Considering the probability that people reported to law enforcement agencies will be killed as a result, and the probability that innocent bystanders will be killed, it may not be all that bad of a choice. The reality is that drug enforcement in America is done by soldiers who have an economic incentive to conduct raids (and almost no punishment for attacking the wrong house or killing the wrong person, or any person for that matter).
I doubt that DPR was weighing these issues if indeed he tried to get someone killed. More likely it was simple self-preservation.
This is a comment that says that trying to have someone killed might not be "that bad of a a choice" if they are trying to report people to law enforcement.
"Law enforcement" does not refer to your friendly neighborhood patrol officers in this context. In the war on drugs, "law enforcement" refers to teams of soldiers who attack civilian homes following these kinds of anonymous tips.
My only point was that we should not immediately assume that reporting SR users to the police is a morally justifiable thing to do, and that the morals of killing someone to protect SR users are not unambiguous. I also said that more likely than not, if DPR tried to order such a hit it was because he was worried about his business, not his customers or the innocent bystanders who might be harmed by police raids.
I'm not sure how our differing opinions about the morality of reporting someone to law enforcement over drug sales is relevant to the question of the justifiability of having someone killed.
Whichever one he meant, he's on thin ground. If he meant "probable" as more likely than not, its facially ridiculous. So I assumed he wasn't being ridiculous and was referring to a small but non zero number, and asked for a cite to what it may be.
Putting scare quotes only makes sense if you think he meant more likely than not, since otherwise he's just saying that whatever probability it is needs consideration (if you're in that situation). Which seems utterly reasonable.
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> Considering the probability that people reported to law enforcement agencies will be killed as a result
I'd love to see a citation for this "probability."
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Those quotes are not about the meaning of the word. They were the reason I assumed he was misunderstanding the (likely, in my opinion) use of the word "probability". (These quotes are about the meaning of the word... :) )
"Does he need to keep considering it until he changes his mind?"
I don't understand where you think I said anything of the sort; I meant only that by using those quotes, rayiner seemed to have taken the original commenter to which he replied to mean it was more probable than not. Apparently other people also believe that it was meant that way, so perhaps I'm completely wrong about how it was meant.
Except that rayiner then suggested he took the word the same way I did, and just wanted the original commenter's citation of a probability figure that wasn't offered in the first place, which means I have no idea what he was suggesting by putting it in quotes.
Clearly I'm failing badly at communicating what I mean and understanding others. :/
"Considering the probability that" could be read to mean "Considering the chance that", since probabilities are the measurement of chance. I believe that it was written to mean that. The idea that reporting people to law enforcement usually means that they will be killed is an uncharitable reading of the sentence, in my opinion.
I doubt that DPR was weighing these issues if indeed he tried to get someone killed. More likely it was simple self-preservation.