Some years ago, a group of angry Massachusetts residents decided to raid several American transporters because of perceived socioeconomic inequities and as a result destroyed cargo that today would be valued at around two million dollars. The government’s official reaction was to pass and enforce onerous laws whose sole purpose was to punish the looters, discourage violence against private property, and show the American public who was boss.
Were the violent acts of the looters and protesters in destroying private property morally wrong in and of themselves and was the government right in suppressing the violence to maintain public order and keep private property free from wanton destruction?
The situation described above is the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
