The perception of crime vs. stats

If people come to the conclusion that the criminals are victims, and the police are the perpetrators, and as a result decide to reduce enforcement, both formally and informally, eliminate certain tools to enforcement, reduce bail, reduce enforcement on drugs, tolerate homelessness, etc that is going to have an impact on crime. It just is. Now you can have good arguments to support each of one of those things above, but our problem is we decide certain strategies are either suboptimal and wrong, and we just stop doing them. However we don’t replace them with anything else. Other countries that don’t do things have programs to organically deal with them and prevent them. You can’t do one without the other.

 

I think you're onto something. But as will surprise no one, I think Americans all across the political spectrum want police to employ tactics on others they would never accept applied to themselves, in the name of stopping "crime". And so much "criminality" would not occur if we really pursued a more just society.

Anecdotal in support. A buddy who argued against bail reform, but said he would keep an open mind to see the results. He wanted to routinely deny bail if crime rates increased. He saw bail reform as a liberal experiment.

I reminded him that bail is a constitutional right. He was actually shocked. To him it was some creation of liberal soft mindedness

 

Rude

 

He deserved it. He said some nasty shit to me. So….boom.

 

Want to know what "just is" (or isn't)"

We're never going to solve the crime problem with aggressive arrests and prosecution. This is what "the middle class" fundamentally misunderstands.

Take for instance drug use. We've been fighting a "drug war" for 40 plus years. What has it gotten us? Hasn't stopped the drug trade one bit. Hasn't stopped people from taking up drugs. But enforcement has squandered billions of dollars setting up petty offenders. So yeah, part of the problem with crime is the way we have enforced it and subsequently prosecuted it. Also, we barely clear 1 in 5 property crimes with arrest (and that number is likely much lower) and not even 50% for most serious violent crimes other than murder.

I'm not sure, however, what you are referring to with other countries and programs?

Law enforcement likes to claim that they have one hand tied behind their back. But it's that pesky constitution that protects us against abusive government practices. That isn't turning law enforcement into perpetrators, it's recognizing that a lot of what they do violates people's rights, routinely, and does little to solve the crime problems we have. And it's not because there are limitations on their ability to abuse our rights.

 

New York Times today:

A Drop in Murders