In the Town of Salem in Arthur Miller's Crucible, order and freedom are clearly imbalanced in the favor of order. But not just any ordinary order, a chaotic order is established to find truth in a overblown situation. This chaotic order infringes on the rights of the citizens of Salem, depriving them of personal freedom.
The system that is established is based around victim testimony, as Deputy Danforth bases his decisions solely on the opinions of the victims. This makes it difficult for those who do not plead guilty to worshiping the devil, and allows people to be locked up on base claims. One example of this is a woman whose pigs die, and is arrested under cause of witchery because she is thought to have purposely killed them. Another example of this is when Mr. Jacobs is accused of witchery because he is laughing when a fire is ignited in a nearby pile of wood. These claims stole freedom from the individual because they captured innocent civilians and forced them into confession or death.
This was also true during the time of the red scare. As shown in a film that we watched in class, a man is forced into confessing his friends are communists, and he will not do it because he knows that they are not communists.
This mentality can be seen today with police violence. Because there are some guilty cops who should not have the job that they have, doesn't justify the thinking that all cops are bad. In the Eric Garner case and Trayvon Martin case, it was proved that both persons wielding firearms (officer or community watch member) were not qualified to do so. But this does not mean that all cops who are armed will use their firearms to inflict harm upon innocent civilians.
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