Some time ago I was eating coffee yogurt for lunch. Over the radio came a police alert. A young woman had been kidnapped, apparently by a murderer-rapist who had been active recently here in Los Angeles. I continued eating, but feeling uneasy.

Then a follow-up bulletin came on. The young woman had been found in neighboring San Bernardino County. She was unharmed, at least physically, and the offender was in custody. I continued eating, but in a better mood.

And then a correction: The offender had been shot by sheriff’s deputies and was dead at the scene. A deputy sheriff announced, “If you want to kidnap someone, don’t come to our county.” I finished my lunch in a purely ebullient mood. Why?

Wasn’t it enough that the young woman was safe? Wasn’t it sufficient that the murderer-kidnapper was in custody? No, it wasn’t. In Star Wars terminology, there was a great disturbance in the Force. In religious terminology, that a deliberate murderer should be put to death is the only law that is repeated in all of the first five books of the Bible, the Torah.

Yes, I will be pleased if the Maine murderer is captured and can no longer hurt anyone. I will be interested in what drugs, legal or illegal, he is taking, and what voices he is hearing. But I will not be satisfied while he is still eating three meals a day, sleeping in a bed, and enjoying human companionship. I will be satisfied only when he is dead. Only then will the scales of justice be balanced again. Only then will the disturbance in the Force be corrected.

Recall that Lady Justice has a scales in her left hand, but a sword in her right.