An upsetting article about a woman who died in police custody.

I don't recall the exact quote, but I recall Paine writing about how brutality in punishment and treatment of prisoners leads to a general harness of heart and general brutality of spirit in a society, such that it cheapens life, humanity, and human dignity generally in society and lessens the ability of the people to excersise compassion.

How do we think it will effect the other people held in that jail, that they watched one of their fellow prisoners die without care, comfort, or help?  Will we be able to expect compassion and decency from them?  Only if they themselves triumph over the experience.  They certainly have nothing useful along that lines from this experience.

When someone says something about Iraqi civillians unable to count on medical care, or hurt as "collateral damage" in the war, people shrug and say 3000 of our own people died on 9/11.  We watched people who became representatives of a whole society murder our countrymen right before our eyes, and many of us reacted by having a brutal and callous attitude to an entire culture.  Brutality and callousness beget brutality and callousness.

If you watched someone die right before your eyes while representatives empowered by your society simply watched and did nothing, would you feel obligated to care about that society or any of its members?  Would you feel motivated to re-join that society as a useful and productive member?  Would you trust any social compact offered by that society?