!

[Datun]

That's all true. Was there no alternative ? I know nothing about the criminal justice system in India. Are prison sentences not an option?

[VestalVirgin]

To me it seems that those men were not suspects in reality, but very much known to be the perpetrators, and just called suspects because of legal formalities?
Or even just because the person writing the article thought this more suitable.

I don't think anyone here can imagine how bad the rape epidemic in India is, and how it makes the women there feel.

Yeah, it is barbaric, but it is a reaction to how things are there.

In the Middle Ages, criminals were hung drawn and quartered in Europe if one managed to catch them, because catching them in the first place was a rare thing.
It has since been found that gruesome punishments are not nearly as good a deterrent as certainty of being caught, but a government has to do something.

Or, as many people say when hearing of the misogyny in India:

Well, it is their culture. We shouldn't judge.

[HelenDenver]

Are you on the level, OP?

[booklooker]

Are you on the level, OP?

Not sure what you mean HelenD.

I have been a poster on MN for a while.

[HelenDenver]

Sure.

But conflation of the WBY campaign with approving of torture seems a tad disingenuous.

[booklooker]

HelenD, did you read the part of my OP where I said But the rational and humantarian part of me knows it is wrong.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

But we believe you has nothing to do with what should happen to suspects, so I don't understand why you mentioned it.

[VestalVirgin]

The minister clearly believes the rape victims and wanted to give them closure.

Nothing to do with WBY as a movement, but everything to do with believing rape victims in practice.

[HelenDenver]

Exactly, AB.

May have been an accidental choice of phrasing, OP

[LauraBora79]

Torture and/or the death penalty are barbaric. It's got nothing to do with what an individual may or may not know or deserve, but comes down to the fact that state sanctioned murder or torture are categorically wrong and exceptions can't be made. Someone could be the most heinous child rapist (who I think should rot and die in jail and burn in hell for an eternity thereafter) and it would still be wrong to torture them.

Plus torture is not only unethical but counter-effective. Suspects will lie under torture, innocent people will be convicted and guilty ones go free. It just plain doesn't work.