Dear Editor,
Why is torture wrong?
1. It is inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment.
2. It is a form of treatment or punishment that has been abandoned by civilized nations.
3. It can be administered to the wrong person, as in a case of mistaken identity.
4. It presumes guilt before guilt has been proved in a court of law.
5. It can extract unreliable information as people under torture will confess anything.
6. It dehumanizes those who administer it.
7. It coarsens the conscience of those who condone, tolerate or advocate it.
8. It is a tacit admission that the criminal justice system does not function (Beat he, if you tek he to court he gun get off or he can gie bribe and get off).
9. It does not reform the victims, only deforms them.
10. It can inflame pre-existing and simmering societal tensions.
11. It provides cannon fodder and symbolic martyrs for your antagonists.
12. It can be used on you or your loved ones when the cycle goes around and the tables are turned.
Yours faithfully,
M. Xiu Quan-Balgobind-Hackett
