Preemptive prosecution jails people for crimes never committed

Evidence

Preemptive prosecution involves targeting suspect communities through a range of tactics such as the use of agents provocateurs to incite people to do things they otherwise would not and the charge of “material support” for terrorists, which can be applied for something as innocuous as giving money to a charitable foundation. The logic underlying these cases is that Muslims are naturally “predisposed” to commit violent acts and should therefore be put away before they cause harm. This bizarre logic is reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s dystopian film Minority Report, based on Philip K. Dick’s 1956 novella, about three “precogs” who can foresee crime before it occurs. Acting on this information, a police “precrime” unit then arrests people before they actually commit a crime and only because they might be “predisposed” to do so. In the movie, the unit is shut down. In real life, however, many are facing years in prison for crimes that they did not commit, in which no one had been killed and no property had been destroyed. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 584

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concretely defines ‘preemptive prosecution’ as the domestic variant of preemptive war doctrine.
• XREF: connects to: Preemptive prosecution jails people for crimes never committed, based on presumed Muslim predisposition — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 572; Preemptive prosecution domesticates preemptive war by jailing supposed potential terrorists — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 583; Preemptive prosecution is applied to Muslims but not to armed white militias — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 488 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Immigration detention can imprison people who committed no crime #exemplifies (0.90) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 159
• Preemptive prosecution is applied to Muslims but not to armed white militias #expands (0.82) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 488
• People are imprisoned largely because their communities are criminalized, not for crimes #expands (0.78) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 296
• Supervisors can be convicted for enabling crimes they did not commit. #exemplifies (0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 505
• Criminalized communities, not individual acts, determine who ends up imprisoned #expands (0.76)
• Totalitarianism punishes conceivable future crimes rather than committed offenses #contradicts (0.75) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 956
• Criminal punishment patterns lack deterrence or retributive logic #corroborates (0.72) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 710
• A fixed sentence is less maddening than indefinite detention without a charge #expands (0.70)