Maybe if we start taking their jobs they'll listen
With the recent spike in crime, maybe it's time for working class candidates to run for office.
Crime is a very real problem, even if it isn’t a top voter issue right now. It’s becoming a bigger issue, especially for people living close to urban areas. Still, crime tends to be concentrated in poorer neighborhoods. Which is, in my opinion, a big reason for it not being a bigger issue with more voters. Even so, when polled , a large majority of people of all colors, who live in poor neighborhoods, want a bigger police presence, not a smaller one. Many pundits, politicians, and activists would have you think differently. Those of us who live in poorer neighborhoods know the down side of adding more police to the streets. We know what it means far better than those politicians and activists. It means being on the look out ever time you leave your house. Making sure you hit the blinker every single time, never breaking the speed limit, no California rolls, everything just so. Even if you do everything right, the cops still might decide you look “suspicious” and fuck with you anyway.
If your broke and have a car, there is a good chance you don’t insurance. That turns getting pulled over into a life altering event. At least here in Washington it can. It can cost north of $550. That often means floating a bill, if you have one you can float, and getting behind. Beginning the long circular trap of late fees. It costs a lot to be poor. All that from just getting pulled over, god forbid there be some reason to ticket you. If don’t pay those fines, then your license is suspended, but guess what, you still have to go to work, the store, take the kids to school functions. So you drive, only now you’re not just risking your money but your freedom. They might take you to jail and impound your car for driving on a suspended license. Now your in jail with no car and no job.
Even with all that, and all the other negative consequences that come with increased police presence, most poor people still want them. Why, you may ask. Because it’s better than gunshots every other night. It’s better than having your car broke into, or your house. Its better than being put in the situation where you have to either cower in your house and hide from the thugs in the neighborhood, or risk life and limb (and ironically jail time) by handling things yourself. Politicians desperately need to listen to the poor people in these neighborhoods. People deserve to feel safe in their homes. Acknowledging the crime deterrent effects of more police in the streets does not mean you have to over look police violence, or give them a blank check to harass and victimize.
We should demand much higher clearance rates than most departments give us. The best deterrent to crime isn’t harsh punishment, it’s certain punishment. If there’s a good chance there will be no cost to their actions, people are more likely to take irrational action. They’re far more likely to make a cost benefit analysis when they know the punishment is inevitable, or at least very likely. While I generally am some one who favors carrots to sticks. There are times when the stick is necessary. Knowing that fact, I still prefer our criminal justice system lean towards less punitive measures. The best war to achieve that is making sure we arrest people who commit crimes. Apply a light but swift and certain punishment, then we can come in with a whole crate of carrots to support them.
We should expect honest and effective policing, and we should pay accordingly. Police see the worst of humanity on a regular basis. What they see and deal with has to effect any sane person in profound ways. I would think if it didn’t, they probably don’t have the right temperament for a law enforcement. No human is impervious to distress that the no win decisions they’re often forced to make cause. Witnessing first hand the cruelty humans are capable of truly fucks with ones mind and soul. We should be cognizant of that and provide a good salary and help coping with the rigors of the job.
What we can’t do is design our policing around what is best for the criminals. It seems that’s the current popular progressive plan. We must stop the insulting and dismissive talk about poverty being the sole driver of crime. We know the connection of poverty and crime. Certainly, some people turn to crime in times of financial desperation. The rest of often deal with many of the same hardships though, and don’t turn to crime. Especially violent crime. Stealing a car is not the same thing as a car jacking, and progressives would do well to remember that. The fear and trauma of living in a dangerous neighborhood can leave lifetime scars. The cashiers at these stores that are getting flash-mob robbed deserve more compassion than the thieves. To listen to many progressives now a days, you would think they were one in the same.
I understand that most of these activists and politicians have never lived in a neighborhood where they had read fear of catching a stray bullet. If they have it was when they were a grad student, and during their first few years out of college at an internship or entry level job at a prestigious institution of some sort. In their mid twenties they saw a mugging or heard a gunshot. It was like exciting role playing for them. If they would listen they would hear we need order. The first and most basic need for people is safety. It’s water, food, shelter, then safety. People in poor neighborhoods deserve that safety. Progressives are trying to sell medical insurance as a human right. In my mind the right to not be car jacked is at as e important, if not more so. Progressives have a lot of ideas about dealing with a lot of the roots of crime. I applaud those efforts. Carrots alone just aren’t going to get the job done.
Sticks alone, also won’t get the job done. I just can’t bring myself to believe that Republicans really care about people in poor neighborhoods. I’m know they’re in favor of more cops. Not to protect people in poor neighborhoods, to protect people rich and middleclass neighborhoods, and arrest us. Harsh sentences aren’t going work if no one gets caught because the whole neighborhood hates the cops, and consequently no one will cooperate. Republicans just need to present the false tough guy bravado for the voters though. It’s just about being able to say “tough on crime” in your campaign ad. Especially in your primary campaign. (Double especially if your state doesn’t have open primaries like they should)
Unfortunately, the lives of people living in poor neighborhoods have become, at best, political fodder. At worst experiments in “new ways of imagining public safety”. I think the system is definitely in need of deep reforms. What we see in many progressive cities, and hear from progressive pundits and public “intellectuals”, isn’t an attempt at real reform though. It’s simplistic, poorly thought out vague psuedo intellectual malarkey presented as a reformist strategy for changing the system. It’s anything but, and it’s at odds with the wishes of the people who live in the communities they claim to care the most about. Repeatedly implying that poor equals criminal, worrying more about the perpetrators than about victims. All because it fits their theories about how the world should work. Not to mention drives a bunch of campaign cash for their preferred candidates from rich, out of state yuppies. Plaudits on twitter and favorable mentions in the pages of the New York Times and other MSM sources can’t replace votes though. I worry that the need for safety is going to drive voters to the Republicans, who ultimately care little for poor folk. They will throw us in jail left and right without solving anything. They just need to make it look good for the people in safe middleclass neighborhoods and rural towns. Meanwhile, progressives seem to only care about appealing the the faculty lounge and the HR department. Maybe someday politicians will start to listen to the working class, but I’m not going to hold my breath. I think were going to have to just start running for office ourselves. Maybe if we’re taking their jobs they’ll listen to us.