If Democrats in general, and President Biden in particular, don’t take this opportunity to show real leadership on the crime issue, they could be in a world of hurt in next year’s election…
No one stops at stop signs any more but I never see a traffic cop make a stop. I finally pulled a cop over to ask him what the heck? He explained that they had to prioritize guarding schools. The world is still round and everything is connected. We could hire more police. We could hire better police. We could also elect Representatives that would vote to tax the rich to pay for it. Speaking of, if we in Washington state vote for an income tax could we get Bill Gates to pay a fair share? Bezos has already moved to Florida. Greedy bastard.
Hot off the press Mary: Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, recently issued a scathing statement about the shameful state of the United States economy. On October 31, 2023, De Schutter called out several top private employers in the U.S., Amazon, Walmart, and DoorDash, for trapping their workers in a cycle of poverty.
He said, “Jobs are supposed to provide a pathway out of poverty, yet in all three companies the business model seems to be to shift operating costs onto the public by relying on government benefits to supplement miserably low wages.”
In a related letter to the U.S. government, De Schutter wrote, “Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the United States has a high rate of poverty among workers.”
Not so sure that is what they do Daniel, maybe different in Baghdad by the sea.. A company that sells traffic cameras, which are placed at intersections to catch people running red lights, sold the city of Redmond, WA on them, claiming that they would increase revenue. They did, for the company, not the city. There was an outcry and the city removed them. Not an expert, but don't think that cameras are set up to catch speeders.
Roads,especially hiways are long stretches and speeding on one stretch is not speeding on the whole stretch. It is usually a radar gun, which causes testicular cancer as cops hold it between their legs, when not in use, or following and clocking are how they catch most speeders.
One reason that crime rates dropped in DC when I lived there, was most of the city was covered. I can testify how effective cameras for speeding were in DC and MD.
Mr. Solomon. When I was young the freeway overpasses in my home town had automated cameras and radar antennas on them, over 60 years ago. They were helpful for traffic police then. With modern technology they can be much better. Civil Libertarians might say dangerously better. Perhaps they just might have a point, besides the one on top of Senator Rand Paul's head.
Thanks Daniel. I believe you. I just don't see how camera's can catch speeders. Right light runners maybe, but not speeders. They must have a speed recorder, and a time stamp on the camera
Thanks for the link and education. I still can't grasp the technology, but I still can't get a hand on cell phones either, so my bad.
By the way. I just found out why Democrat Presley lost in the governors race in Mississippi
The one significant loss Tuesday was the Mississippi Governor race Presley made a HUGE tactical mistake in my opinion. He ran as a pro-life Democrat meaning all those suburban women who are stampeding to the Democrats in other states had no reason to do so for Presley in Mississippi. In fact, Presley did WORSE in a couple suburban counties than the Democrats did four years ago. Presley blew this race against a totally unethical, flawed, and beatable Republican incumbent in Tate Reeves.
Moms for Liberty got pasted in most of the races they ran candidates in Tuesday. In one county both their candidates failed to reach double digits in turnout percentage. That is truly pathetic. How is it Liberty to tell OTHER parents what their children cannot be exposed to in schools? Total hypocrisy.
Now I am wondering if other Democrats in Red states or counties are paying attention. I suspect not, as usual the Democrats pay attention to the wrong issues, and have the wrong priorities. I hate to have to vote for losers, but I have no choice, Had no choice in 2016, and 2020 either, it seems the Democrats thought that all they had to do was run as an Anti Trumper, and now on Rahm Emanuels bull shit, that "it's the economy stupid"
Maybe the economy for the 10% but not for the rest of us, or the 40% of the 90% who don't care about anything except their familial and social dominance (i.e. the culture war).
They're very good at catching the light and stop runners. My husband got a ticket for running a red light while he was in intensive care. I, of course, would not have done such a thing. He paid the ticket.
Good comment Mary. You must live on the west side of the Cascades, as do I.
Bezo's when starting out, bought a resort with a marina, near the ferry landing on San Juan Island Mariella's was it's name. Paul Allen bought the Sperry Peninsula on Lopez Island, Bill Gates Sr bought a good chunk of Shaw Island from the nuns who own the Island.
Bezos, sold it when he became a billionaire, maybe sooner, Paul Allen sold it before he died.
Ms. Bardness. In my neighborhood I always make the assumption while driving toward an intersection that another car will blow the stop sign at right angles to me and roar through the intersection. So I always slow down almost to zero before crossing the intersection. I do this because almost every time I drive here I see someone blow a stop sign, and occasionally a red light. I thought I was just getting grumpy about driving. It is nice to see I have a sister of the road. Incidentally I have met people who live in Washington and work in Oregon. I'm sure you know the reason: taxes. My surgeon, who undoubtedly makes much dinero annually in Oregon, moved his address across the Columbia but still maintains an office in Oregon. Taxes.
What happened to our sense of responsibility? Or is this morally acceptable? Still. I like the guy. He is competent, affable and charming as hell.
So . . . the rich can armor their limos, hire weaponized guards, shelter their vast wealth in the tropics, travel aboard luxo-yachts, moor at safer enclaves, build bomb shelters out of derelict ex-atomic missile silos on the Plains, gate their communities, and fly to other planets someday.
Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Hispanic meat packers (at the start of the Trump-Flu) in 2020, not only had to work in charnel houses, they had to, on occasion, up and die. Thereby providing a source of gambling and amusement for White management's lottery-of-death (who'd die next? Jose or Pepe?) and on-site, racialized entertainment.
"Stopping pedestrians who appear to be up to no good doesn’t mean harassing minorities for the pure fun of it."
With all due respect, Thom, that is a slippery slope that appears to be a distinction without a difference. How would one define "appear to be up to no good?" Not, at all, being flippant, but there are many in the United States (possibly most, especially European-Americans) that think that my "appearance" is "no good" in and of itself. My "appearance" causes them to make certain judgements; be they valid or invalid. You know me fairly well as an intellectual do you, honestly, think that the average person would have a clue just by looking at me? Looking like one is "up to no good" is not PeeCee (probable cause).
While I was in the police academy, almost every mock call (and even the actual ones in field training) was of a "black male." I am deeply concerned about the country being "blackmailed." Since I am a non-partisan, I am unsure if this article might be misinterpreted as Democrats should look more like Republicans, in this limited aspect.
Thank you for being such a great inspiration to me as a writer and thinker.
Good to hear your words again, Kenyatta - it's been a bit, at least for me.
I hold Thom in the absolute highest regard as a humanitarian and an unrivaled source of wisdom, facts, and the tenacity needed to educate so many on that which is so imperative.
Today's piece didn't hit home with me and I've been trying to find productive words, if any at all in response. So thank you for assembling my thoughts precisely - in a manner far better than I could have:
"I am unsure if this article might be misinterpreted as Democrats should look more like Republicans, in this limited aspect".
To be frank, I am uneasy with the concessions made as of late, and I believe this political maneuvering is very dangerous. I understand the strategy and the dire circumstances it is derived from - I won't get into details for various reasons - but at what point in the pursuit of political gain does one simply become the very thing they have rallied so hard against?
These seem like impossible times, but I know we'll find a way. And I'm always grateful to have Thom as a guiding light.
Wish you the best, Kenyatta. Glad to have your writing here.
That is one of the greatest comments, compliments and thoughts I have ever received. The fear of Trump has compromised an already compromised system. And, as you so precisely stated, "I won't get into details for various reasons.
Mr Kenyatta. I grew up in Detroit. The police department back then was almost all White. "Stop and frisk" meant harass Black citizens. It would be only slightly different today. At Wayne State University, which I graduated from, there were studies that indicated even Black police officers were more likely to suspect, stop, frisk, or strike a Black Man than they would a White Man. A similar phenomenon was found when one looked at both Black and White school teachers in their classroom work. Regardless of the race of the teacher they were more likely to call on White students for participation than black students. In both institutional settings the norms were determined by the dominant cultures.
Mr. Dobbertin...wow. Where might I begin? My first wife was from Dee-Twa. Shortly after our marriage, I was assigned an engagement in Novi. We lived in Southfield at Evergreen and Eight mile. She (7 years my senior) grew up near Fort and Schaefer (not far from the Fleetwood plant). I actually interviewed brothers that had dealings with S.T.R.E.S.S.
Rather than leave an elongated missive, I humbly suggest you check this out (infra) and thank you for such an honest statement of fact.
Mr.Kenyatta. Not many people know the French pronunciation or meaning of detroit.
I see you do. I lived four years in the triangle formed by Eight Mile, Greenfield and James Couzens. Across the highway from Northland. I also lived a few years one block away from Cass on Forest near Wayne's campus. I worked at Harper and attended Wayne. I also lived for a few years one block off East Jefferson on Montclair a half block from the river when I was a Social Worker for Wayne County. I was there when the city blew up in 1967. That was when I came to realize at a gut level, the true function of police in society, a double-edged sword. They were at their worst during that civil insurrection. They turned Belle Isl. into an outdoor concentration camp filled with thousands of Black men and boys.
More cops means more municipal funds which means less funds for education, health care and housing. I also have yet to see the "good cops" that you are referring to as more policing has no correlation with decreases in crime. Next you'll be saying Eric Adams use of "Stop and Frisk" at a rate equal to that of Rudy Guliani is different because it's a "good" stop and frisk, or that Biden's announcement of "funding the police" by adding "100,000 officers" to a militarized and unaccountable police force is progressive policy. The only answers to crime are enhanced social safety nets and a reduction in wealth inequality, and Biden's policies do nothing substantial regarding either of these. Love to see the nation's "top progressive talker" talking up more policing, can't wait to hear about his humanitarian Gaza policy.
Crime in society is one of the thorniest topics to address. It is full of extremely emotional pitfalls and when one looks into the statistics there is a virtual blizzard of numbers which can seemingly support any particular point of view, paradigm, or theory.
Paradoxes abound. Firearm homicide rates in the US are so high as to almost be in a class by themselves when compared to other developed nations. Yet overall crime rates in the US have been on a downward slide for the last 30 years, at least. We have the highest rate of incarceration in jails and prisons in the world. Yet I have constantly heard about the problem of high crime rates in the US all my life ( I am 81). Don't prisons help? Furthermore, crime has steadily declined , with oscillations up and down, since colonial times. For many years one crime annually took more wealth from the American public than all of the other crimes listed in the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) of the FBI put together; yet there was no public outcry about this crime. None. Paradoxes.
Mr. Hartman you have made some good points and suggested some good programs. However I cannot help but hear a powerful echo of the same common claims I have listened to all my life. Your comments are perhaps among the least misleading or offensive. I know from following your thoughtful blog that your intentions are always to help the community. I would not so frequently read your comments if I thought otherwise. But here they suffer from the same disorganized, occasionally foggy thinking inherited from the past. You seem to be lost in that blizzard of statistical numbers and you fail to begin with first principles, a not uncommon fist step.
First: Crimes must not be equated with acts that harm the community. Conversely acts that harm the community must not be equated with crimes. A crime is an act which violates a legal statute. A statute that prohibits that act. Legal statutes are created by legislators. Do legislators cause crime? Some legally proscribed acts do not harm the community. As an extreme example: I lived in a community in Michigan which had a criminal ordinance against spitting on the sidewalk. It was enacted as a mechanism to arrest Native Chippewa Americans and was almost exclusively used against them. However, when I looked at the pollution pouring into the air and water coming from steel and pharmaceutical factories as my children were growing up; it aggrieved me that no corporate CEOs were indicted for a crime. There was no crime with which to indict them. Factory pollution was not a crime even though it was harmful to the community. Another, more familiar example is the Volsted Act of 1919. It took effect in 1920 when alcoholic consumption was outlawed nationwide by the 18th Amendment. The Act was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment. Booze was a crime for 13 years, then not a crime again. Voila. The Volsted Act was the brainchild of rural fundamentalist women who successfully organized politically to force an unwanted criminal law on a booze-drinking public. My maternal Grandmother Martha Belle was active in the movement. Of course, the Mafia loved the law. It made them millions of dollars for 13 consecutive years until our legislators finally caught on. These two examples, spitting and booze should not be viewed as isolated examples, unrelated to all our institutions. It might be better to view them as metaphorical weather vanes, pointing us in the correct direction.
Secondly: We must ask why some people CHOOSE to violate a criminal statute. There must be reasons and we should be able to identify them. Looking for those reasons will help us more than accepting the old myth that police prevent crime. They do not. They chase criminals after the crime has been committed. Anyone who believes police act as a deterrent simply does not understand that there exist some among us who are willing to risk being caught and/or are not afraid of the police, prosecutors, and prisons. Attempting to deter these people by increasing police numbers is like whistling Dixie. There are, of course those among us who are deterred by police, prosecutors and prisons. What is more important; the vast majority simply do not CHOOSE to violate criminal statutes, most of the time. Why and how are these choices made? Under what conditions should we expect them to be made? What choices are people likely to select and act on?
Third: In any society with a sizable number of people who have very little stake in the community we should not be surprised if they violate community norms; whether these are formalized norms like criminal statutes or informal norms like trends and styles in music, language and clothes., etc. This is especially likely if these people feel as though the community offers little opportunity or reward for them to engage in "proper" normative behavior. If there are institutions in society which actually encourage and reward individuals to reap benefit from loss and harm to others in the community; we should not be surprised when some people take advantage of others, whether legal or illegal, even if the game seems to be obviously rigged and biassed.
Fourth: Look around you! What do you see?
A short note on past theories which purport to explain crime: Many theories of a ridiculous, outrageous, hateful nature are to be found in countless research and general, publications.
1)Its in our "genes" A biological-reductionist non-answer, which makes it easy to dismiss social
realities. All too often Whites claim that Blacks are genetically predisposed toward crime.
2) Lack of religion: Which means lack of MY religion.
3) Child rearing: Which means lack of MY child rearing techniques, usually middle-class-White.
4) Mental illness: Another bio-reductionist non-answer. If somebody is suffering a mental "disease"
which determines their behavior and renders them incapable of knowing the difference between
lawful and unlawful; or if the "disease" renders them incapable of controlling their behavior, these
people are sick but not criminal because they lack intent, Mens Rea. Furthermore, an extremely
small group of "criminals" falls in this category.
5) A simple statistical correlation between two clearly unrelated variables often substitutes for
explanation. The most recent ludicrous example is the claim that lead in our water causes crime.
Why not Chlorine? Bromine? also in our water..... Ridiculous.
Let us follow the weathervane!
I suggest starting with Differential Association Theory which is, in turn, based upon underlying Symbolic Interactionist Theory. It is incomplete, but a beginning.
Flogging the minor offenders and wiping their records clean while throwing the key away for the incorrigible in self supporting penal colonies who show no sign of having a conscience. It isn't perfect, but very few things are. Kids wouldn't want to grow up to be gang members. Right now many think that it is cool and macho to lie steal and cheat. Dividing the pie up more fairly and making sure all of the citizens needs are met their entire lives would really put a damper on crime.
Just my observation but the main crime problem in Portland - Seattle -- San Francisco -- can be traced to Alaska. Nothing like in anywhere else. Many Alaskans are nomads, snowbirds live on the street in the lower 48... In the summer, I bet rates fall.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Alaska
Still, despite the fact that many residents are snowbirds, Alaska has the second highest crime rate in the US, with 837.8 incidents per 100,000 people, totaling 6,126 crime incidents.
My ol' Pappy was a DA and prosecuted anyone that the police arrested, provided the cases made it past a preliminary hearing and a grand jury. Spitting on the sidewalk is not a felony. Would end at the preliminary hearing stage. If laws are on the books, it's not up to the cops or the prosecutors or even the judges to object.
Down here in Baghdad By the Sea, many of the homeless need a social worker and a lawyer, because they are nutsy koo koo, eligible for benefits and but for that Reagan elimination of mental health treatment centers would not be on the street. Guardianship is the best result that can happen for most of them.
Meanwhile, the communities involved are leaving money on the table. Besides SSI, HUD vouchers, VA benefits, TANF and other government benefits, mucho dinero would circulate into the local economy.
Mr. Solomon. Why am I not surprised that crime rates are 23% higher in red states? That is congruent with my theme.
It has been known for several decades that some cities on the West coast are Rest and Recuperation Havens for Prostitutes and street criminals. eg. Portland is an R&R for Seattle and Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now, from what you are saying, maybe we can add Alaska as a source of emigration to the Haven, at least during Alaska's brutal Winter.
I don't know if you are familiar with Wonderfully Weird Portland. But it is the most livable city I have been in.....after Manhattan if one ignores the financial cost of New York.
Self-supporting prisons and poor farms are the answers. It is way too expensive to incarcerate the millions of lives that capitalism, Reaganomics, religion and the family unit has destroyed. Bring the textile plants back and put these incorrigible types to work. Reaganomics has caused this great gap between the rich and the poor and the liberals will get blamed for it as well. We need to fix another right wing caused problem. Shipping containers makes very good homes for homeless people. Shipping containers can be coated with elastomysteric to keep them cooler in the summer.
They don't burn down and bugs don't crawl through the walls. The self supporting prisons and poor farms need to be built cheaply and to last over 100 years. Penal colonies for life because prisons do not work, on repeat offenders. It is not affordable to build all the poor people new houses and all the police we need.
Mr. Johnson. the US is the richest nation in history. If Nicaragua, the second poorest nation in the Americas can house all its people why can't the U.S. do it? if the Scandinavian nations do it, why can't we? When I was teaching I had students from Norway and Finland. They did not understand how the U.S. could tolerate homelessness.
As for self supporting "prisons and poor farms," there is evidence from Mexico that self supporting penal communities work better than our prison system. Mexico also has a criminal justice system which emphasizes remuneration, recompense for victims over punishment in cases of property crime. This is something we should learn from them. It is a shame many Americans look so disdainfully at Mexico that the only thing Americans like about Mexico is their generous, civilized hospitality as Americans vacation on the sunny beaches there.
Russia has used self supporting penal colonies for generations. But anticommunist hysteria in the U.S. and Cold War rhetoric has clouded our understanding of these institutions.
The American prison system is composed of crime-factories which Reagan and Clinton et al. did not outsource to Mexico, China, South Korea , Singapore, Malaysia, India , Philippines and Vietnam.
No one stops at stop signs any more but I never see a traffic cop make a stop. I finally pulled a cop over to ask him what the heck? He explained that they had to prioritize guarding schools. The world is still round and everything is connected. We could hire more police. We could hire better police. We could also elect Representatives that would vote to tax the rich to pay for it. Speaking of, if we in Washington state vote for an income tax could we get Bill Gates to pay a fair share? Bezos has already moved to Florida. Greedy bastard.
Hot off the press Mary: Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, recently issued a scathing statement about the shameful state of the United States economy. On October 31, 2023, De Schutter called out several top private employers in the U.S., Amazon, Walmart, and DoorDash, for trapping their workers in a cycle of poverty.
He said, “Jobs are supposed to provide a pathway out of poverty, yet in all three companies the business model seems to be to shift operating costs onto the public by relying on government benefits to supplement miserably low wages.”
In a related letter to the U.S. government, De Schutter wrote, “Despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the United States has a high rate of poverty among workers.”
https://go.ind.media/webmail/546932/1388427163/d2819d7f2b1d5117675e58fe896a56502827c4bbc83cc934e316d611346c885d
Thank you. I'll read this.
Police cameras catch them. Catch speeders.
Not so sure that is what they do Daniel, maybe different in Baghdad by the sea.. A company that sells traffic cameras, which are placed at intersections to catch people running red lights, sold the city of Redmond, WA on them, claiming that they would increase revenue. They did, for the company, not the city. There was an outcry and the city removed them. Not an expert, but don't think that cameras are set up to catch speeders.
Roads,especially hiways are long stretches and speeding on one stretch is not speeding on the whole stretch. It is usually a radar gun, which causes testicular cancer as cops hold it between their legs, when not in use, or following and clocking are how they catch most speeders.
One reason that crime rates dropped in DC when I lived there, was most of the city was covered. I can testify how effective cameras for speeding were in DC and MD.
Mr. Solomon. When I was young the freeway overpasses in my home town had automated cameras and radar antennas on them, over 60 years ago. They were helpful for traffic police then. With modern technology they can be much better. Civil Libertarians might say dangerously better. Perhaps they just might have a point, besides the one on top of Senator Rand Paul's head.
Thanks Daniel. I believe you. I just don't see how camera's can catch speeders. Right light runners maybe, but not speeders. They must have a speed recorder, and a time stamp on the camera
https://ddot.dc.gov/page/dc-streetsafe-automated-speed-enforcement
Thanks for the link and education. I still can't grasp the technology, but I still can't get a hand on cell phones either, so my bad.
By the way. I just found out why Democrat Presley lost in the governors race in Mississippi
The one significant loss Tuesday was the Mississippi Governor race Presley made a HUGE tactical mistake in my opinion. He ran as a pro-life Democrat meaning all those suburban women who are stampeding to the Democrats in other states had no reason to do so for Presley in Mississippi. In fact, Presley did WORSE in a couple suburban counties than the Democrats did four years ago. Presley blew this race against a totally unethical, flawed, and beatable Republican incumbent in Tate Reeves.
Moms for Liberty got pasted in most of the races they ran candidates in Tuesday. In one county both their candidates failed to reach double digits in turnout percentage. That is truly pathetic. How is it Liberty to tell OTHER parents what their children cannot be exposed to in schools? Total hypocrisy.
Now I am wondering if other Democrats in Red states or counties are paying attention. I suspect not, as usual the Democrats pay attention to the wrong issues, and have the wrong priorities. I hate to have to vote for losers, but I have no choice, Had no choice in 2016, and 2020 either, it seems the Democrats thought that all they had to do was run as an Anti Trumper, and now on Rahm Emanuels bull shit, that "it's the economy stupid"
Maybe the economy for the 10% but not for the rest of us, or the 40% of the 90% who don't care about anything except their familial and social dominance (i.e. the culture war).
I want it.
They're very good at catching the light and stop runners. My husband got a ticket for running a red light while he was in intensive care. I, of course, would not have done such a thing. He paid the ticket.
Good comment Mary. You must live on the west side of the Cascades, as do I.
Bezo's when starting out, bought a resort with a marina, near the ferry landing on San Juan Island Mariella's was it's name. Paul Allen bought the Sperry Peninsula on Lopez Island, Bill Gates Sr bought a good chunk of Shaw Island from the nuns who own the Island.
Bezos, sold it when he became a billionaire, maybe sooner, Paul Allen sold it before he died.
Bill Gates Sr died in Sept 2020.
Ms. Bardness. In my neighborhood I always make the assumption while driving toward an intersection that another car will blow the stop sign at right angles to me and roar through the intersection. So I always slow down almost to zero before crossing the intersection. I do this because almost every time I drive here I see someone blow a stop sign, and occasionally a red light. I thought I was just getting grumpy about driving. It is nice to see I have a sister of the road. Incidentally I have met people who live in Washington and work in Oregon. I'm sure you know the reason: taxes. My surgeon, who undoubtedly makes much dinero annually in Oregon, moved his address across the Columbia but still maintains an office in Oregon. Taxes.
What happened to our sense of responsibility? Or is this morally acceptable? Still. I like the guy. He is competent, affable and charming as hell.
So . . . the rich can armor their limos, hire weaponized guards, shelter their vast wealth in the tropics, travel aboard luxo-yachts, moor at safer enclaves, build bomb shelters out of derelict ex-atomic missile silos on the Plains, gate their communities, and fly to other planets someday.
Meanwhile, in the Midwest, Hispanic meat packers (at the start of the Trump-Flu) in 2020, not only had to work in charnel houses, they had to, on occasion, up and die. Thereby providing a source of gambling and amusement for White management's lottery-of-death (who'd die next? Jose or Pepe?) and on-site, racialized entertainment.
What we have here is an Abomi-Nation.
Civil law to the rescue. Get a lawyer.
Depending on state sovereign immunity statutes, police departments and municipalities can be sued for negligence or failing to investigate.
That meat packer example reminds that OSHA and DOJ have concurrent jurisdiction, and state laws also apply. The victims can sue civilly.
All very true: But such a lawyerly remedy altogether "misses" the point.
Telling a gunshot victim that they can, "Get a Doctor" facilely glosses over the fact that . . .
They should Not have been shot in the first place.
Once sued for negligence or the threat of criminal sanctions, required them to do better policing.
"Stopping pedestrians who appear to be up to no good doesn’t mean harassing minorities for the pure fun of it."
With all due respect, Thom, that is a slippery slope that appears to be a distinction without a difference. How would one define "appear to be up to no good?" Not, at all, being flippant, but there are many in the United States (possibly most, especially European-Americans) that think that my "appearance" is "no good" in and of itself. My "appearance" causes them to make certain judgements; be they valid or invalid. You know me fairly well as an intellectual do you, honestly, think that the average person would have a clue just by looking at me? Looking like one is "up to no good" is not PeeCee (probable cause).
While I was in the police academy, almost every mock call (and even the actual ones in field training) was of a "black male." I am deeply concerned about the country being "blackmailed." Since I am a non-partisan, I am unsure if this article might be misinterpreted as Democrats should look more like Republicans, in this limited aspect.
Thank you for being such a great inspiration to me as a writer and thinker.
Good to hear your words again, Kenyatta - it's been a bit, at least for me.
I hold Thom in the absolute highest regard as a humanitarian and an unrivaled source of wisdom, facts, and the tenacity needed to educate so many on that which is so imperative.
Today's piece didn't hit home with me and I've been trying to find productive words, if any at all in response. So thank you for assembling my thoughts precisely - in a manner far better than I could have:
"I am unsure if this article might be misinterpreted as Democrats should look more like Republicans, in this limited aspect".
To be frank, I am uneasy with the concessions made as of late, and I believe this political maneuvering is very dangerous. I understand the strategy and the dire circumstances it is derived from - I won't get into details for various reasons - but at what point in the pursuit of political gain does one simply become the very thing they have rallied so hard against?
These seem like impossible times, but I know we'll find a way. And I'm always grateful to have Thom as a guiding light.
Wish you the best, Kenyatta. Glad to have your writing here.
That is one of the greatest comments, compliments and thoughts I have ever received. The fear of Trump has compromised an already compromised system. And, as you so precisely stated, "I won't get into details for various reasons.
Thank you, Brother John.
Mr Kenyatta. I grew up in Detroit. The police department back then was almost all White. "Stop and frisk" meant harass Black citizens. It would be only slightly different today. At Wayne State University, which I graduated from, there were studies that indicated even Black police officers were more likely to suspect, stop, frisk, or strike a Black Man than they would a White Man. A similar phenomenon was found when one looked at both Black and White school teachers in their classroom work. Regardless of the race of the teacher they were more likely to call on White students for participation than black students. In both institutional settings the norms were determined by the dominant cultures.
Mr. Dobbertin...wow. Where might I begin? My first wife was from Dee-Twa. Shortly after our marriage, I was assigned an engagement in Novi. We lived in Southfield at Evergreen and Eight mile. She (7 years my senior) grew up near Fort and Schaefer (not far from the Fleetwood plant). I actually interviewed brothers that had dealings with S.T.R.E.S.S.
Rather than leave an elongated missive, I humbly suggest you check this out (infra) and thank you for such an honest statement of fact.
https://rohnkenyatta.substack.com/p/copxtortion
https://rohnkenyatta.substack.com/p/inherent-sadism-of-american-policethe
Mr.Kenyatta. Not many people know the French pronunciation or meaning of detroit.
I see you do. I lived four years in the triangle formed by Eight Mile, Greenfield and James Couzens. Across the highway from Northland. I also lived a few years one block away from Cass on Forest near Wayne's campus. I worked at Harper and attended Wayne. I also lived for a few years one block off East Jefferson on Montclair a half block from the river when I was a Social Worker for Wayne County. I was there when the city blew up in 1967. That was when I came to realize at a gut level, the true function of police in society, a double-edged sword. They were at their worst during that civil insurrection. They turned Belle Isl. into an outdoor concentration camp filled with thousands of Black men and boys.
I read your paragraphs. Thanx.
Please join Threads. I can’t support Elon!
More cops means more municipal funds which means less funds for education, health care and housing. I also have yet to see the "good cops" that you are referring to as more policing has no correlation with decreases in crime. Next you'll be saying Eric Adams use of "Stop and Frisk" at a rate equal to that of Rudy Guliani is different because it's a "good" stop and frisk, or that Biden's announcement of "funding the police" by adding "100,000 officers" to a militarized and unaccountable police force is progressive policy. The only answers to crime are enhanced social safety nets and a reduction in wealth inequality, and Biden's policies do nothing substantial regarding either of these. Love to see the nation's "top progressive talker" talking up more policing, can't wait to hear about his humanitarian Gaza policy.
Dr. Kaufman. Well put.
Not a zero sum game. In many municipalities the most valued employee is the grant writer.
Not all cops are the same. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/police-program-evaluation
Some departments are inferior and should be brought to a higher standard. https://portal.cops.usdoj.gov/resourcecenter/ric/Publications/cops-p129-pub.pdf
Crime in society is one of the thorniest topics to address. It is full of extremely emotional pitfalls and when one looks into the statistics there is a virtual blizzard of numbers which can seemingly support any particular point of view, paradigm, or theory.
Paradoxes abound. Firearm homicide rates in the US are so high as to almost be in a class by themselves when compared to other developed nations. Yet overall crime rates in the US have been on a downward slide for the last 30 years, at least. We have the highest rate of incarceration in jails and prisons in the world. Yet I have constantly heard about the problem of high crime rates in the US all my life ( I am 81). Don't prisons help? Furthermore, crime has steadily declined , with oscillations up and down, since colonial times. For many years one crime annually took more wealth from the American public than all of the other crimes listed in the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) of the FBI put together; yet there was no public outcry about this crime. None. Paradoxes.
Mr. Hartman you have made some good points and suggested some good programs. However I cannot help but hear a powerful echo of the same common claims I have listened to all my life. Your comments are perhaps among the least misleading or offensive. I know from following your thoughtful blog that your intentions are always to help the community. I would not so frequently read your comments if I thought otherwise. But here they suffer from the same disorganized, occasionally foggy thinking inherited from the past. You seem to be lost in that blizzard of statistical numbers and you fail to begin with first principles, a not uncommon fist step.
First: Crimes must not be equated with acts that harm the community. Conversely acts that harm the community must not be equated with crimes. A crime is an act which violates a legal statute. A statute that prohibits that act. Legal statutes are created by legislators. Do legislators cause crime? Some legally proscribed acts do not harm the community. As an extreme example: I lived in a community in Michigan which had a criminal ordinance against spitting on the sidewalk. It was enacted as a mechanism to arrest Native Chippewa Americans and was almost exclusively used against them. However, when I looked at the pollution pouring into the air and water coming from steel and pharmaceutical factories as my children were growing up; it aggrieved me that no corporate CEOs were indicted for a crime. There was no crime with which to indict them. Factory pollution was not a crime even though it was harmful to the community. Another, more familiar example is the Volsted Act of 1919. It took effect in 1920 when alcoholic consumption was outlawed nationwide by the 18th Amendment. The Act was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment. Booze was a crime for 13 years, then not a crime again. Voila. The Volsted Act was the brainchild of rural fundamentalist women who successfully organized politically to force an unwanted criminal law on a booze-drinking public. My maternal Grandmother Martha Belle was active in the movement. Of course, the Mafia loved the law. It made them millions of dollars for 13 consecutive years until our legislators finally caught on. These two examples, spitting and booze should not be viewed as isolated examples, unrelated to all our institutions. It might be better to view them as metaphorical weather vanes, pointing us in the correct direction.
Secondly: We must ask why some people CHOOSE to violate a criminal statute. There must be reasons and we should be able to identify them. Looking for those reasons will help us more than accepting the old myth that police prevent crime. They do not. They chase criminals after the crime has been committed. Anyone who believes police act as a deterrent simply does not understand that there exist some among us who are willing to risk being caught and/or are not afraid of the police, prosecutors, and prisons. Attempting to deter these people by increasing police numbers is like whistling Dixie. There are, of course those among us who are deterred by police, prosecutors and prisons. What is more important; the vast majority simply do not CHOOSE to violate criminal statutes, most of the time. Why and how are these choices made? Under what conditions should we expect them to be made? What choices are people likely to select and act on?
Third: In any society with a sizable number of people who have very little stake in the community we should not be surprised if they violate community norms; whether these are formalized norms like criminal statutes or informal norms like trends and styles in music, language and clothes., etc. This is especially likely if these people feel as though the community offers little opportunity or reward for them to engage in "proper" normative behavior. If there are institutions in society which actually encourage and reward individuals to reap benefit from loss and harm to others in the community; we should not be surprised when some people take advantage of others, whether legal or illegal, even if the game seems to be obviously rigged and biassed.
Fourth: Look around you! What do you see?
A short note on past theories which purport to explain crime: Many theories of a ridiculous, outrageous, hateful nature are to be found in countless research and general, publications.
1)Its in our "genes" A biological-reductionist non-answer, which makes it easy to dismiss social
realities. All too often Whites claim that Blacks are genetically predisposed toward crime.
2) Lack of religion: Which means lack of MY religion.
3) Child rearing: Which means lack of MY child rearing techniques, usually middle-class-White.
4) Mental illness: Another bio-reductionist non-answer. If somebody is suffering a mental "disease"
which determines their behavior and renders them incapable of knowing the difference between
lawful and unlawful; or if the "disease" renders them incapable of controlling their behavior, these
people are sick but not criminal because they lack intent, Mens Rea. Furthermore, an extremely
small group of "criminals" falls in this category.
5) A simple statistical correlation between two clearly unrelated variables often substitutes for
explanation. The most recent ludicrous example is the claim that lead in our water causes crime.
Why not Chlorine? Bromine? also in our water..... Ridiculous.
Let us follow the weathervane!
I suggest starting with Differential Association Theory which is, in turn, based upon underlying Symbolic Interactionist Theory. It is incomplete, but a beginning.
Flogging the minor offenders and wiping their records clean while throwing the key away for the incorrigible in self supporting penal colonies who show no sign of having a conscience. It isn't perfect, but very few things are. Kids wouldn't want to grow up to be gang members. Right now many think that it is cool and macho to lie steal and cheat. Dividing the pie up more fairly and making sure all of the citizens needs are met their entire lives would really put a damper on crime.
M. Johnon. I agree most heartily with your last sentence.
Nationally, violent crime fell by 1.7% in 2021 after growing by 4.6% in 2020. Property crime fell for the second year in a row in 2021 by 4.5%. https://usafacts.org/state-of-the-union/crime-justice/
Just my observation but the main crime problem in Portland - Seattle -- San Francisco -- can be traced to Alaska. Nothing like in anywhere else. Many Alaskans are nomads, snowbirds live on the street in the lower 48... In the summer, I bet rates fall.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Alaska
Still, despite the fact that many residents are snowbirds, Alaska has the second highest crime rate in the US, with 837.8 incidents per 100,000 people, totaling 6,126 crime incidents.
Over the past 21 years, the per capita Red State murder rate was 23% higher than the Blue State murder rate when all 21 years were combined. https://www.axios.com/2023/01/27/murder-rate-high-trump-republican-states
My ol' Pappy was a DA and prosecuted anyone that the police arrested, provided the cases made it past a preliminary hearing and a grand jury. Spitting on the sidewalk is not a felony. Would end at the preliminary hearing stage. If laws are on the books, it's not up to the cops or the prosecutors or even the judges to object.
Down here in Baghdad By the Sea, many of the homeless need a social worker and a lawyer, because they are nutsy koo koo, eligible for benefits and but for that Reagan elimination of mental health treatment centers would not be on the street. Guardianship is the best result that can happen for most of them.
Meanwhile, the communities involved are leaving money on the table. Besides SSI, HUD vouchers, VA benefits, TANF and other government benefits, mucho dinero would circulate into the local economy.
Mr. Solomon. Why am I not surprised that crime rates are 23% higher in red states? That is congruent with my theme.
It has been known for several decades that some cities on the West coast are Rest and Recuperation Havens for Prostitutes and street criminals. eg. Portland is an R&R for Seattle and Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now, from what you are saying, maybe we can add Alaska as a source of emigration to the Haven, at least during Alaska's brutal Winter.
I don't know if you are familiar with Wonderfully Weird Portland. But it is the most livable city I have been in.....after Manhattan if one ignores the financial cost of New York.
Self-supporting prisons and poor farms are the answers. It is way too expensive to incarcerate the millions of lives that capitalism, Reaganomics, religion and the family unit has destroyed. Bring the textile plants back and put these incorrigible types to work. Reaganomics has caused this great gap between the rich and the poor and the liberals will get blamed for it as well. We need to fix another right wing caused problem. Shipping containers makes very good homes for homeless people. Shipping containers can be coated with elastomysteric to keep them cooler in the summer.
They don't burn down and bugs don't crawl through the walls. The self supporting prisons and poor farms need to be built cheaply and to last over 100 years. Penal colonies for life because prisons do not work, on repeat offenders. It is not affordable to build all the poor people new houses and all the police we need.
Mr. Johnson. the US is the richest nation in history. If Nicaragua, the second poorest nation in the Americas can house all its people why can't the U.S. do it? if the Scandinavian nations do it, why can't we? When I was teaching I had students from Norway and Finland. They did not understand how the U.S. could tolerate homelessness.
As for self supporting "prisons and poor farms," there is evidence from Mexico that self supporting penal communities work better than our prison system. Mexico also has a criminal justice system which emphasizes remuneration, recompense for victims over punishment in cases of property crime. This is something we should learn from them. It is a shame many Americans look so disdainfully at Mexico that the only thing Americans like about Mexico is their generous, civilized hospitality as Americans vacation on the sunny beaches there.
Russia has used self supporting penal colonies for generations. But anticommunist hysteria in the U.S. and Cold War rhetoric has clouded our understanding of these institutions.
The American prison system is composed of crime-factories which Reagan and Clinton et al. did not outsource to Mexico, China, South Korea , Singapore, Malaysia, India , Philippines and Vietnam.
Thom, I like to ask why? Why the crime? The answer all around us is money. Why do crime if you cannot get a profit? Jubilee?