Tweet
Originally posted by Citizen Koba
View Post
It's good to see that kinda thing, tales of hope, what it also does is make my argument more eloquently than I ever could. If you want to permanently reduce crime you don't need the Magnificent Seven, you don't need Charlie Bronson and you sure as hell don't need Robocop, though you do need heroes... the kind that are gonna spend 4 hours a day waiting at the town hall, or write to the mayor or city councillors once a week, every week till they get a reply... the kind that'll knock on doors rain or shine to drum up support for community projects. Regular folk who don't take no for an answer.
Thing is Law Enforcement knows how you make a real difference to crime - just gotta go look at the DOJ reports on dealing with gangs, so does academia, and practical experience on the ground tells us the same things as shown by the examples you provide above. What makes a difference is having people invested in their community, in their neighbourhood, and what that means is having a stake in it, having the belief that hard work and persistence will make it flourish. Not sure everyone appreciates the degree of cynicism, the lack of hope for the future and lack of trust in offical institutions that exists within many poorer communities.
And the practical measures? Well some of them are mentioned in the links you provided. Effective and proactive co-operation between community leaders, law enforcement and local government. Affordable housing, community owned businesses, co-operatives maybe, affordable childcare and youth activities to keep kids off the streets, skillshares and timebanks... Community banking and savings and loan facilities run by people who live in and know the community and can provide money to help businesses grow - kinda **** in fact that I been talking about in this and other threads. We know these provide the solutions we want (and this applies as much to the UK or anywhaere else as the US) so why ain't it happening?
Well to my mind you got to look at who might resist such projects and what influence they have... what happens to the housing and rental markets when you build affordable housing? You think the big landlords and realtors who have the ear of politicians will be in favour? You think established regional and national banks like the idea of successful local savings and loans schemes providing an example to others? Watching all the little people take their money to the little community banks?
The list goes on.
Yet despite the fact that we know that policies like 'wars on drugs' and 'getting tough on crime' are largely ineffectual, every election time, in every Western democracy the same predictable rhetoric is rolled out as surely as night follows day and we give the same Pavlovian howls of approval... after all is it not more decisive, more goddamn... manly to get tough with the bad guys than to offer wishy washy idealism like helping deprived communities?
Anyways.. probably taken this thread on too much of a tangent, it's really about remembering this kid taken too young, but it is an interesting subject that does warrant more discussion. Giving some thought to restarting it as 'law and order' thread in the lounge... what you think?
Thing is Law Enforcement knows how you make a real difference to crime - just gotta go look at the DOJ reports on dealing with gangs, so does academia, and practical experience on the ground tells us the same things as shown by the examples you provide above. What makes a difference is having people invested in their community, in their neighbourhood, and what that means is having a stake in it, having the belief that hard work and persistence will make it flourish. Not sure everyone appreciates the degree of cynicism, the lack of hope for the future and lack of trust in offical institutions that exists within many poorer communities.
And the practical measures? Well some of them are mentioned in the links you provided. Effective and proactive co-operation between community leaders, law enforcement and local government. Affordable housing, community owned businesses, co-operatives maybe, affordable childcare and youth activities to keep kids off the streets, skillshares and timebanks... Community banking and savings and loan facilities run by people who live in and know the community and can provide money to help businesses grow - kinda **** in fact that I been talking about in this and other threads. We know these provide the solutions we want (and this applies as much to the UK or anywhaere else as the US) so why ain't it happening?
Well to my mind you got to look at who might resist such projects and what influence they have... what happens to the housing and rental markets when you build affordable housing? You think the big landlords and realtors who have the ear of politicians will be in favour? You think established regional and national banks like the idea of successful local savings and loans schemes providing an example to others? Watching all the little people take their money to the little community banks?
The list goes on.Yet despite the fact that we know that policies like 'wars on drugs' and 'getting tough on crime' are largely ineffectual, every election time, in every Western democracy the same predictable rhetoric is rolled out as surely as night follows day and we give the same Pavlovian howls of approval... after all is it not more decisive, more goddamn... manly to get tough with the bad guys than to offer wishy washy idealism like helping deprived communities?
Anyways.. probably taken this thread on too much of a tangent, it's really about remembering this kid taken too young, but it is an interesting subject that does warrant more discussion. Giving some thought to restarting it as 'law and order' thread in the lounge... what you think?
That is a very fine point, man, pity though. This kinda discussion could be a great platform for devolping ideas and getting people thinking, maybe even giving 'em ideas of how they could get involved.... but you're absolutely right, not much hope of that in the lounge right now.
Comment