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fleetwoodmacbookair t1_ivga06w wrote

Reply to comment by NetQuarterLatte in Left Unmonitored In His Cell, He Etched His Suicide Note Into a Wall On Rikers Island by hau5keeping

I appreciate this thoughtful response, i agree with many of the solutions you’ve outlined above. That said, policing in this country is broken right now. Any policy that includes additional funding to police forces requires major overhaul of police departments first. That said, I think that consistently arguing that our streets are too dangerous and progressives aren’t up to the task is a concerning rhetoric. Fear is a powerful tool, and this entire New York State election cycle has demonstrated exactly that.

Fwiw, the violence leads to violence argument is a reasonable one. However, I believe a lot of that violence in underserved neighborhoods begins with policing. Armed cops who see any citizen as a potential threat have an inherently violent effect.

Also, with regards to the deterrence point. I don’t really think criminals are doing illegal things because they’re like “the DA won’t prosecute he’s too weak on crime.” I’ve seen you discussing your issues with Bragg below, how does that tie into your view on this issue?

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NetQuarterLatte t1_ivgemr1 wrote

>Also, with regards to the deterrence point. I don’t really think criminals are doing illegal things because they’re like “the DA won’t prosecute he’s too weak on crime.” I’ve seen you discussing your issues with Bragg below, how does that tie into your view on this issue?

Messaging/signaling is a big deal. And I suspect that's at the root of more crimes than we give it credit for.

For example, leave some property unattended, and it'll signal that no one cares about it, and it will increase the likelihood of it being stolen/defaced etc. The other way around works too: if it's credible that someone cares about it, it can be a deterrent for crimes.

One concrete example was in the use of street lighting at night: https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/northeast/nyc-used-street-lighting-to-cut-crime-without-more-arrests/

>“What I take from that is that it’s not just about lighting. There is some kind of demonstration and signaling effect here that you’re letting people know this is an area that’s being watched. This is an area that’s being cared for,” he said. Additionally, they monitored communities around the public housing developments and did not find that crime was being displaced to other locations.

Another concrete example is how the increased enforcement of misdemeanors (in the 90s) led to the decrease of felonies: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w9061/w9061.pdf

With Bragg specifically, both of the issues I had/have with him entails messaging:

  • In his first day of office he decided to wholesale downgrade armed robberies to misdemeanors. That was quite a slap in the face given the rise in gun violence that was going on around that time.
  • In the Trump's case, he didn't even try to present the case to a grand jury and had the lead prosecutors resigning in protest. That's another slap in the face given that such outcome would've only be expected from a republican DA, and that it helps perpetuate the lack of accountability of the powerful.
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NetQuarterLatte t1_ivgfbho wrote

>However, I believe a lot of that violence in underserved neighborhoods begins with policing. Armed cops who see any citizen as a potential threat have an inherently violent effect.

You're right on point with that. Mistrust in the police is also a stronger factor leading to community violence than poverty.

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