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Mississippi Burning Ethical Analysis

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Mississippi Burning is a film directed by Alan Parker that is a dramatization of the Ku Klux Klan 's murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. In order to apprehend the criminals the FBI take on unethical behaviour, this film makes you ponder on a particular philosophy; does the end justify the means? I believe that the end does not justify the means as there is no justification for unethical or immoral behaviour no matter what the end result may be. When Anderson is desperate to solve the case he takes on an unethical approach and uses an operative, by taking this approach Anderson makes it so that he is no better than the other criminals in Mississippi. This method of obtaining information by using coercion proves to be effective as he is able to gather valuable …show more content…

Actions have consequences, in the film the actions of the FBI are done with good intention but they lead to the African American community experiencing immense suffering. The FBI visits the African American community in order to gather information to help their case, soon after the community is attacked by the KKK which causes the deaths of many, and leaves many of the buildings burnt down. This is another example where the end does not justify the means as many innocent people are killed for no reason other than being associated with the FBI. This is outrageous because the FBI did not consider the consequences that could come from there actions and in result many people were killed with their homes being taken away. The FBI have a job to apprehend criminals and protect the people, although they were able to take the criminals into custody they inflicted as much pain on the innocent civilians as the culprits did. Anderson is a prime example of someone with the philosophy that the end does justify the means while Ward is the

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