Rising Crime in Cities Like Chicago Should Not Lead to More Policing

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/rising-crime-chicago-more-police-not-answer

By Takenya Nixon Brail

I was on my way to work as a public defender when I heard that a seven-year-old girl named Jaslyn was shot to death in the back seat of her dad’s car while at a McDonald’s drive-thru. The shooting happened on Chicago’s West Side, near my office. I felt deep sadness for that young life lost — like so many others — to violence she couldn’t control and probably wouldn’t have been able to understand. I felt that same perpetual fear and anguish about my neighborhood, where shootings have long been so prevalent that my dog knows the difference between a gunshot and fireworks. Then I felt outrage.

But my outrage was not directed at the person who pulled the trigger. I know he or she was most likely a survivor of violence he or she could not control; of a daily, traumatic oppression by hyper-policing and surveillance; of being trapped with literally no way out. Of shame. Of isolation.

My outrage was about how a tragic death was once again being weaponized by the media, police, leaders, and lawmakers to scare the public into thinking reform is the culprit and more police is the answer. The TV reports and local news coverage parroted police talking points while exposing the criminal record of the little girl's father, who was seriously wounded during the incident. Meanwhile, Chicago leaders used the opportunity to become fearmongers about “violent criminals,” slamming modest reforms that have barely had a chance to take hold, let alone create any kind of causation.

It is simple, they told us, like every time before: We need more police officers, and more Black people in cages. Once again, this narrative became the prevailing one. And once again, people are accepting it.

[mopinko]

1. i've heard a lot of people blaming the end of money bail

even tho it has barely been enacted.
it has nothing to do with it. it's about the old system of crooked cops, crooked judges and crooked prison officials who allow the drug trade to flourish.

but sure, blame it on the poor person in jail on some bullshit charge who catches a break.

[empedocles]

2. Need more jobs

[Dial H For Hero]

3. Someone murders a little girl, and the author's reaction is that the murderer is a victim?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. I mean, if that's what you want to take away from this excerpt of a much longer piece, okay.

[Dial H For Hero]

5. An article which leads with such an absurdity is hard to take seriously.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. The author didn't use the word victim, and it's a common thing in crime theory to look at how and

why people become criminals. Doing so critically goes a lot farther toward preventing crime than hiring more cops does.

[Dial H For Hero]

7. When the author describes the murderer of the child as:

"a survivor of violence he or she could not control; of a daily, traumatic oppression by hyper-policing and surveillance; of being trapped with literally no way out. Of shame. Of isolation. "

The term "victim" would apply, yes?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. Would you apply it to a person who survives violence they can't control and who is stuck in an

oppressive environment?

[Dial H For Hero]

9. No. The act of murdering a child defines them more than growing up in a lousy environment.

When, in "West Side Story", Riff says he's "depraved on account I'm deprived!", it's notable that the line is meant to be funny, because it's so absurd.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. It was a laugh line because at the time, that theory was working its way out of academia and into

wider society, much as CRT is today.

[Dial H For Hero]

15. I'll be curious to see how things change in Spielberg's upcoming remake. The trailer appears

remarkably faithful.

[The Magistrate]

14. He Quite Likely Was, Sir

To my mind it does not reduce the shooter's guilt for the act, but had he been born to a decent situation he might well never have pulled that trigger. There are neighborhoods where kids are essentially born into gang life --- it's what their parents do, it's what they see all around them coming up, and the circumstances they come up in are squalid and often vicious. Incidents like this aren't the product of some sneering villain twirling a mustache, or some big brute doing his best Bluto imitation. They are the work of people stressed to breaking again and again from their earliest age. That's not exonerative, but people who do not bear it in mind when they condemn are profoundly dishonest, and rightly suspected of deriving a certain low thrill from the vehemence of their condemnation.

[Dial H For Hero]

16. Perhaps such circumstances could be a factor in sentencing should the murderer be apprehanded.

But the author explicitly pointed out that she felt no outrage towards the murderer. I find that incomprehensible.

[The Magistrate]

18. You Place Too Much Weight On A Rhetorical Trope, Sir

It is not at all unreasonable to be more outraged by a dishonest and destructive reaction to the murder, than by the murder itself, particularly when the reaction is likely to make worse rather than better the situation out of which the murder, and many other crimes of violence, emerged.

[Wingus Dingus]

11. I don't know if acknowledging and reacting to 77 shootings in 48 hours is "fear mongering"--

and if it is, I think fear is the appropriate thing to monger. She's trying to wrap all aspects of the fraught police/African American community relationship together into a bundle along with the out of control gun violence. It's sad that she doesn't see increased police presence as comforting, the way white communities would, but she explains well why she doesn't--I can see why they feel it causes more trouble than it prevents. But I don't see an immediate answer OTHER than increased police presence in the most troubled areas. Better schools and nicer parks are going to take a while.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. Not all white communities so increased policing as reassuring, either.

[Wingus Dingus]

19. Well, if I had anything approaching that level of danger where I live,

as a white person, I'd sure as hell want to see stepped up police patrols. Most white communities would angrily DEMAND increased policing in response to rising crime, in my experience, having lived all over the place. I've never lived anywhere where police presence was viewed negatively, unless it's speed traps, of course It's a shitty spot to be in, when you have this much violence in your community but fear the police as much, or even more, than the criminal elements threatening you.

[lindysalsagal]

13. We need universal basic income, free healthcare, more mental health support, housing subsidies

and serious long-term addiction programs that really work. All of that is expensive.

[Marrah_Goodman]

17. So how do they stop the violence right now?

I get the systematic problems that cause it and that needs to change. That change won't come right now, it will come with future generations. I think there needs to be policing yes, but perhaps some sort of community outreach to the gangs to try and get them to call a truce?

Just thinking out loud. It's such a complicated issue with no easy answers.