Brilliant. Noting that all other considerations fly out the window after you’ve been traumatized as victim of crime is absolutely the key to this appeal to Democrats to save our democracy by not being timid about addressing peoples fears. Or we will lose. Because they have the criminals at the top, with money, and motive for self-protection. Thom’s argument is the one the democrats must put front & center using the successes he cites.
First-year Criminal Law: in the criminal psychology, the deterrant lies not so much in the severity of the potential punishment, but in the degree to which the criminal feels he's going to get caught at all.
And I think that sentences for rich people who steal (those who already have everything they’ll ever need) should be doubled (at least compared to those who steal to feed their families). If our laws were properly executed and judges sentenced corporate criminals as the law should require, I believe that the morbidly rich are much more likely to be deterred from doing their crimes, if only because a big boy prison scares the shit out of them. But that can only act as a deterrent if we first strip them of their corporate powers, for it’s highly unlikely that they will ever do the time when they still dictate the rules.
see, e.g. PG&E in CA just last few days: So much for "probation" for a fictional character! No organic life form will be put to the slightest inconvenience for mass murder.
Corporate crime has also increased greatly with the exploitation of workers during the pandemic and refusal not only to provide PPE, but even banning workers from using their own, and in too many cases it has resulted in deaths and disability. The media ignores the payday loan sharks and the hedge funds buying foreclosed houses to create a landlord monopoly. Gas prices are up near 50% and natural gas prices have gone up as much as 500%. Insulin prices have tripled since 2007 and this exploitation of millions is never mentioned in the media.
I do not worry about petty crime where someone burgles a house but one should be concerned about the banksters and hedge fund managers that are taking peoples homes and putting them out on the streets to live in tents and hope to get a meal at a shelter or food bank.
Again we have an example of why a society based on greed, unchecked power, racism, hatred, religious ignorance and intolerance, and the absence of a sustainable societal goal is doomed to fail if it can’t change. The Democrats under a neo-liberal DNC selected (“ I’m not a Socialist”) administration are still not willing to make that change. We need a lot of “political funerals” in the Democratic Party to make way for progressive candidates in 2022 or we’ll continue our march to failure of the greatest experiment our Constitution offers not just Americans but humanity. We all need to support and vote for ANY progressive candidate running against a DNC supported one then fight like hell for that candidate. Corporate Democratic and Republican “leaders” have already demonstrated their lack of moral fiber. Get them out and give someone else a chance.
Street crime is a symptom of a society molded by high crime. If a person steals bread to feed their family, are they a criminal or a just a person doing what anyone would do to take care of their loved ones? The law says criminal, but the law knows nothing of nuance, nor does it care. Why do we not question the system and its engineers but instead persecute the people who are victims of its poor design? A society grounded in true equality does not produce such grotesque and inevitable shortcomings.
Using “Law and Order” messaging (again) for Republicans is essentially revealing their next campaign for how they plan to manipulate the poorly educated with racism for fun and profit. As Thom has noted, the Democrats need pithy and accurate branding to compete with the GOP. But we need something that’s clearly better to promote our general welfare, so I propose that we look at solving crime in America by stratifying the issues into two levels. Level one is how to stop crime using best practice-based solutions or as Thom wrote “Democrats must find and promote “reform the police,” “community policing,” and other crime-reducing success stories from Democratic-run cities.” Level one would be the tactical, or short-term, level, and it has to be designed to crush white-collar criminals and send them to Oz for a period commensurate with the negative externalities that they forced on the rest of us.
Level two would be the strategic (or long-term) level and its purpose is to stop people from choosing to commit crimes. The strategic level would include best practice-based solutions to bring equal opportunity to the citizens and communities that have been screwed by the morbidly rich since America has had citizens and communities. The strategic level would include citizen/government collaborations that would design and implement role model education, role model healthcare, and role model security for everyone, as well as develop plans to make the transitions. The question becomes, what branding, framing, and messaging would be most effective, i.e., what would Frank Luntz come up with?
As with all GQP policies, they lay a foundation for justifying the destruction they want to accomplish. To show pubic education is a failure, they defund it. To show the government is the problem, they defund it. To limit voting rights and enable election fraud, they lie about voter fraud and claim elections are rigged against them. To suppress resistance to their hateful policies, they scream "law and order."
I agree with your comment on law and order and add: Law and order is a racist dog whistle for justifying injustice against POC and using weapons of mass abuse to suppress resistance and protect oligarch property.
We are living in a time of moral upheaval. The pandemic and climate crisis has people feeling untethered. Everyone must deal with suffocating masks, closings, ever-changing rules, and mandates. The result for some is emotion akin to a famous poster of two vultures that said: "Patience my ass--I'm going to kill something!".
The Republicans have exploited the pandemic and tragedies that got us to this point. Trump definitely created the atmosphere that gave criminals permission to take every opportunity. With him it has always been take take take. It's a criminal mutual-admiration-society with his cult followers. We saw that as THEY tried to steal the election on January 6th, 2021.
The GOP will milk the tragedy of our times for all it's worth, sadly while trying to put that criminal back in the White House.
In the Fall of 2021 I actually encountered something new on Nextdoor in suburban Westchester County, outside of NYC. I man running for County Legislator actually was campaigning and touting himself on Nextdoor, with obvious help from his friends. I took him to task for using Nextdoor in this way, but to no avail. He won, defeating the incumbent, whom I really liked.
Brilliant. Noting that all other considerations fly out the window after you’ve been traumatized as victim of crime is absolutely the key to this appeal to Democrats to save our democracy by not being timid about addressing peoples fears. Or we will lose. Because they have the criminals at the top, with money, and motive for self-protection. Thom’s argument is the one the democrats must put front & center using the successes he cites.
Thanks, Mimi! :)
First-year Criminal Law: in the criminal psychology, the deterrant lies not so much in the severity of the potential punishment, but in the degree to which the criminal feels he's going to get caught at all.
And I think that sentences for rich people who steal (those who already have everything they’ll ever need) should be doubled (at least compared to those who steal to feed their families). If our laws were properly executed and judges sentenced corporate criminals as the law should require, I believe that the morbidly rich are much more likely to be deterred from doing their crimes, if only because a big boy prison scares the shit out of them. But that can only act as a deterrent if we first strip them of their corporate powers, for it’s highly unlikely that they will ever do the time when they still dictate the rules.
see, e.g. PG&E in CA just last few days: So much for "probation" for a fictional character! No organic life form will be put to the slightest inconvenience for mass murder.
Corporate crime has also increased greatly with the exploitation of workers during the pandemic and refusal not only to provide PPE, but even banning workers from using their own, and in too many cases it has resulted in deaths and disability. The media ignores the payday loan sharks and the hedge funds buying foreclosed houses to create a landlord monopoly. Gas prices are up near 50% and natural gas prices have gone up as much as 500%. Insulin prices have tripled since 2007 and this exploitation of millions is never mentioned in the media.
I do not worry about petty crime where someone burgles a house but one should be concerned about the banksters and hedge fund managers that are taking peoples homes and putting them out on the streets to live in tents and hope to get a meal at a shelter or food bank.
Again we have an example of why a society based on greed, unchecked power, racism, hatred, religious ignorance and intolerance, and the absence of a sustainable societal goal is doomed to fail if it can’t change. The Democrats under a neo-liberal DNC selected (“ I’m not a Socialist”) administration are still not willing to make that change. We need a lot of “political funerals” in the Democratic Party to make way for progressive candidates in 2022 or we’ll continue our march to failure of the greatest experiment our Constitution offers not just Americans but humanity. We all need to support and vote for ANY progressive candidate running against a DNC supported one then fight like hell for that candidate. Corporate Democratic and Republican “leaders” have already demonstrated their lack of moral fiber. Get them out and give someone else a chance.
A. Men.
Street crime is a symptom of a society molded by high crime. If a person steals bread to feed their family, are they a criminal or a just a person doing what anyone would do to take care of their loved ones? The law says criminal, but the law knows nothing of nuance, nor does it care. Why do we not question the system and its engineers but instead persecute the people who are victims of its poor design? A society grounded in true equality does not produce such grotesque and inevitable shortcomings.
Using “Law and Order” messaging (again) for Republicans is essentially revealing their next campaign for how they plan to manipulate the poorly educated with racism for fun and profit. As Thom has noted, the Democrats need pithy and accurate branding to compete with the GOP. But we need something that’s clearly better to promote our general welfare, so I propose that we look at solving crime in America by stratifying the issues into two levels. Level one is how to stop crime using best practice-based solutions or as Thom wrote “Democrats must find and promote “reform the police,” “community policing,” and other crime-reducing success stories from Democratic-run cities.” Level one would be the tactical, or short-term, level, and it has to be designed to crush white-collar criminals and send them to Oz for a period commensurate with the negative externalities that they forced on the rest of us.
Level two would be the strategic (or long-term) level and its purpose is to stop people from choosing to commit crimes. The strategic level would include best practice-based solutions to bring equal opportunity to the citizens and communities that have been screwed by the morbidly rich since America has had citizens and communities. The strategic level would include citizen/government collaborations that would design and implement role model education, role model healthcare, and role model security for everyone, as well as develop plans to make the transitions. The question becomes, what branding, framing, and messaging would be most effective, i.e., what would Frank Luntz come up with?
As with all GQP policies, they lay a foundation for justifying the destruction they want to accomplish. To show pubic education is a failure, they defund it. To show the government is the problem, they defund it. To limit voting rights and enable election fraud, they lie about voter fraud and claim elections are rigged against them. To suppress resistance to their hateful policies, they scream "law and order."
I agree with your comment on law and order and add: Law and order is a racist dog whistle for justifying injustice against POC and using weapons of mass abuse to suppress resistance and protect oligarch property.
We are living in a time of moral upheaval. The pandemic and climate crisis has people feeling untethered. Everyone must deal with suffocating masks, closings, ever-changing rules, and mandates. The result for some is emotion akin to a famous poster of two vultures that said: "Patience my ass--I'm going to kill something!".
The Republicans have exploited the pandemic and tragedies that got us to this point. Trump definitely created the atmosphere that gave criminals permission to take every opportunity. With him it has always been take take take. It's a criminal mutual-admiration-society with his cult followers. We saw that as THEY tried to steal the election on January 6th, 2021.
The GOP will milk the tragedy of our times for all it's worth, sadly while trying to put that criminal back in the White House.
In the Fall of 2021 I actually encountered something new on Nextdoor in suburban Westchester County, outside of NYC. I man running for County Legislator actually was campaigning and touting himself on Nextdoor, with obvious help from his friends. I took him to task for using Nextdoor in this way, but to no avail. He won, defeating the incumbent, whom I really liked.