The latest murderous Islamist attack in London is the focus of Theodore Dalrymple’s City Journal article. The good doctor discusses the ridiculously lenient British justice system, the pathetic public response to the terror attack, the typical false beliefs about ciminal justice of our so-called intellectuals, and ends with a telling passage from the great G.K. Chesterton.

The first superstition is that terrorists are ill and are both in need of and susceptible to “rehabilitation,” as if there existed some kind of moral physiotherapy that would strengthen their moral fiber, or a psychological vaccine that would immunize them against terrorist inclinations. The second is that, once terrorists have undergone these technical processes or treatments, it can be known for certain that the treatments have worked, and that some means exist to assess whether the terrorists still harbor violent desires and intentions. The third is that there exists a way of monitoring terrorists after their release that will prevent them from carrying out attacks, should they somehow slip through the net.