I think "human shields" only works if they're hostages, like holding hostages as a bargaining chip is obviously a crime, whereas if you want to kill someone and you blow up the building they live in and that kills a dozen other people then that's on you, like it's unreasonable to blame someone you want to kill for not relocating to an isolated patch of desert so you can kill them with fewer moral qualms!
Yes, and also,
I feel like if the bank robber takes a hostage, and you as a policeman respond by riddling both the hostage and hostage-taker with bullets, it is kind of bullshit to tell the hostage's wife, "Man, that bank robber sure is a bad person, taking a hostage like that, you should be really angry at him for getting your husband killed."
I think that sort of relies on the implicit part that you have the overwhelming power to take down the robber with zero casualties and zero financial damage. (Police generally do outnumber criminals in this way)
But if the robber was going to cause two or more deaths, surely you'd take the shot rather than risking more deaths and incentivizing hostage taking?
And if you're the policeman in that situation, and the hostage's widow comes to you, weeping and infuriated, I hope you'd have enough sensitivity to respond with something other than,
"Why are you mad at me? You should be mad at him for using a human shield, lady you are morally confused and I think it's absurd that you're holding me to this crazy standard, it's probably because you hate cops".
In terms of optics, sure, its a bad response. It's insensitive.
But it's not really untrue, is it? In this hypothetical, the police have no direct interest in harming the hostage. It's definitely the robber's fault, first and foremost, that the hostage is at risk at all.
We wouldn't expect the traumatized widow to easily understand the utilitarian analysis of incentives. But we, the intellectual elite in the tumblr threads, would know we must either prevent the robbery and hostage taking, or strengthen the police against the robber.
