re: Bob Costas just called for death penalty at PSU

quote:

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i do not believe however that the students/players should be punished for the failings of their leaders. death penalty would effectively screw over all the current players on this team because of something they had zero involvement of

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I've heard this argument a lot, and I do have sympathy for it, but I've decided it is not convincing. To get slightly political, we have a Supreme Court that has declared corporations and non-profits to be people, entitled to 1st Amendment rights and 14th Amendment protections. I'm not entirely sure what entity a university is, but I'm thinking it is akin to a state non-profit, which has to be an "individual" for jurisdictional purposes.

Anyway, if this is true, then an organization cannot be granted all these rights and protections and then as soon as it is caught in wrong doing, throw up its hands and say, "punish the inviduals, but not us!"

The university should be punished, and if that means that individuals who benefit from this organization are also going to be harmed. That is the nature of punishing organizations. If they are to avoid punishment for wrong doing on the grounds that persons may be harmed, then we could NEVER punish organizations of any kind. I just can't believe that.

Allow players and students to transfer without penalty, but if the organization should be punished, it cannot hide in the skirts of the employees who have benefited from its existence.