I used to teach civics to eighth graders. One of the hardest concepts to get across was why we have due process — why even people accused of terrible crimes get lawyers, trials, and the presumption of innocence.
"Why does the bad guy get a lawyer?" they'd ask. And I'd explain: because someday, someone might wrongly accuse you. And when that day comes, you'll want every protection the law provides.
TerrorByte Offers No Protection
Marcus Rodriguez is dead. Maybe he was a criminal. Maybe he was everything people say he was. But we'll never actually know, because he never got a trial.
TerrorByte executed him based on... what? Evidence that TerrorByte collected? Evidence that TerrorByte evaluated? With no defense attorney, no cross-examination, no jury of peers?
That's not justice. That's one person deciding who lives and dies based on their own judgment.
What If He's Wrong?
Everyone is so sure TerrorByte only targets guilty people. But how do we know?
We know what TerrorByte wants us to know. We see the evidence he chooses to release. How many of his targets were actually innocent? We have no way to know, because dead men can't defend themselves.
The corruption evidence he leaked to federal authorities? It might be real. It might be fabricated. It might be selectively edited. Normal investigations verify these things. TerrorByte just dumps data and kills people.
The Precedent
Here's what terrifies me: we are normalizing extrajudicial killing.
Every time someone says "TerrorByte is a hero," they're saying that anyone with enough power can decide who deserves to live or die. Today it's TerrorByte. Tomorrow it might be someone with different ideas about who the "bad guys" are.
Imagine someone with TerrorByte's capabilities who thinks abortion providers deserve death. Or immigrants. Or people of a certain religion. Or people who criticize the government.
The precedent we're setting isn't "it's okay to kill drug lords." It's "it's okay for powerful individuals to kill whoever they judge guilty."
Due Process Protects Everyone
My students eventually understood: due process isn't about protecting criminals. It's about making sure we don't punish innocent people. It's about creating systems that can't be abused by those in power.
TerrorByte has made himself the most powerful person in Metro City. He answers to no one. And we're cheering.
God help us when he decides we're the bad guys.