Alan Turing will be pardoned

**Garbarsardar** · July 20, 2013, 08:37 AM

Alan Turing, the Enigma codebreaker, creator of the first general purpose computer machine and ostensibly the man who saved the UK from starvation during the U-boat blockade, will be pardoned. Maybe.

Turing committed suicide after being chemically castrated, convicted for indecent behaviour.

Ah, yes, he was gay. In 1954, which was, by all accounts, a bad thing.

A number of questions are raised from this pardon.

How about the other people that committed similar "crimes". Do they deserve a pardon?
How about all the other people condemned and oftentitmes hanged for crimes as "stealing bread" even if they were 14 year-olds?
Can pardons re-write history?
Will the establishment that treated Turing this way be condemned in any way?
Would Turing himself agree with this "pardon"? or he would consider his condemnation as a badge of honour?

**SLN445** · July 20, 2013, 08:51 AM

I see nothing wrong with pardoning people of crimes that we now see as false by todays standards, its a way of the Government showing that they were wrong in those particular cases.

**Lazarus** · July 20, 2013, 09:01 AM

I agree and disagree SLN. By all means, they should stand up and admit they were wrong. But don't call it a "pardon" - that actually implies Turing was guilty of something.

**Phier** · July 20, 2013, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by Lazarus

I agree and disagree SLN. By all means, they should stand up and admit they were wrong. But don't call it a "pardon" - that actually implies Turing was guilty of something.

If there is a law saying its illegal to be over six feet tall, and you "break" it by being 6'1", you still broke the law, no matter how stupid it was.

**Big War Bird** · July 20, 2013, 09:49 AM

It's symbolic. It doesn't change history. It doesn't change anything. It's a way for this generation to say, "we are morally superior than previous generations."

**Denny Crane!** · July 20, 2013, 09:52 AM

Its a populist sop. It doesn't change the tragedy. What matters is here and now, and we're doing it right.

**SLN445** · July 20, 2013, 07:41 PM

Originally Posted by Lazarus

I agree and disagree SLN. By all means, they should stand up and admit they were wrong. But don't call it a "pardon" - that actually implies Turing was guilty of something.

Technicaly he was guilty of a crime, even if the law that he broke was a horrificaly bad one.

**TheDarkKnight** · July 20, 2013, 08:11 PM

I have never particularly agreed with anything that involves re-writing history to any degree. Whether it's pardoning someone who is long dead, voting to overturn a decades-old law or other measure that has been defunct but never officially taken off the books (LA City Council recently taking back its support of EO 9066), or the renaming of certain locations to appease crowds, I see it as trying to erase part of the past. It never will, and all it does is create a "feel good" situation that really doesn't mean much.

In this particular case...in a hundred years, do you really think anyone will remember that he was pardoned years after his death? Likely not. All they will remember is that he was deemed a criminal. And that, I feel, is something that always needs to be remembered...The mistakes. If we wash the incidents away by "going back" on decisions made decades before, does it really teach us anything?

That's just my particular opinion.

**Helel** · July 21, 2013, 05:32 AM

Originally Posted by Denny Crane!

Its a populist sop. It doesn't change the tragedy. What matters is here and now, and we're doing it right.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

**Papay** · July 21, 2013, 03:15 PM

Everyone who wants to play it "progressive" finds an event of the past and condemns in. Its quite easy and harmless. And makes you feel "politically correct". Obama has mastered this

**Gaidin** · July 21, 2013, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by Lazarus

I agree and disagree SLN. By all means, they should stand up and admit they were wrong. But don't call it a "pardon" - that actually implies Turing was guilty of something.

You say he was guilty of something if there was a conviction, no matter how inane, for the same reason you can't convict someone for an action, no matter how deplorable, if there was no law against that action when they did it. Thus, you pardon Alan Turing.

**Lazarus** · July 21, 2013, 09:32 PM

Fair enough I suppose... I don't quite like it, but it's better then just letting it sit.

**Col. Tartleton** · July 21, 2013, 10:43 PM

Having gay sex when it was illegal was like smoking marijuana when it was illegal.

Don't do it.

**Sphere** · July 21, 2013, 10:53 PM

As long as it is forbidden for the British Monarch to be Catholic, there will be no royal pardons for sodomites.

**Denny Crane!** · July 22, 2013, 01:28 AM

I protest Sphere.

There have been plenty of Anglican Buggerers.

**basics** · July 22, 2013, 03:14 AM

Originally Posted by Sphere

As long as it is forbidden for the British Monarch to be Catholic, there will be no royal pardons for sodomites.

Sphere,

Look if that man were not a historical hero but just another plain old Joe who happened to be homosexual the subject wouldn't come up at all, so why all this fuss when he did break the law that applied to all at the time?

**Gaidin** · July 22, 2013, 12:06 PM

Why not pardon a hero that was treated like dirt for a less than crappy reason?

**Denny Crane!** · July 22, 2013, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by Gaidin

Why not pardon a hero that was treated like dirt for a less than crappy reason?

Are they going to pardon every other single gay man that was convicted? Otherwise it is just populist BS, even then it still kinda is as I believe all the people convicted are long since dead.

I also don't get the idea that people even care what an insane government did 60 or more years ago. They could make breathing a crime and I'd be a criminal but its a BS law so I wouldn't give a

about getting a pardon. The law is an ass quite a lot so I don't arbitrarily respect the law and the idea of criminality.

**Gaidin** · July 22, 2013, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Denny Crane!

Are they going to pardon every other single gay man that was convicted? Otherwise it is just populist BS, even then it still kinda is as I believe all the people convicted are long since dead.

They still give medals out for actions taken that weren't given due to discriminations of the period. The research he did makes him something of a hero of the same level from a different angle. There's no reason not to pardon him for the exact same reason they still give those medals out.

**Helel** · July 22, 2013, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by Gaidin

They still give medals out for actions taken that weren't given due to discriminations of the period. The research he did makes him something of a hero of the same level from a different angle. There's no reason not to pardon him for the exact same reason they still give those medals out.

Exactly, and there is no reason to give out those medals, either. It's a waste of time and taxpayer dollars, and it's a useless gesture, because, well, they are dead.