Crime has been down for decades, but incarceration is still sky-high and brutality cases keep tearing the country apart. Does policing in America need a fundamental re-think?
Pretty sure having the Mossad train the police trainers was a bad idea as well. We also need to demand every agency comply with a psychological evaluation and screening process before we start handing out military grade weapons to them. There seems to be a cult inside some agencies that makes sure the non psycho cops are too scared to report the psycho ones.
Something I come here for is to unwind some of the conflations that have become unthinking "fact" in the 140-character age. Sorry to be the Jew who gets his back up when someone criticizes Israel — but if you want to criticize counter-terrorism training in American police departments then do it cleanly, without invoking stereotype shorthand.
I live in ultra-liberal Los Angeles and I can assure you crime is up and incarceration is down. The reason: our politicians decriminalized crimes. I have a charitable store in an affluent area, our proceeds help animals and the homeless. There are meth heads doing drugs on the sidewalk, commercial and residential break ins are routine. I have had thugs walk out with our donation jar and nothing I can do because if there's less than $950 in there it's a misdemeanor. Other stores have the same issues: employees and paying customers stand helplessly by as criminals and/or homeless load up their bags with merchandise, liquor or whatever they want and calmly walk out the door. They dare not intervene or they risk injury. Nothing can be done because as long as they take under $950 worth of merchandise it would be a ticket and cops won't respond to it anyway. 88 buildings were burned on Melrose during the riots this week. I'm terrified to lose my store. The homeless rely on our ability to provide clothing, food, vet assistance for their pets.
Crimes are occurring they're just not reflecting in the stats because crime is not a crime anymore.
You really need to get rid of that jar and get a box you can bolt down to the cash wrap. No one needs to know how much has been donated but you. A jar would get ripped off just about anywhere as long as someone thought they could get away with it.
You know what this is interesting, as it seems to be happening no where else. I am sure that you are absolutely believable, and there is no reason to question anything you are saying.
Matt, you're not wrong, but you're thinking backwards. Without some socially agreed-upon construct, wilders and mercenaries would rule every neighborhood in America, which would be reduced to enclaves -- of same-religion, same-language, same-faith clumps of families. It's local consciousness vs what are perceived as universal truths, Matt. The hive or hornet's nest has a lot more parallel segments than a two-room billet -- that is, the idea of binary codes dominating everything is seductive but flawed. What police actually do would exist if no one was ever hired as a police force. It would all be ad-hoc and vigilante, and it would be a whole lot worse than police forces killing 50 whites and 20 blacks a year. The best examples are the neighborhoods where crime presumably is high -- just as existed in Rome at least 2000 years ago. Unofficial gangs or triads or Benevolent Associations or Cattlemen Clubs would immediately proliferate like crazy. And deaths occurring in the interests of "order" would multiply by 10,000 times. To try to "fix" human nature is always absurd and dangerous -- if it can be done, it destroys humanity. Instead, policing is like a lot of other skills -- it is intended to reduce the incidence of violence for the benefit of the community. Our police organizations are much, much better than what would take their place. I always try to remember that Thoreau 's friend (or friends) paid his tax bill so he wouldn't have to be incarcerated indefinitely. Theoretical anarchy is beautiful, but just look at what we do to each other when lef6 to our own devices. On issues like this, I expect to see Amazon, Google, and other avatars of homogeneous societies to wholly agree with Matt's analysis. Not because they appreciate analysis, but because race hatred, like other forms of self-destroying tribal glue, creates so much space to make the Masters of the Universe appear magnanimous. After 42 years of massive wealth transfer from the least wealthy to the obscenely rich, the most desperate victims attack each other over scraps and crumbs. Same as it ever was. The "Modern" solution is the one-World, all-knowing Big Brother who sees us all as equals and treats us all the same, all the time. Satellite-id chips for everyone. The point here is that local control, decentralization, and individual liberty will always protect some degree of prejudice and even ignorance. In the same way that Jack Dorsey fantasizes that there is only one set of ideas any good person could possibly consider, Matt doesn't see the potential thugs in our midst. And we are all potential thugs. That's human DNA 101.
In addition to the famous "nasty, brutish and short" line, Hobbes thought society should be modeled on the human physiology, with a head, heart, lungs and so on to specialize in managing the collective. I think he was right about human nature; not sure a society can operate on those principles. The individual case expanded to the collective is seductive, but not very much seen in actual experience. Hume would (probably did) say Hobbes' empirical argument for the model is weak. Unfortunately, in my experience, thuggery too often is the rule -- in business, government, even personal relationships. Not to take advantage is the rare bird -- the Quixote.
When I was 19, myself and a group of about 30 Black & Latino kids from Santa Monica went to Will Roger's state Park - to hike, play football and engage in some BS. My great grandfather had actually been a groundskeeper there in the early 30s I believe. Well after we some dumbshit the LAPD came with about 10 cars, a helicopter and about 15 cops who proceeded to beat the shit out of us, put us on our knees and call us niggers and beaners. The story is mentioned in M Davis' City of QUARTZ. We were known as the "Will Rodgers Park kids."
Luckily, the grandfather of Lewayne Williamson, one of our homies, was President of the SM/ Venice NAACP and we started a suit. Sorry to go on, but the most memorable thing the main cop said to us was ( i am quoting directly since I remember it so well) "I take my kid to school every morning and I point to you punks and tell him, 'they are the enemy.' And I have to tell you I get a hard on each morning knowing I may have the chance to beat the shit out of one of you."
These are very memorable events. The less memorable ones are being pulled over every day. Failure to stop, illegal right turn, looking suspicious, you resemble a suspect we are looking for, or just fuck you pull over. I have had cops choke me, put a gun to my head, handcuff me and kick me in the back into bushes and have been arrested for assault on a police officer for touching his hand as he pushed me down.
On holloween we would go to the northside, cuz our white friends would invite us to parties. Yes, we acted up - just like they did. One year, we were ordered back to the south part of town. They told us the route to take. They put a car on each corner and we had to walk 10+ blocks back below Whilshire blvd. We had cars, but we lied so they would not do as usual - take our dashboards apart, our speakers, turn the trunk inside out, and ravage the seats. They would then had us a zip lock bag with the screws and leave. Yes, sometimes they found a joint, a knife or some stupid shit. We were kids. Rough kids for sure.
A year later a few friends and I were shot in a drive by. One lost his life, and I took five. I have to note - we were officially listed as gang members and for many of us, that was true. We had formed clubs, packs and crews just like the surfers, taggers, and skaters. The cops asked us if we saw anything and in the shock of the moment we prob described the car or something but we said we don't talk to cops - like EVERYONE says in the hood. My point is - they never - ever called me or followed up. Four people shot, one killed. No investigation - NONE. But the second we went to 2nd st where all the looting recently happened - we got busted up and kicked out. We were "banned" from the mall and the 3rd St Promenade. Shit I even got kicked out of prom by the "gang unit."
Sorry for rambling, but all of this stuff now brings back so many memories. It was a low intensity warfare. Our communities were occupied. Young Black and brown men were targeted. But also, (my long ass point here) it was all done in spectacle to show the white neighbors and older folks and us that they were in charge and that we were some sort of (more handsome) version of the Sopranos or something. Or worse, some 3rd world band of thugs or somali pirates. We were kids. Stupid kids, as kids are. Many times White people would come by and clap or say "good job officer." I fucken hated that.
We all want peace, a nice home, a good job, health and a safe community. And now everyone is SM has most of that - it is just without us. It was a precursor to the gentrification, and as we all moved to Inglewood - when the whites moved out of there after the high school was integrated in 1979. The same shit was happening there. Funny thing is there were no White people to protect there. As you say, it is just there job - "order" AKA were the boss - shut the fuck up - get on the floor and show me some ID - Now go home or we will shoot you.
So in 1992 - WE BURNED THAT BITCH DOWN. WTF else would we do. But it all just happens over and over again. Anyway, love the story will check out that book.
Yes, really. Your evidence has no date. There's just a lot of very brutal (staged?) action apparently from closed circuit TV's that goes on for a really long time. Makes me wonder why the cops never made an appearance. Can't say I find your "evidence," including the people speaking on behalf of law and order, very persuasive. I think that communities that regulate themselves are the best communities.
If you are going to willfully close your eyes to manifest crime and violence in our urban communities, there is nothing I can say that will make a difference
So, it's TV "journalism." Why didn't you say so? You characterized the scene as "Minneapolis without police." In fact, it's Minneapolis with police, but they were absent. Where were they? Busting heads somewhere else? As Michelle Alexander says, "We need an effective system of crime prevention and control in our communities, but that is not what the current system is. This system is better designed to create crime, and a perpetual class of people labeled criminals."
Yes, there has long been an east-west block in Spanish Harlem that is its own "Little Italy." No police needed at all. It is ethnically homogeneous, however, which is often a characteristic of self-regulating communities.
That’s where the Luchese or Genovese crime family maintained their clubhouse for years after the composition of the rest of East Harlem switched from Italian to mostly Latino......
Jimmy Breslin, who sometimes described himself as the spouse of "the former Rosemarie D'Attolico" - not sure spelling-- would write articles about "Un Occhio," a man who ran a candy store in that neighborhood; it never had any candy for sale.
You mean like the citizen “journalism” on IG? 30sec of carefully edited video posted to support one narrow viewpoint? What happens the 5 or even 1min BEFORE that? What is the scene? What is happening off camera? Do i need to state the obvious: murder is murder and murder is wrong. Now tell me how shooting ANYONE (even a cop) in the back of the head is justified. Check follows & followers on IG or Twitter to get your answer
Oh. It's TV "journalism." Why didn't you say so. You characterized the scene as "Minneapolis without police." In fact, it's Minneapolis with police, but they were somewhere else. Where were they? Busting heads somewhere else?
I recvd email stating this was reply to my post. You write “Minneapolis” in quotes when i did not mention it or any other city. The rest of your post above does not apply either. Maybe someone else.
I'd invite you to read www.dunwalke.com where Catherine A. Fitts documents prisons for profit (this section - https://dillonreadandco.com/cornell-corrections/) as well as loads of political and corporate malfeasance that Mr. Taibbi would be well acquainted with.
On a recent Joe Rogan podcast Jocko Willink talked about how little the police actually get to drill tough scenarios and, while not an excuse, it can be seen as at least a partial reason why things escalate so badly. Another interview with ex Mr Universe Ronnie Coleman, who was a cop, talks about some of what was wrong from his perspective.
Exactly. Defunding the police and making less lethal forms of force illegal (e.g. chokehold) will result in a less trained, less equipped police force with less options at their disposal to avoid deadly force. The end result will be an increase in police related fatalities. Jocko makes the case that police departments actually need more funding to train more and hire higher quality individuals for the job. I completely agree.
Once again Matt great thought with no bias. What Good journalism used to be!
This is a tragic situation we find ourselves in. No one really believes the BS coming out of the authorities anymore. After being lied to via Russiagate, WMD, shamed into giving up livelihoods for “social distancing and virtue signaling lockdowns, and seeing the unfair treatment of our fellow citizens we can understand the pain and frustration in communities of color and low-income citizens. Thank God for video cameras. Rodney King wasn’t a one-off. There is no nuance in reporting today. Legitimate protesters are being lumped in with ANTIFA and crazy people who want free box wine and TV’s. It’s sad. Nothing has really changed since in 1968.
This is a really bad time in America. Much of it stems from the corporatization of the prison industrial complex being fed money by the Biden crime bill, three strikes and you’re out, the idiotic war on drugs, and the unequal application of the law for those with money vs those who get a horrible public defender.
I have nothing else to say except this may last a lot longer than we think.
Great, salient and thoughtfully stated. I hate to think we’ve come so far only to end up here.
One of my strongest beliefs is if we focused on creating income equivalence the greater portion of race and political infighting would disappear. The fear and powerlessness of living in poverty is incendiary. 11% of the population lives at or below the FEDERALLY established poverty line 50% +/- middle class (which depending on where u live means nothing) and the rest subsidized by both its a recipe for disaster. When u work and cant afford essentials, and those responsible are tone deaf to all but their own concerns (Retaining wealth and power) where else to focus that anger? Race. Its hardwired instinct to fear The Other and we have a system that encourages even forces people to revert to primal behavior when there’s nowhere else to go
Thank you Matt. Also note the unprecedented looting by Wall Street, identical imperial foreign policy by Dems and Repubs, the entire Epstein pedophile saga silenced and all participants above the law, Russia-gate hoax, evangelical extremists at CDC completely mishandling Covid response, etc., etc. Apparently our country can't reform itself at all
The bigger picture is that our police forces have been militarized. I agree that minority/poor populations are more often seen as the enemy than white middle/upper class populations. But I disagree with the efforts to compartmentalize this issue into a purely racial problem. Plenty of white unarmed individuals are murdered by hyped up cops - a quick search of the internet will give you plenty of examples. And plenty of white folks are violently abused by the police every day for suspected minor offenses, cases of mistaken identity, and other incidents that don't justify the abuse. Someone will probably call me a racist for saying this (for reasons I won't be able to understand) but I wish the conversation would focus on police brutality against all people in this country (except of course the elite who get away with everything without consequence).
I think it goes beyond that. There's a cult like atmosphere in some dept's that keep decent cops from weeding out the whacko's which is made much worse by the militarization and pressure to make numbers for their superiors.
Even as a Reagan conservative, I continue to love your work. It is provocative and you seem open to evidence and persuasion. This causes people like me to listen more carefully to people like you.
In nearly 40 years as a liberal turned conservative (1980), I have never heard any conservative, no matter how redneck, try to justify some of the gross errors in judgment that some police officers make. But I believe you overstate the problem. I am sure that being hassled for quality of life crimes is tiresome, even infuriating. But two points must be made. First, blacks are disproportionately represented in anti-social crimes. Their disproportionate clash with police is at least somewhat responsible for this reality. Second, the drop in crime cannot be conveniently disassociated from incarceration by arguing that there is a time lag from mass incarceration to the drop in crime. Even as many sentences imprison bad actors, this changes the calculation of risk by future potential actors. I can guess that we will start to see an upsurge in crime as we relax incarceration and enforcement of quality of life crimes. Time will tell.
You make the point several times that the police enforced race codes and now enforce quality of life crimes. You seem to argue that the police are in error for doing so. Let me see if I can give an alternative explanation and another “villain.”
I would argue that the police enforce whatever the social norm is that is reflective of the current thinking of the zeitgeist of the particular time in which they practice policing. If the zeitgeist changes, policing will change. The proper “villain” then is the zeitgeist, not the police.
If you want policing to reflect a different norm, change the zeitgeist. You cannot possibly argue that policing has become more racist or less professional in the last 50 years. Police reflect the standards of society.
Your complaint is that the zeitgeist’s norms offend your sensibilities. But your job is to change those norms, not scapegoat the institution that is merely reflecting these norms.
You say police hassle “for every conceivable minor offense – public intoxication, public urination, riding bicycles the wrong way down a sidewalk, refusing to obey police orders, jumping subway turnstiles, and, in Garner’s case, selling loose cigarettes.” Can you appreciate that the vast majority of taxpayers who work hard and play by the rules are offended by the behaviors you seem to blithely dismiss?
I may agree with your more genteel sensibilities and would be willing to join you in advancing a more “civilized” approach to policing. But don’t blame the police for carrying out the expectations of the people who don’t complain much. The social experiment of “liberal” institutional change has failed.
I have listened to lots of commentary over the last few days. One lament I heard over and over again was “what do they want?” When Rush Limbaugh asked Charlamagne tha God about his solution, he defaults to “dismantle white supremacy.” Scott Adams rightfully vehemently criticizes that suggestion as incredibly nonspecific. I have not heard any serious analysis leading to specific solutions to “fix the problem.” I wondered WHY?
I have a thesis. Since the mid-1960s, American society has largely accommodated the wish list of many liberals relating to both race and poverty. We have improved the operation of the welfare state to minimize the impact of programs on family structure, instituted affirmative action in education and corporations, adopted minority programs for entrepreneurs, dedicated trillions on education, improved our racial consciousness to the point that the mere utterance of the N word will result in opprobrium in nearly every social situation, improved anti-discrimination laws, dramatically heightened the wall of separation between church and state, elected thousands of black politicians, etc. YET the persistence of the black underclass remains.
My thesis is that we have run out of liberal ideas to implement that seem to seriously tackle any problem that remains. So, we are reduced to Medicare for All, Green New Deal, free college. The problem of the black underclass is now seen as one of structural or institutional racism, with all the eye of the beholder that these amorphous phrases imply.
Focusing on what would help the black underclass, one would have to focus on solutions like culture, family structure, discipline in education, individual initiative, responsibility, spiritual decline, delayed gratification, etc. But these are solutions that have been advocated by conservatives for decades. Indeed, even a liberal Harvard professor like Danial Patrick Moynihan observed in the mid-60s the pernicious effects social programs had on black family structure.
Because the cultural elites would have to admit the failure of their paradigm, they will never embrace these solutions. Thus, we will not make progress.
It's cognitive dissonance, by both Liberals and Conservatives.
Because the real problem is the War on Drugs. And both sides want to duck the urgent necessity to confront it, which grows more dire with every passing day.
I know the tired responses from both sides.
The Conservatives want to posture, scold and morally lecture, while leaving the Drug War untouched. Thereby keeping the staggeringly lucrative monopoly over the drugs trade in the hands of career criminals, asa cash-dollar proposition that the punitive moralist conservatives actually expect 100% of the disrespected poor to resist- when even 100% of the police, the political institutions, and the banking industry aren't turning it down.
The failure to confront the reality of the rise of the Prohibition-empowered illicit drugs markets was the fatal flaw in Daniel Moynihan's 1979 thesis. Because this really is about dollars and cents- or, more cogently, about multi billions of dollars. When law-abiding upright people find themselves at a massive material disadvantage in their own communities compared to those involved in a popular, burgeoning illegal industry, the rest of the moral rectitude thing just collapses. The local church ministry may get $5000 every Sunday from their collection plate, but just one dope-dealing apartment up the street might be doing 50 times that much business every week. Or more.
Meanwhile, the current Liberal position is that the War on Drugs is merely a subset of the wider problem of Racism, and thereby comparatively unimportant. Which is an absurd miscasting of the situation. Racism is only going to get worse, without a reform of the drugs laws that's so comprehensive that it removes the vast majority of the market demand from the hands of criminals.
Racism won't go away just because the War on Drugs is ended. But it is the single. most. intractable. obstacle to improving race relations in this country.
I agree with you that in the realm of institutional policy, there's very little that can be done to address racism DIRECTLY, in the dramatic way that the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968. In my view, much of the Establishment Liberal (i.e., Democratic Party) "antiracist legislation" since then has basically been minor window dressing, an attempt to elevate more or less peripheral measures to the centrality of the 1960s Civil Rights Acts.
But what I find most interesting about this situation is that there is still an area of policy that cries out to be addressed through Federal lawmaking institutions- Drug Law Reform.
In the absence of Federal action that affects the entire nation, States and localities have been left to address that issue piecemeal. The most effective measures at the State and local level have provided for the existence of regulated legal markets. Most of them are quite new. The least effective measures are the ones that don't address the laws themselves, but simply lower drug enforcement as a law enforcement priority. Kurt Schmoke (who I like and respect) tried to do that as mayor of Baltimore in the 1990s. It was a noble attempt by someone who had only limited power, and it failed. Because drugs Prohibition itself remained, the criminal monopoly remained untouched. So simply decreeing lax enforcement of the laws didn't- and doesn't- address the core of the problem.
Constructing a drug policy that balances individual liberties with public health concerns while effectively dismantling the criminal marketplace- or at least shrinking it to the level of a marginal economic concern- is something that has to be tackled by government institutions at the level of legislation and public policy. Trimming around the edges doesn't make it.
"Because the cultural elites would have to admit the failure of their paradigm, they will never embrace these solutions"
I'm more hopeful than you are on that score. But I'm noticing a different "paradigm failure" that's more crucial to the health of this society than the one you're directing your criticism toward. And in that regard, it's a failure shared by both Conservative "cultural elites" and Liberal "cultural elites" in this country.
1-End the War on Drugs. I’m not going to propose specifics here regarding legalization,etc, but removing corner boy as a viable career option, and stopping neighborhoods from serving as drive thru drug marts should be a key goal.
2-Enforce gun laws in a draconian manner. I support concealed carry and the 2nd Amendment rights of all non-felons (Philando Castile was a martyr for the 2nd Amendment in my view), but if you are a felon in possession of a weapon or in a vehicle with an illegal weapon-10 years in prison. Do not pass go. Straw purchase a weapon for a felon-10 years-I don’t care if the straw purchasers is grandma or the cousin attending an out of state college-10 years. Do not pass go. No games by the DAs office-I’m looking at you Cook County.
3-Build big box/Wal Mart stores in underserved neighborhoods. Hire locals. End the food deserts. If the chain needs a bit of a subsidy to offset security/theft costs-they gov’t wastes a helluva lot more $$$$ on a lot of worse ideas. Is working at Wal Mart as cool as putting “community organizer” or “cannabis barista” on the resume-no-but it pays the same/better and does a lot more good for the community-the specific community where the store is located (and currently are not located).
I am also a disillusioned liberal. In fact I was about as far-left as one could be short of a grey “uniform.” Which GREATLY disturbed my family (read on to see why) Having grown up in a single parent home after my father’s death (who btw did not believe in life insurance) my mom was left with 3 children (one of whom was severely handicapped) she worked constantly and when her job, SS survivors benefits, and monthly check from VA just barely covered essentials she gave in and applied for food stamps. She was rejected because she exceeded the threshold by $9/mo. I grew to hate Reagan with a passion and it didnt help when he changed SS survivor’s from 22 (through college) to 18. I saved money from the age of 14 because i wanted to go to journalism school since i was old enough to turn on TV by myself. When it came time for financial aid, i was ineligible (except for loans) because i had too much $ saved. As a result i worked at everything from fast food, retail, to cleaning toilets. I worked 2 PT jobs, was an RA and a stringer for a daily paper WHILE successfully if not exceptionally carrying a full college courseload at a state college. Always made “too much $” to get financial aid. Because of stops and starts it took almost TEN years to get my BA. why am i writing all if this? Because I Think i understand SOME of what the black community experiences. Dod i mention im Cuban? The fact that i am white does limit my understanding. MOST Cubans are not white. Nearly all Cubans who were able to flee the island in late 50s (as well as the Marielitos in the 70s) were allowed to take almost NOTHING with them yet in ~3 generations we have FULLY assimilated into American society and by most indicators (political, economic, education AND marrying outside of our group) have surpassed even non-hispanic whites. Germans, Jews, irish, eastern europeans it took between 70-100yrs or More. Black Americans those born here have not managed to fully assimilate THEMSELVES in >200 years (if u use 1865 as the start). Is that because of systemic racism? Or a combination of shame and a great deal of self-loathing carried from slavery through generation after generation. I theorize this led to an increasing dependency on other groups (primarily the white majority) to “give them freedom, self-respect and opportunity. So despite material opportunities - educational, occupational, etc. they continue to destroy themselves. Regardless of race one cannot expect ANYONE to GIVE these things to you. Now the bill has come to them - the consequence of this dependency (high incarceration, illiteracy, low economic achievement, violence, multi-generational dependence on institutions) Now when they still arent making it in society they continue to blame “THE SYSTEM” rather than change from within. NOW the rest American society is surrendering its rights, freedoms, liberties, we are being REQUIRED to release our self-respect and admit guilt(?) to salve their wounds and give <14% of the population control over all ither groups when they cannot even manage their own. I WILL NOT give up all that I have earned not financial, not education, not my creativity, not my right to speak freely AND i will NEVER apologize for my heritage and their contribution to my country. I am American NOT Cuban American. And i am grateful.
What you are saying is in line with what Black conservatives are saying about education and black cultural in general. Minorities need charter schools, parochial schools, schools that break out of the liberal mold and provide the discipline and character building that these young kids need. (see Thomas Sowell) Public schools and the multi-cultural agenda that is consuming so much of society will not allow for that paradigm change.
I recently quit my post-retirement job as a mental health counselor in an urban environment. My thesis is a little darker. Liberals need a Black underclass. Shelby Steele in "White Guilt" talks about a deal made with what is "low and cowardly in both races". Liberal whites need to dissociate from their guilt by blaming their racist political opponents. Politically, this works for Democrats. In the process, liberals imprison Blacks in an underclass of low expectations. BLM will only make breaking out of these low expectations so much harder. Once the game became clear to me, I realized that it would be best if I quit my job.
I became a fan of your writing Matt with your articles on russiagate. You were able to see through the absurd nonsense of the official party line. How strange that you fall for the Fox Butterfield effect. Crime is down because people are in jail. Why is this so hard to believe?
I know some people believe that theory (including the Freakonomics guy), and a few studies did suggest it, but most criminologists now dispute it, for a few big reasons. The incarceration rates began skyrocketing long before the crime rate began dropping, and any impact of taking repeat/habitual offenders off the street would end up minimized over time as new offenders grew up to replace them. The theories on why the crime rate has dropped range from people who want to credit Broken Windows to less alcohol consumption to the median age of the population dropping to less leaded gasoline to better psych drugs to cultural differences in the population of new immigrants. Whatever the reason, a solution that involves increasing the prison population by a factor of five and leaves hundreds of thousands of nonviolent offenders in jail for long periods of time is unsustainable.
One suggestion I’ve seen for the drop in crime rate is the significant decline in the teen birth rate. The teen birth rate (15-19 yo) has has steadily declined from 89.1 per 1000 females in 1960 to 17.4 in 2018, an 80% reduction. Great news! The impact on crime rate takes time as, obviously, young children don’t commit many crimes. The age group with the highest crime rate is 16-35. When you calculate and chart the average teen birth rate 16-35 years prior to each year and compare it to that year’s crime rate the correlation is very strong. This suggests that we could experience a continued decline in the crime rate for the next 16-35 year, even if teen births start increasing. Fantastic news. One concerning stat that has changed during the same period is the % of out-of-wedlock teen births has doubled from 44% to 88%. Concerning because, as Obama stated in his 2008 fatherhood speech, the children who grow up without a father are 20 times more likely to end up in prison. But this still doesn’t explain the stubbornly high incarceration rate given the crime rate has declined by half since its peak in 1991.
Incarceration in this country is criminogenic. That's all there is to it. And it's worth noting that claims that jailing criminals decrease crime per se, simply because more people behind bars, ignore most of the crimes committed in jails and prisons between inmates.
American prisons are places where the most physically imposing and antisocial mentalities are often able to find adaptive niches that allow them easier time than those they victimize. And that situation in turn contributes to a milieu of mistrust, fear, intimidation, and coldness that prioritizes antisocial values over prosocial ones. It's more of a problem in some institutions than others. But any time there's a situation of overcrowding, the most lawless and violent prisoners are empowered at the expense of every other person in the institution, including the COs.
So don't even talk like prison is some key solution to the crime problems in this country.
Even if this was correct - does it not beg the question why America is unique in it's level of criminality? How is it that 1 in 4 prisoners on the planet are in the US? How is it that we are 5% of the worlds population but have 25% of the prison population? More than China and Russia - supposed bastions of human rights abuses? I'll help u - its because we are racist af. What we have done to the black and brown community is a form of ethnic cleansing. We have criminalized poverty and race.Its disgusting and it has to stop. The US has lost its moral standing in the eyes of the world because of this. You can't criticize Iran or Russia when everyone know what we are doing!
It's guns and inequality. We aren't unique in our levels of assault, for example, which are similar to those of comparable countries. Homicide we are unique. Because we have so many guns. Which makes the job of the police more difficult & deadly.
Yes, we are racist. But, overwhelmingly homicides are intraracial non-police involved shootings where a dispute escalated into a lethal killing because guns.
My personal view of it is that this is the Drug War. The point of the Drug War was to distract the citizens from the Viet Nam war. Essentially it was meant to bring the war home and keep the people in line. The Drug War is lifestyle policing. Since pot was as much as a felony and bigger cocaine and heroin being the same and smaller with higher profit margins and a whole other nation & its problems and corruption the product on the streets changed. In fact youth who are adults now, bought the idea of pot as as much of an affliction as heroin or coke. People such as myself represented a spike in suicides since we are old and have chronic pain from our illnesses and have been on time release morphine for many years. We can be found since we get what we
get by prescription. The movement to take from us what we need to function was with its own metrics pivoted and pivots on piss tests and the piss test industry and we get lied about and hurt. Don't get old and ill. You will find you are easier to hurt. Bad laws make a bad society and we have created an American Dystopia. I read that the officer said "See kids this is what happens to you when you do drugs." If he really did say that he proves my view of the fact of our societal reality. Only the ones of pure piss can become police you know. The only bullies I knew in school either became junkies or police. Yes there is a longer history of racism than what has happened since the Viet Nam War and Nixon and his declaration of War on Drugs. I admire Ed Baptist book "The Half Has Never been Told" and love it. Everyone ought read it. However my history is since 1952. Yes there have been wars as we know them, but I and my peers have had our lives stolen as a man suffers in wartimes throughout the years of the Drug War.
You've got it right. Check out Chasing the Scream - it brings it all together: Nixon created the war on drugs to take down the hippies and the Blacks. The result is mass incarceration, militarized police and cops killing with impunity.
Matt: Do you care to comment on WSJ: However sickening the video of Floyd’s arrest, it isn’t representative of the 375 million annual contacts that police officers have with civilians. A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing. Crime and suspect behavior, not race, determine most police actions.
In 2019 police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or otherwise dangerous. African-Americans were about a quarter of those killed by cops last year (235), a ratio that has remained stable since 2015. That share of black victims is less than what the black crime rate would predict, since police shootings are a function of how often officers encounter armed and violent suspects. In 2018, the latest year for which such data have been published, African-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit about 60% of robberies, though they are 13% of the population.
Brilliant! So one must ask why the skewed perception of Police as Predator in the black community? I am overwhelmingly drawn to the conclusion that the media is responsible for skewing the facts to incite racial animus. Much like Willie Sutton's quip about robbing banks (that's where the money is), police disproportionately come in contact with the black community because the black community is over-represented in the commission of crime. It may be impolite to observe but nearly all the high profile events that have caused consternation have been with black males who have some history of engaging in anti-social behavior.
The encouragement for police to use steroids to bulk up, ignoring the health and roid-rage side effects, has not been recently investigated to my knowledge; it would explain the sudden and unprovoked violent attacks by police. Matt this is a pervasive problem -that's completely ignored by the MSM and even when officially investigated police steroid stories -just vanish like the Arlington Texas PD steroid scandal -where one charged officer "Vo" committed suicide and charged officers Kantos and Hermans -who were initially linked to the Steroid Scandal -were ultimately dealt with as "Corruption Cases" https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/06/14/arlington-police-chief-angry-over-steroid-scandal/
Police use of steroids is definitely a thing, and has been for decades- I've known about it since the 1990s. The evidence for it has been repeatedly documented in domestic violence, abuse, and other criminal cases. I first heard about it from an abused spouse who told me about the situation.
Juicing with steroids has also been documented in the ranks of the military- especially within "elite units" like Army Special Forces, Navy SEALS, etc.
That compilation is 76 pages and running, with the first reports dating from 2006, each page containing multiple entries of new reports added every 1-2 weeks, typically featuring multiple cases from across the US.
Really, a simple search of the keywords [police+corruption+drugs"] is guaranteed to bring up an array of cases in the results. Lots of them are in smaller cities and towns. I saw a new one just yesterday, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Add any major city, metropolitan area, or state that you like, you'll almost certainly find a bundle of them. Many of them have involved entire "elite narcotics units" or task forces.
Furthermore, a historical search over the span of the last 50-60 years or so demonstrates beyond all doubt that the scandals are unending! The exposure of corruption in a big-city police elite vice/narcotics unit, and the trial and convictions of the officers involved, doesn't mean that the situation has been cleaned up once and for all- it has a way of flaring up again. And again. What happened to the drugs seized in the famous "French Connection" case, from back in the 1960s- at one time a record-breaking seizure of heroin? Stolen from the evidence locker by New York City cops who sold it to the locals in charge of the heroin trade there.
The only way to put a final stop to the corruption of police forces by the illicit drugs markets is to reform the drug laws to divert the bulk of the demand into legal channels, or into addiction maintenance programs supervised by medical professionals. I'll grant that's liable to lead to some corruption problems related to diversion, but they'll be on a much smaller scale, and they won't center on police and law enforcement.
At any rate, I can't imagine how a legally managed regime that permits addiction maintenance programs as a means of keeping people functional within a wider context of providing drug treatment and recovery medical services would be worse than the rampant lack of accountability presently found within the Rehab Industry: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/21/my-years-in-the-florida-shuffle-of-drug-addiction
Seems the topic is finally getting the attention it merits - roid rage cops is like storing gas cans in a crack house .
The Hidden World of Police on Steroids
By John Hoberman
Breaking down the “Blue Wall of Silence,” this landmark book investigates the widespread, illegal use of anabolic steroids in major urban police departments and how it contributes to excessive violence in American policing.
Hi Matt, great article and very thoughtfully written. Some additional information, peeling back the onion of high level crime statistics and their apparent 'decline'- specifically masking declines of homicide, felony theft and felony drug cases. Sharing reports from Chicago/Cook County, demonstrating how 1. police accounting and 2. district attorney decisions reflect declines in high level crime statistics when the underlying actual criminal activities are unchanged. Referencing sources going back several years, simply to demonstrate this is not a new phenomenon.
1. Police Accounting- 'The Truth About Chicago’s Crime Rates':
"We identified 10 people, including Groves, who were beaten, burned, suffocated, or shot to death in 2013 and whose cases were reclassified as death investigations, downgraded to more minor crimes, or even closed as noncriminal incidents—all for illogical or, at best, unclear reasons.... Chicago found dozens of other crimes, including serious felonies such as robberies, burglaries, and assaults, that were misclassified, downgraded to wrist-slap offenses, or made to vanish altogether.'
2. The Kim Foxx Effect: How Prosecutions Have Changed in Cook County
Agreed, but the "minor" crimes that go unreported are very harmful to individuals, not just the major crimes, and the minor crimes are 100 fold greater in frequency.
I drove a cab for some years in Sacramento between the years 1986 and 2005. I noticed a shift toward more embrace of what might be termed "LA gangster culture" beginning in the mid-1990s. And it is a fact that much of that phenomenon was the result of the relocation of teenagers from gang-affiliated LA neighborhoods up to Sacramento. I don't find gangster culture especially charming as a style, and it did bring some new gangs to the area. It's a dead-end path for people stuck in that life into adulthood. But it didn't make my job that much more difficult. In fact, I had a couple of years in the late 1990s where I was practically bewildered about how well things were going. Like, not a single run-out in over a year? Amazing. Yes, cab drivers were always getting robbed, year in and year out. The only exceptions I know of were myself., and one other driver. I did notice things starting to get meaner after "9/11", especially once the Iraq War was on. Rougher, more belligerent. Sometimes directed at me, sometimes at my passengers, or just stuff I noticed on the street. Like there was more of a license to act obnoxiously. Not that much worse, but definitely harsher and meaner. But I got out of the game and moved to the East Coast in late 2005, so I don't know what happened on the streets of Sac after that. It feels weird that it was nearly 15 years ago.
I know that a lot of property offenses aren't being properly investigated in a lot of places these days- and I think that California has taken a wrong turn in being so lenient. But their prisons were bulging at the seams by the late 1990s. That's the result of confusing the War on Drugs with a crime control strategy. The War on Drugs is actually criminogenic. And it's worth noting that most of the worst unreported crimes- like home invasions, assaults, thefts at gunpoint, etc.- are found within the illegal drug economy. They're still crimes, and unreported crimes do have a way of empowering the perpetrators to do more of them.
But there's no intrinsic reason why the flowers of a simple annual plant should be worth $300 an ounce. And there's no intrinsic reason why hundreds of thousands of people who find themselves on the street in the grip of opioid addiction should be relegated to victim fodder for that small group of criminals who thrive by being antisocial predators, either.
I also think there are too many criminal-minded Americans these days. But that's also to some extent a knock-on effect of 40 years of overcrowding in the prisons, and the rise of the Gangland culture spawned and grown behind bars- particularly given that producing offspring is viewed as a hallmark of Manhood among males (of any ethnicity) in the gang-affiliated criminal life, while the duties of Fatherhood are more often given minimal attention (whether the father is behind bars or not.) And Gangland culture is nowhere without the economic underpinning of the illicit drugs markets that sluice tens of billions of dollars through the hands of criminals (while legitimate entry level jobs have paid non-living wages for decades on end.) So now we're into 3, 4 generations of dynastic criminality in some families. It should be acknowledged that various illegal street hustles have been part of "ethnic minority culture" for long before the 1960s. But it was a marginal fraction, at most. What the explosion of the drugs markets in the 1960s-1980s did was to increase the economic power of that formerly disreputable fraction to the point where they held the controlling interest in many of those neighborhoods. (At the expense of every stabilizing force, from independent business in the neighborhoods to the churches and the schools. Dollar for dollar, none of those institutions could match the appeal of profits in the illicit drugs trade.)
And, oh yeah, in the 1990s. this also happened throughout the rural white regions of the country, and every small-town economy hollowed out by globalization.
This points out a problem I've always had, the over-identification of the Drug War with anti-black racism- it confuses the issue in a lot of ways, not least by implicitly linking "drugs" and "blackness." I have no problem agreeing with the proposition that the Drug War is racist- but it's also unjust, corrupt, wrong, and inexcusably punitive for a host of other reasons. Referring to the Drug War as a simple proposition of a War Against Black Folks is a mistake, both in terms of identifying the central problem and because it provides no answers whatsoever as to how to remedy the problems caused by the Drug War. A criminal justice policy to address "mass incarceration" with mass releases and/or leniency toward petty criminals and retail drug dealers WITHOUT getting rid of the criminal monopoly over the (currently forbidden) drugs trade is liable to lead to the worst of both worlds- a massive increase in criminality, career criminal ("gang") power, and addicted users consigned to a social milieu where criminal values prevail. And if that happens, there will be a backlash. Spineless liberals will be blamed for that disaster, and the right wing will be resurgent.
So I exaggerated, great catch. You do make some very good points. A lot of the crime gang on gang goes investigated because the victims will not cooperate with police.
Many times no one witnessing a gang-related crime "cooperates with police", either. The gangs have the time and the inclination to coerce or buy silence; the police only have 8-hour watches with which to persuade witnesses to risk their lives as informants and witnesses. In the most practical respects, the gangs have more resources, more inside intelligence and counterintelligence, better infrastructure, and more easily mobilized personnel than the police.
Which is precisely why it's imperative to review how it is that situation arose in the first place. Street gangs were confined to a handful of US cities, prior to the 1980s. They didn't have nearly the membership or organizational strength in the 1960s and 1970s; I remember reading an interview with Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels "law enforcement assistance" group in New York City in 1979, and he was openly lamenting the fact that an epidemic of cheap high quality heroin had led to the collapse of neighborhood gangs in the city. But within only a few years, the gangs were back in New York, more well-organized and well-funded than ever, revitalized by the crack cocaine trade and the steady supply available from Caribbean-based transport networks.
The other part has to do with the wholesale breakdown of social taboos against forbidden substances in the American populace- particularly by the young, and people of early middle age- that occurred between around 1964 and 1980. Having lived through each and every years of the supposed "just say no" Reagan-Bush 1980s in various communities- including Republican strongholds- I can attest that the toothpaste was out of the tube by then, and it never went back in. And the intensification of the Drug War in the Reagan years only made the entire business more sordid, and the scene surrounding the use of forbidden drugs more ignorant, nihilistic, and sinister. Especially for the teenage cohort. An awful lot of other drugs piggy-backed on to the coast-to-coast mycelial network of illicit retail outlets already devoted to marijuana, exploiting that infrastructure as a gateway to a new crop of consumers. First meth, then Oxy, then heroin...all of which were cheaper on a per-dose basis than pot by the 1990s (which wasn't even close to being so in the 1970s.) From the standpoint of legal penalties, might as well get shot for a sheep as a lamb, so to speak. And all of the customers were criminal by definition. Pariahs. Privileges of wealth, class, and race undeniably provide a substantial advantage in terms of the risks of crossing paths with the police. But very few of even the most privileged illegal drug users enjoy outright impunity, or are under the delusion that they are completely exempt from legal hazards. At some level, all illicit drug users are aware of their law-breaking status. Furtive behavior, concealment, cunning, duplicity, isolation, and social immersion with other lawbreakers is the rule for everyone who participates in the illegal drug scene.
It's interesting the way that use of a formerly unheard-of substance has been found to catch on with a younger generation, while the older generations overwhelmingly abstained, either reflexively condemnatory or oblivious to a practice newly acquired by the youth, even when its popularity spread like wildfire under their noses. When Walter Raleigh brought dried tobacco leaves from the colonies to England, the strange new practice of burning the leaves and inhaling the fumes was made popular by British youths in their teens and twenties, not by their elders. Casual tobacco use has turned out to be a terribly unhealthy habit- but if the elders had responded to the newfound popularity of tobacco in the 17th century with a campaign of mass criminalization of the users, it would have made matters an order of magnitude worse all around, I think
With that in mind, the worst impacts on communities don't result from the use of drugs- not even hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. Admittedly, the harm from the abuse of those drugs is indisputable- as with alcohol. And there's a case to be made that heavy use of those drugs takes heavy users down faster than alcohol, with much more liability of acute lethal overdose. But the harm of illegal drug use has also been exaggerated as if it was solely to blame for the deterioration of the communities where the markets are concentrated, when the worst impacts on communities are actually about the cascade of direct and indirect consequences connected to the entrenchment of the institution of the illicit marketplace- and the price supports that make the trade so enormously profitable. A situation entirely due to criminalization and Prohibition.
Alcohol Prohibition only lasted 13 years. In only 13 years, the profits from that illicit marketplace moved ethnic syndicates made up of a small number of criminals from their home neighborhoods to wealth, status, and even enduring legacy of power related to political corruption. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to the Irish and Italian neighborhoods- and to cities like Chicago and Detroit- if the criminal gang monopoly over the alcohol trade in those places had extended 40, 50, 80 more years. But Prohibition was different from the Drug War in some ways. For one thing, simple possession of small quantities of liquor in the Prohibition era was never a Federal crime...it was briefly considered, but quickly ruled out. For another, the illicit alcohol trade would have required a massive expansion of manufacturing and inventory capacity to bring in as much revenue as can be obtained from a network of stash houses for drugs. Illegalized drugs benefit from an enormous price-to-weight ratio even at the source end of the trade, and are so compact and fungible that they have features than more closely resemble currency or precious metals than consumer goods like bottled potable beverages.
My argument for dismantling the Drug War in favor of legalization and medicalization is not ideology based. It's reality-based.
Correct at least here in L.A. I have stopped calling the police for theft and vandalism. I know other minority owned businesses that don't bother either. The police dept now have an online platform you can report misdemeanor crimes in Los Angeles (such as theft under $950), it's cumbersome, there is no consequence to the thief and sometimes the crimes don't fall under the chosen categories to report online anyway. I still do it out of principal, so the crime counts in statistics but I know some shop owners that can't waste the time. :(
Beyond the obvious and always present racism and the growing disaffection so many have towards a society and government that clearly does not care for large segments of the population, regardless of color, we have the growing ethos of a warrior mentality, not only among the military, but the police as well, which is seen at nearly any sporting event, where both groups are over represented, both on the field with police now everywhere, but also among many especially NFL coaches who seem to think desert camou fits all occasions, and of course, the now obligatory flyover of the otherwise useless F-35 flying coffin.
I did a tour in Vietnam in 67-68 with the 101st, and when I compare how were "protected" by a useless flack jacket and helmet compared to the robot like garments worn by the police, I can't help but wonder what these people think they're doing, other than to appear as outlandishly over dressed for the occasion. Instead of being ashamed of themselves, I have no doubt the quite like the appearance they pose. Whatever the case, you act like you dress, and the group psychology of the cops is apparent to anyone who has protested in front of them; many of them are clearly itching to apply some "asymmetrical warfare" to the sign carrying people in front of them.
Lastly, the last 19 years of pointless ME wars have not only stoked anti Muslim/Arab racism always latent in this country, many of those having served overseas now wearing blue, it has also clearly increased both the identification and tangible connection between Israel and its views regarding subject populations and both the US political elite and its police arm, many of which now receive training from Israel, a process that has made clear the connection between Israeli political/cultural influence, and events here in the US. Israel did not create the problem, but it has certainly used events to further its influence within this country. I'd love to have five bucks for every time I've heard someone in a position of power defend certain draconian security policies by mentioning how Israel has had to learn that lesson the hard way, and adapted to it. Seemingly, the mere mention of Israel in connection with any action that is questioned is supposed to both be the definitive justification and to end the conversation, there and then.
Breaking down the “Blue Wall of Silence,” this landmark book investigates the widespread, illegal use of anabolic steroids in major urban police departments and how it contributes to excessive violence in American policing.
Pretty sure having the Mossad train the police trainers was a bad idea as well. We also need to demand every agency comply with a psychological evaluation and screening process before we start handing out military grade weapons to them. There seems to be a cult inside some agencies that makes sure the non psycho cops are too scared to report the psycho ones.
Definitely agree with the second part of your post — but the "Mossad" piece practices guilt by association and is also wrong. You can check this out if you want to see where I'm coming from here — https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-did-israeli-secret-service-teach-floyd-police-to-kneel-on-neck.
Something I come here for is to unwind some of the conflations that have become unthinking "fact" in the 140-character age. Sorry to be the Jew who gets his back up when someone criticizes Israel — but if you want to criticize counter-terrorism training in American police departments then do it cleanly, without invoking stereotype shorthand.
I live in ultra-liberal Los Angeles and I can assure you crime is up and incarceration is down. The reason: our politicians decriminalized crimes. I have a charitable store in an affluent area, our proceeds help animals and the homeless. There are meth heads doing drugs on the sidewalk, commercial and residential break ins are routine. I have had thugs walk out with our donation jar and nothing I can do because if there's less than $950 in there it's a misdemeanor. Other stores have the same issues: employees and paying customers stand helplessly by as criminals and/or homeless load up their bags with merchandise, liquor or whatever they want and calmly walk out the door. They dare not intervene or they risk injury. Nothing can be done because as long as they take under $950 worth of merchandise it would be a ticket and cops won't respond to it anyway. 88 buildings were burned on Melrose during the riots this week. I'm terrified to lose my store. The homeless rely on our ability to provide clothing, food, vet assistance for their pets.
Crimes are occurring they're just not reflecting in the stats because crime is not a crime anymore.
You really need to get rid of that jar and get a box you can bolt down to the cash wrap. No one needs to know how much has been donated but you. A jar would get ripped off just about anywhere as long as someone thought they could get away with it.
We replaced the jar with another one bolted to the table. :)
Good luck to you weathering this bad time. You are a really decent human being!!!
You know what this is interesting, as it seems to be happening no where else. I am sure that you are absolutely believable, and there is no reason to question anything you are saying.
https://www.losangeles-criminallawyer.com/criminal-defense/theft/shoplifting
What??
Matt, you're not wrong, but you're thinking backwards. Without some socially agreed-upon construct, wilders and mercenaries would rule every neighborhood in America, which would be reduced to enclaves -- of same-religion, same-language, same-faith clumps of families. It's local consciousness vs what are perceived as universal truths, Matt. The hive or hornet's nest has a lot more parallel segments than a two-room billet -- that is, the idea of binary codes dominating everything is seductive but flawed. What police actually do would exist if no one was ever hired as a police force. It would all be ad-hoc and vigilante, and it would be a whole lot worse than police forces killing 50 whites and 20 blacks a year. The best examples are the neighborhoods where crime presumably is high -- just as existed in Rome at least 2000 years ago. Unofficial gangs or triads or Benevolent Associations or Cattlemen Clubs would immediately proliferate like crazy. And deaths occurring in the interests of "order" would multiply by 10,000 times. To try to "fix" human nature is always absurd and dangerous -- if it can be done, it destroys humanity. Instead, policing is like a lot of other skills -- it is intended to reduce the incidence of violence for the benefit of the community. Our police organizations are much, much better than what would take their place. I always try to remember that Thoreau 's friend (or friends) paid his tax bill so he wouldn't have to be incarcerated indefinitely. Theoretical anarchy is beautiful, but just look at what we do to each other when lef6 to our own devices. On issues like this, I expect to see Amazon, Google, and other avatars of homogeneous societies to wholly agree with Matt's analysis. Not because they appreciate analysis, but because race hatred, like other forms of self-destroying tribal glue, creates so much space to make the Masters of the Universe appear magnanimous. After 42 years of massive wealth transfer from the least wealthy to the obscenely rich, the most desperate victims attack each other over scraps and crumbs. Same as it ever was. The "Modern" solution is the one-World, all-knowing Big Brother who sees us all as equals and treats us all the same, all the time. Satellite-id chips for everyone. The point here is that local control, decentralization, and individual liberty will always protect some degree of prejudice and even ignorance. In the same way that Jack Dorsey fantasizes that there is only one set of ideas any good person could possibly consider, Matt doesn't see the potential thugs in our midst. And we are all potential thugs. That's human DNA 101.
Prescient post...CHAZ (or CHOP) provided a clear refresher on what happens when citizens are left to police an area themselves.
Spot On!
In addition to the famous "nasty, brutish and short" line, Hobbes thought society should be modeled on the human physiology, with a head, heart, lungs and so on to specialize in managing the collective. I think he was right about human nature; not sure a society can operate on those principles. The individual case expanded to the collective is seductive, but not very much seen in actual experience. Hume would (probably did) say Hobbes' empirical argument for the model is weak. Unfortunately, in my experience, thuggery too often is the rule -- in business, government, even personal relationships. Not to take advantage is the rare bird -- the Quixote.
When I was 19, myself and a group of about 30 Black & Latino kids from Santa Monica went to Will Roger's state Park - to hike, play football and engage in some BS. My great grandfather had actually been a groundskeeper there in the early 30s I believe. Well after we some dumbshit the LAPD came with about 10 cars, a helicopter and about 15 cops who proceeded to beat the shit out of us, put us on our knees and call us niggers and beaners. The story is mentioned in M Davis' City of QUARTZ. We were known as the "Will Rodgers Park kids."
Luckily, the grandfather of Lewayne Williamson, one of our homies, was President of the SM/ Venice NAACP and we started a suit. Sorry to go on, but the most memorable thing the main cop said to us was ( i am quoting directly since I remember it so well) "I take my kid to school every morning and I point to you punks and tell him, 'they are the enemy.' And I have to tell you I get a hard on each morning knowing I may have the chance to beat the shit out of one of you."
These are very memorable events. The less memorable ones are being pulled over every day. Failure to stop, illegal right turn, looking suspicious, you resemble a suspect we are looking for, or just fuck you pull over. I have had cops choke me, put a gun to my head, handcuff me and kick me in the back into bushes and have been arrested for assault on a police officer for touching his hand as he pushed me down.
On holloween we would go to the northside, cuz our white friends would invite us to parties. Yes, we acted up - just like they did. One year, we were ordered back to the south part of town. They told us the route to take. They put a car on each corner and we had to walk 10+ blocks back below Whilshire blvd. We had cars, but we lied so they would not do as usual - take our dashboards apart, our speakers, turn the trunk inside out, and ravage the seats. They would then had us a zip lock bag with the screws and leave. Yes, sometimes they found a joint, a knife or some stupid shit. We were kids. Rough kids for sure.
A year later a few friends and I were shot in a drive by. One lost his life, and I took five. I have to note - we were officially listed as gang members and for many of us, that was true. We had formed clubs, packs and crews just like the surfers, taggers, and skaters. The cops asked us if we saw anything and in the shock of the moment we prob described the car or something but we said we don't talk to cops - like EVERYONE says in the hood. My point is - they never - ever called me or followed up. Four people shot, one killed. No investigation - NONE. But the second we went to 2nd st where all the looting recently happened - we got busted up and kicked out. We were "banned" from the mall and the 3rd St Promenade. Shit I even got kicked out of prom by the "gang unit."
Sorry for rambling, but all of this stuff now brings back so many memories. It was a low intensity warfare. Our communities were occupied. Young Black and brown men were targeted. But also, (my long ass point here) it was all done in spectacle to show the white neighbors and older folks and us that they were in charge and that we were some sort of (more handsome) version of the Sopranos or something. Or worse, some 3rd world band of thugs or somali pirates. We were kids. Stupid kids, as kids are. Many times White people would come by and clap or say "good job officer." I fucken hated that.
We all want peace, a nice home, a good job, health and a safe community. And now everyone is SM has most of that - it is just without us. It was a precursor to the gentrification, and as we all moved to Inglewood - when the whites moved out of there after the high school was integrated in 1979. The same shit was happening there. Funny thing is there were no White people to protect there. As you say, it is just there job - "order" AKA were the boss - shut the fuck up - get on the floor and show me some ID - Now go home or we will shoot you.
So in 1992 - WE BURNED THAT BITCH DOWN. WTF else would we do. But it all just happens over and over again. Anyway, love the story will check out that book.
And for other infuriating reading, check out "The Divide" by Matt as well. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Straight talk. Best thing I have read since seeing the murder online.
Really? We should get rid of the police? This is Minneapolis without the police: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ACPdvckwMS0
Yes, really. Your evidence has no date. There's just a lot of very brutal (staged?) action apparently from closed circuit TV's that goes on for a really long time. Makes me wonder why the cops never made an appearance. Can't say I find your "evidence," including the people speaking on behalf of law and order, very persuasive. I think that communities that regulate themselves are the best communities.
Are you kidding? Staged? This was all over the Minneapolis news in late 2019 because it has happened numerous times. Do you have Google? https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2019/09/16/20-arrested-18-charged-in-brutal-downtown-minneapolis-robberies/
If you are going to willfully close your eyes to manifest crime and violence in our urban communities, there is nothing I can say that will make a difference
So, it's TV "journalism." Why didn't you say so? You characterized the scene as "Minneapolis without police." In fact, it's Minneapolis with police, but they were absent. Where were they? Busting heads somewhere else? As Michelle Alexander says, "We need an effective system of crime prevention and control in our communities, but that is not what the current system is. This system is better designed to create crime, and a perpetual class of people labeled criminals."
Yes, there has long been an east-west block in Spanish Harlem that is its own "Little Italy." No police needed at all. It is ethnically homogeneous, however, which is often a characteristic of self-regulating communities.
That’s where the Luchese or Genovese crime family maintained their clubhouse for years after the composition of the rest of East Harlem switched from Italian to mostly Latino......
Jimmy Breslin, who sometimes described himself as the spouse of "the former Rosemarie D'Attolico" - not sure spelling-- would write articles about "Un Occhio," a man who ran a candy store in that neighborhood; it never had any candy for sale.
You mean like the citizen “journalism” on IG? 30sec of carefully edited video posted to support one narrow viewpoint? What happens the 5 or even 1min BEFORE that? What is the scene? What is happening off camera? Do i need to state the obvious: murder is murder and murder is wrong. Now tell me how shooting ANYONE (even a cop) in the back of the head is justified. Check follows & followers on IG or Twitter to get your answer
Oh. It's TV "journalism." Why didn't you say so. You characterized the scene as "Minneapolis without police." In fact, it's Minneapolis with police, but they were somewhere else. Where were they? Busting heads somewhere else?
I recvd email stating this was reply to my post. You write “Minneapolis” in quotes when i did not mention it or any other city. The rest of your post above does not apply either. Maybe someone else.
I'd invite you to read www.dunwalke.com where Catherine A. Fitts documents prisons for profit (this section - https://dillonreadandco.com/cornell-corrections/) as well as loads of political and corporate malfeasance that Mr. Taibbi would be well acquainted with.
On a recent Joe Rogan podcast Jocko Willink talked about how little the police actually get to drill tough scenarios and, while not an excuse, it can be seen as at least a partial reason why things escalate so badly. Another interview with ex Mr Universe Ronnie Coleman, who was a cop, talks about some of what was wrong from his perspective.
Exactly. Defunding the police and making less lethal forms of force illegal (e.g. chokehold) will result in a less trained, less equipped police force with less options at their disposal to avoid deadly force. The end result will be an increase in police related fatalities. Jocko makes the case that police departments actually need more funding to train more and hire higher quality individuals for the job. I completely agree.
Once again Matt great thought with no bias. What Good journalism used to be!
This is a tragic situation we find ourselves in. No one really believes the BS coming out of the authorities anymore. After being lied to via Russiagate, WMD, shamed into giving up livelihoods for “social distancing and virtue signaling lockdowns, and seeing the unfair treatment of our fellow citizens we can understand the pain and frustration in communities of color and low-income citizens. Thank God for video cameras. Rodney King wasn’t a one-off. There is no nuance in reporting today. Legitimate protesters are being lumped in with ANTIFA and crazy people who want free box wine and TV’s. It’s sad. Nothing has really changed since in 1968.
This is a really bad time in America. Much of it stems from the corporatization of the prison industrial complex being fed money by the Biden crime bill, three strikes and you’re out, the idiotic war on drugs, and the unequal application of the law for those with money vs those who get a horrible public defender.
I have nothing else to say except this may last a lot longer than we think.
Great, salient and thoughtfully stated. I hate to think we’ve come so far only to end up here.
One of my strongest beliefs is if we focused on creating income equivalence the greater portion of race and political infighting would disappear. The fear and powerlessness of living in poverty is incendiary. 11% of the population lives at or below the FEDERALLY established poverty line 50% +/- middle class (which depending on where u live means nothing) and the rest subsidized by both its a recipe for disaster. When u work and cant afford essentials, and those responsible are tone deaf to all but their own concerns (Retaining wealth and power) where else to focus that anger? Race. Its hardwired instinct to fear The Other and we have a system that encourages even forces people to revert to primal behavior when there’s nowhere else to go
You cover a lot of ground -- accurately.
Thank you Matt. Also note the unprecedented looting by Wall Street, identical imperial foreign policy by Dems and Repubs, the entire Epstein pedophile saga silenced and all participants above the law, Russia-gate hoax, evangelical extremists at CDC completely mishandling Covid response, etc., etc. Apparently our country can't reform itself at all
The bigger picture is that our police forces have been militarized. I agree that minority/poor populations are more often seen as the enemy than white middle/upper class populations. But I disagree with the efforts to compartmentalize this issue into a purely racial problem. Plenty of white unarmed individuals are murdered by hyped up cops - a quick search of the internet will give you plenty of examples. And plenty of white folks are violently abused by the police every day for suspected minor offenses, cases of mistaken identity, and other incidents that don't justify the abuse. Someone will probably call me a racist for saying this (for reasons I won't be able to understand) but I wish the conversation would focus on police brutality against all people in this country (except of course the elite who get away with everything without consequence).
I think it goes beyond that. There's a cult like atmosphere in some dept's that keep decent cops from weeding out the whacko's which is made much worse by the militarization and pressure to make numbers for their superiors.
Matt
Even as a Reagan conservative, I continue to love your work. It is provocative and you seem open to evidence and persuasion. This causes people like me to listen more carefully to people like you.
In nearly 40 years as a liberal turned conservative (1980), I have never heard any conservative, no matter how redneck, try to justify some of the gross errors in judgment that some police officers make. But I believe you overstate the problem. I am sure that being hassled for quality of life crimes is tiresome, even infuriating. But two points must be made. First, blacks are disproportionately represented in anti-social crimes. Their disproportionate clash with police is at least somewhat responsible for this reality. Second, the drop in crime cannot be conveniently disassociated from incarceration by arguing that there is a time lag from mass incarceration to the drop in crime. Even as many sentences imprison bad actors, this changes the calculation of risk by future potential actors. I can guess that we will start to see an upsurge in crime as we relax incarceration and enforcement of quality of life crimes. Time will tell.
You make the point several times that the police enforced race codes and now enforce quality of life crimes. You seem to argue that the police are in error for doing so. Let me see if I can give an alternative explanation and another “villain.”
I would argue that the police enforce whatever the social norm is that is reflective of the current thinking of the zeitgeist of the particular time in which they practice policing. If the zeitgeist changes, policing will change. The proper “villain” then is the zeitgeist, not the police.
If you want policing to reflect a different norm, change the zeitgeist. You cannot possibly argue that policing has become more racist or less professional in the last 50 years. Police reflect the standards of society.
Your complaint is that the zeitgeist’s norms offend your sensibilities. But your job is to change those norms, not scapegoat the institution that is merely reflecting these norms.
You say police hassle “for every conceivable minor offense – public intoxication, public urination, riding bicycles the wrong way down a sidewalk, refusing to obey police orders, jumping subway turnstiles, and, in Garner’s case, selling loose cigarettes.” Can you appreciate that the vast majority of taxpayers who work hard and play by the rules are offended by the behaviors you seem to blithely dismiss?
I may agree with your more genteel sensibilities and would be willing to join you in advancing a more “civilized” approach to policing. But don’t blame the police for carrying out the expectations of the people who don’t complain much. The social experiment of “liberal” institutional change has failed.
I have listened to lots of commentary over the last few days. One lament I heard over and over again was “what do they want?” When Rush Limbaugh asked Charlamagne tha God about his solution, he defaults to “dismantle white supremacy.” Scott Adams rightfully vehemently criticizes that suggestion as incredibly nonspecific. I have not heard any serious analysis leading to specific solutions to “fix the problem.” I wondered WHY?
I have a thesis. Since the mid-1960s, American society has largely accommodated the wish list of many liberals relating to both race and poverty. We have improved the operation of the welfare state to minimize the impact of programs on family structure, instituted affirmative action in education and corporations, adopted minority programs for entrepreneurs, dedicated trillions on education, improved our racial consciousness to the point that the mere utterance of the N word will result in opprobrium in nearly every social situation, improved anti-discrimination laws, dramatically heightened the wall of separation between church and state, elected thousands of black politicians, etc. YET the persistence of the black underclass remains.
My thesis is that we have run out of liberal ideas to implement that seem to seriously tackle any problem that remains. So, we are reduced to Medicare for All, Green New Deal, free college. The problem of the black underclass is now seen as one of structural or institutional racism, with all the eye of the beholder that these amorphous phrases imply.
Focusing on what would help the black underclass, one would have to focus on solutions like culture, family structure, discipline in education, individual initiative, responsibility, spiritual decline, delayed gratification, etc. But these are solutions that have been advocated by conservatives for decades. Indeed, even a liberal Harvard professor like Danial Patrick Moynihan observed in the mid-60s the pernicious effects social programs had on black family structure.
Because the cultural elites would have to admit the failure of their paradigm, they will never embrace these solutions. Thus, we will not make progress.
It's cognitive dissonance, by both Liberals and Conservatives.
Because the real problem is the War on Drugs. And both sides want to duck the urgent necessity to confront it, which grows more dire with every passing day.
I know the tired responses from both sides.
The Conservatives want to posture, scold and morally lecture, while leaving the Drug War untouched. Thereby keeping the staggeringly lucrative monopoly over the drugs trade in the hands of career criminals, asa cash-dollar proposition that the punitive moralist conservatives actually expect 100% of the disrespected poor to resist- when even 100% of the police, the political institutions, and the banking industry aren't turning it down.
The failure to confront the reality of the rise of the Prohibition-empowered illicit drugs markets was the fatal flaw in Daniel Moynihan's 1979 thesis. Because this really is about dollars and cents- or, more cogently, about multi billions of dollars. When law-abiding upright people find themselves at a massive material disadvantage in their own communities compared to those involved in a popular, burgeoning illegal industry, the rest of the moral rectitude thing just collapses. The local church ministry may get $5000 every Sunday from their collection plate, but just one dope-dealing apartment up the street might be doing 50 times that much business every week. Or more.
Meanwhile, the current Liberal position is that the War on Drugs is merely a subset of the wider problem of Racism, and thereby comparatively unimportant. Which is an absurd miscasting of the situation. Racism is only going to get worse, without a reform of the drugs laws that's so comprehensive that it removes the vast majority of the market demand from the hands of criminals.
Racism won't go away just because the War on Drugs is ended. But it is the single. most. intractable. obstacle to improving race relations in this country.
I agree with you that in the realm of institutional policy, there's very little that can be done to address racism DIRECTLY, in the dramatic way that the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968. In my view, much of the Establishment Liberal (i.e., Democratic Party) "antiracist legislation" since then has basically been minor window dressing, an attempt to elevate more or less peripheral measures to the centrality of the 1960s Civil Rights Acts.
But what I find most interesting about this situation is that there is still an area of policy that cries out to be addressed through Federal lawmaking institutions- Drug Law Reform.
In the absence of Federal action that affects the entire nation, States and localities have been left to address that issue piecemeal. The most effective measures at the State and local level have provided for the existence of regulated legal markets. Most of them are quite new. The least effective measures are the ones that don't address the laws themselves, but simply lower drug enforcement as a law enforcement priority. Kurt Schmoke (who I like and respect) tried to do that as mayor of Baltimore in the 1990s. It was a noble attempt by someone who had only limited power, and it failed. Because drugs Prohibition itself remained, the criminal monopoly remained untouched. So simply decreeing lax enforcement of the laws didn't- and doesn't- address the core of the problem.
Constructing a drug policy that balances individual liberties with public health concerns while effectively dismantling the criminal marketplace- or at least shrinking it to the level of a marginal economic concern- is something that has to be tackled by government institutions at the level of legislation and public policy. Trimming around the edges doesn't make it.
"Because the cultural elites would have to admit the failure of their paradigm, they will never embrace these solutions"
I'm more hopeful than you are on that score. But I'm noticing a different "paradigm failure" that's more crucial to the health of this society than the one you're directing your criticism toward. And in that regard, it's a failure shared by both Conservative "cultural elites" and Liberal "cultural elites" in this country.
My 3 steps for improving inner city communities
1-End the War on Drugs. I’m not going to propose specifics here regarding legalization,etc, but removing corner boy as a viable career option, and stopping neighborhoods from serving as drive thru drug marts should be a key goal.
2-Enforce gun laws in a draconian manner. I support concealed carry and the 2nd Amendment rights of all non-felons (Philando Castile was a martyr for the 2nd Amendment in my view), but if you are a felon in possession of a weapon or in a vehicle with an illegal weapon-10 years in prison. Do not pass go. Straw purchase a weapon for a felon-10 years-I don’t care if the straw purchasers is grandma or the cousin attending an out of state college-10 years. Do not pass go. No games by the DAs office-I’m looking at you Cook County.
3-Build big box/Wal Mart stores in underserved neighborhoods. Hire locals. End the food deserts. If the chain needs a bit of a subsidy to offset security/theft costs-they gov’t wastes a helluva lot more $$$$ on a lot of worse ideas. Is working at Wal Mart as cool as putting “community organizer” or “cannabis barista” on the resume-no-but it pays the same/better and does a lot more good for the community-the specific community where the store is located (and currently are not located).
I am also a disillusioned liberal. In fact I was about as far-left as one could be short of a grey “uniform.” Which GREATLY disturbed my family (read on to see why) Having grown up in a single parent home after my father’s death (who btw did not believe in life insurance) my mom was left with 3 children (one of whom was severely handicapped) she worked constantly and when her job, SS survivors benefits, and monthly check from VA just barely covered essentials she gave in and applied for food stamps. She was rejected because she exceeded the threshold by $9/mo. I grew to hate Reagan with a passion and it didnt help when he changed SS survivor’s from 22 (through college) to 18. I saved money from the age of 14 because i wanted to go to journalism school since i was old enough to turn on TV by myself. When it came time for financial aid, i was ineligible (except for loans) because i had too much $ saved. As a result i worked at everything from fast food, retail, to cleaning toilets. I worked 2 PT jobs, was an RA and a stringer for a daily paper WHILE successfully if not exceptionally carrying a full college courseload at a state college. Always made “too much $” to get financial aid. Because of stops and starts it took almost TEN years to get my BA. why am i writing all if this? Because I Think i understand SOME of what the black community experiences. Dod i mention im Cuban? The fact that i am white does limit my understanding. MOST Cubans are not white. Nearly all Cubans who were able to flee the island in late 50s (as well as the Marielitos in the 70s) were allowed to take almost NOTHING with them yet in ~3 generations we have FULLY assimilated into American society and by most indicators (political, economic, education AND marrying outside of our group) have surpassed even non-hispanic whites. Germans, Jews, irish, eastern europeans it took between 70-100yrs or More. Black Americans those born here have not managed to fully assimilate THEMSELVES in >200 years (if u use 1865 as the start). Is that because of systemic racism? Or a combination of shame and a great deal of self-loathing carried from slavery through generation after generation. I theorize this led to an increasing dependency on other groups (primarily the white majority) to “give them freedom, self-respect and opportunity. So despite material opportunities - educational, occupational, etc. they continue to destroy themselves. Regardless of race one cannot expect ANYONE to GIVE these things to you. Now the bill has come to them - the consequence of this dependency (high incarceration, illiteracy, low economic achievement, violence, multi-generational dependence on institutions) Now when they still arent making it in society they continue to blame “THE SYSTEM” rather than change from within. NOW the rest American society is surrendering its rights, freedoms, liberties, we are being REQUIRED to release our self-respect and admit guilt(?) to salve their wounds and give <14% of the population control over all ither groups when they cannot even manage their own. I WILL NOT give up all that I have earned not financial, not education, not my creativity, not my right to speak freely AND i will NEVER apologize for my heritage and their contribution to my country. I am American NOT Cuban American. And i am grateful.
What you are saying is in line with what Black conservatives are saying about education and black cultural in general. Minorities need charter schools, parochial schools, schools that break out of the liberal mold and provide the discipline and character building that these young kids need. (see Thomas Sowell) Public schools and the multi-cultural agenda that is consuming so much of society will not allow for that paradigm change.
I recently quit my post-retirement job as a mental health counselor in an urban environment. My thesis is a little darker. Liberals need a Black underclass. Shelby Steele in "White Guilt" talks about a deal made with what is "low and cowardly in both races". Liberal whites need to dissociate from their guilt by blaming their racist political opponents. Politically, this works for Democrats. In the process, liberals imprison Blacks in an underclass of low expectations. BLM will only make breaking out of these low expectations so much harder. Once the game became clear to me, I realized that it would be best if I quit my job.
I became a fan of your writing Matt with your articles on russiagate. You were able to see through the absurd nonsense of the official party line. How strange that you fall for the Fox Butterfield effect. Crime is down because people are in jail. Why is this so hard to believe?
I know some people believe that theory (including the Freakonomics guy), and a few studies did suggest it, but most criminologists now dispute it, for a few big reasons. The incarceration rates began skyrocketing long before the crime rate began dropping, and any impact of taking repeat/habitual offenders off the street would end up minimized over time as new offenders grew up to replace them. The theories on why the crime rate has dropped range from people who want to credit Broken Windows to less alcohol consumption to the median age of the population dropping to less leaded gasoline to better psych drugs to cultural differences in the population of new immigrants. Whatever the reason, a solution that involves increasing the prison population by a factor of five and leaves hundreds of thousands of nonviolent offenders in jail for long periods of time is unsustainable.
One suggestion I’ve seen for the drop in crime rate is the significant decline in the teen birth rate. The teen birth rate (15-19 yo) has has steadily declined from 89.1 per 1000 females in 1960 to 17.4 in 2018, an 80% reduction. Great news! The impact on crime rate takes time as, obviously, young children don’t commit many crimes. The age group with the highest crime rate is 16-35. When you calculate and chart the average teen birth rate 16-35 years prior to each year and compare it to that year’s crime rate the correlation is very strong. This suggests that we could experience a continued decline in the crime rate for the next 16-35 year, even if teen births start increasing. Fantastic news. One concerning stat that has changed during the same period is the % of out-of-wedlock teen births has doubled from 44% to 88%. Concerning because, as Obama stated in his 2008 fatherhood speech, the children who grow up without a father are 20 times more likely to end up in prison. But this still doesn’t explain the stubbornly high incarceration rate given the crime rate has declined by half since its peak in 1991.
Incarceration in this country is criminogenic. That's all there is to it. And it's worth noting that claims that jailing criminals decrease crime per se, simply because more people behind bars, ignore most of the crimes committed in jails and prisons between inmates.
American prisons are places where the most physically imposing and antisocial mentalities are often able to find adaptive niches that allow them easier time than those they victimize. And that situation in turn contributes to a milieu of mistrust, fear, intimidation, and coldness that prioritizes antisocial values over prosocial ones. It's more of a problem in some institutions than others. But any time there's a situation of overcrowding, the most lawless and violent prisoners are empowered at the expense of every other person in the institution, including the COs.
So don't even talk like prison is some key solution to the crime problems in this country.
For the rest of us, I looked it up: criminogenic: causes crime. it is worth noting that: professor-speak. per se: in itself. milieu: social situation
I didn't graduate college and I know and use all those words. What kind of yahoo anti-intellectual crap is this?!
Uh, what?
Also, you had to look up "criminogenic?"
Even if this was correct - does it not beg the question why America is unique in it's level of criminality? How is it that 1 in 4 prisoners on the planet are in the US? How is it that we are 5% of the worlds population but have 25% of the prison population? More than China and Russia - supposed bastions of human rights abuses? I'll help u - its because we are racist af. What we have done to the black and brown community is a form of ethnic cleansing. We have criminalized poverty and race.Its disgusting and it has to stop. The US has lost its moral standing in the eyes of the world because of this. You can't criticize Iran or Russia when everyone know what we are doing!
It's guns and inequality. We aren't unique in our levels of assault, for example, which are similar to those of comparable countries. Homicide we are unique. Because we have so many guns. Which makes the job of the police more difficult & deadly.
Yes, we are racist. But, overwhelmingly homicides are intraracial non-police involved shootings where a dispute escalated into a lethal killing because guns.
China sends a lot of its criminals to the grave instead of prison
My personal view of it is that this is the Drug War. The point of the Drug War was to distract the citizens from the Viet Nam war. Essentially it was meant to bring the war home and keep the people in line. The Drug War is lifestyle policing. Since pot was as much as a felony and bigger cocaine and heroin being the same and smaller with higher profit margins and a whole other nation & its problems and corruption the product on the streets changed. In fact youth who are adults now, bought the idea of pot as as much of an affliction as heroin or coke. People such as myself represented a spike in suicides since we are old and have chronic pain from our illnesses and have been on time release morphine for many years. We can be found since we get what we
get by prescription. The movement to take from us what we need to function was with its own metrics pivoted and pivots on piss tests and the piss test industry and we get lied about and hurt. Don't get old and ill. You will find you are easier to hurt. Bad laws make a bad society and we have created an American Dystopia. I read that the officer said "See kids this is what happens to you when you do drugs." If he really did say that he proves my view of the fact of our societal reality. Only the ones of pure piss can become police you know. The only bullies I knew in school either became junkies or police. Yes there is a longer history of racism than what has happened since the Viet Nam War and Nixon and his declaration of War on Drugs. I admire Ed Baptist book "The Half Has Never been Told" and love it. Everyone ought read it. However my history is since 1952. Yes there have been wars as we know them, but I and my peers have had our lives stolen as a man suffers in wartimes throughout the years of the Drug War.
You've got it right. Check out Chasing the Scream - it brings it all together: Nixon created the war on drugs to take down the hippies and the Blacks. The result is mass incarceration, militarized police and cops killing with impunity.
Matt: Do you care to comment on WSJ: However sickening the video of Floyd’s arrest, it isn’t representative of the 375 million annual contacts that police officers have with civilians. A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing. Crime and suspect behavior, not race, determine most police actions.
In 2019 police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or otherwise dangerous. African-Americans were about a quarter of those killed by cops last year (235), a ratio that has remained stable since 2015. That share of black victims is less than what the black crime rate would predict, since police shootings are a function of how often officers encounter armed and violent suspects. In 2018, the latest year for which such data have been published, African-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit about 60% of robberies, though they are 13% of the population.
Brilliant! So one must ask why the skewed perception of Police as Predator in the black community? I am overwhelmingly drawn to the conclusion that the media is responsible for skewing the facts to incite racial animus. Much like Willie Sutton's quip about robbing banks (that's where the money is), police disproportionately come in contact with the black community because the black community is over-represented in the commission of crime. It may be impolite to observe but nearly all the high profile events that have caused consternation have been with black males who have some history of engaging in anti-social behavior.
The encouragement for police to use steroids to bulk up, ignoring the health and roid-rage side effects, has not been recently investigated to my knowledge; it would explain the sudden and unprovoked violent attacks by police. Matt this is a pervasive problem -that's completely ignored by the MSM and even when officially investigated police steroid stories -just vanish like the Arlington Texas PD steroid scandal -where one charged officer "Vo" committed suicide and charged officers Kantos and Hermans -who were initially linked to the Steroid Scandal -were ultimately dealt with as "Corruption Cases" https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/06/14/arlington-police-chief-angry-over-steroid-scandal/
Police use of steroids is definitely a thing, and has been for decades- I've known about it since the 1990s. The evidence for it has been repeatedly documented in domestic violence, abuse, and other criminal cases. I first heard about it from an abused spouse who told me about the situation.
Juicing with steroids has also been documented in the ranks of the military- especially within "elite units" like Army Special Forces, Navy SEALS, etc.
This ongoing file of "police corruption and drugs" cases from the site StopThe DrugWar.com includes some incidents of steroid use and trafficking by police: https://stopthedrugwar.org/topics/drug_war_issues/criminal_justice/policing/police_corrupti
That compilation is 76 pages and running, with the first reports dating from 2006, each page containing multiple entries of new reports added every 1-2 weeks, typically featuring multiple cases from across the US.
Really, a simple search of the keywords [police+corruption+drugs"] is guaranteed to bring up an array of cases in the results. Lots of them are in smaller cities and towns. I saw a new one just yesterday, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Add any major city, metropolitan area, or state that you like, you'll almost certainly find a bundle of them. Many of them have involved entire "elite narcotics units" or task forces.
Furthermore, a historical search over the span of the last 50-60 years or so demonstrates beyond all doubt that the scandals are unending! The exposure of corruption in a big-city police elite vice/narcotics unit, and the trial and convictions of the officers involved, doesn't mean that the situation has been cleaned up once and for all- it has a way of flaring up again. And again. What happened to the drugs seized in the famous "French Connection" case, from back in the 1960s- at one time a record-breaking seizure of heroin? Stolen from the evidence locker by New York City cops who sold it to the locals in charge of the heroin trade there.
The only way to put a final stop to the corruption of police forces by the illicit drugs markets is to reform the drug laws to divert the bulk of the demand into legal channels, or into addiction maintenance programs supervised by medical professionals. I'll grant that's liable to lead to some corruption problems related to diversion, but they'll be on a much smaller scale, and they won't center on police and law enforcement.
At any rate, I can't imagine how a legally managed regime that permits addiction maintenance programs as a means of keeping people functional within a wider context of providing drug treatment and recovery medical services would be worse than the rampant lack of accountability presently found within the Rehab Industry: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/21/my-years-in-the-florida-shuffle-of-drug-addiction
Dopers in Uniform
Thanks for the very informative commentary .
Seems the topic is finally getting the attention it merits - roid rage cops is like storing gas cans in a crack house .
The Hidden World of Police on Steroids
By John Hoberman
Breaking down the “Blue Wall of Silence,” this landmark book investigates the widespread, illegal use of anabolic steroids in major urban police departments and how it contributes to excessive violence in American policing.
https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/hoberman-dopers-in-uniform
Crime is down? Reported crime is down, but many people don't waste their time reporting crime. Why bother?
Pretty hard to mask a decline in homicide, motor vehicle theft, DUI, and other offenses.
Hi Matt, great article and very thoughtfully written. Some additional information, peeling back the onion of high level crime statistics and their apparent 'decline'- specifically masking declines of homicide, felony theft and felony drug cases. Sharing reports from Chicago/Cook County, demonstrating how 1. police accounting and 2. district attorney decisions reflect declines in high level crime statistics when the underlying actual criminal activities are unchanged. Referencing sources going back several years, simply to demonstrate this is not a new phenomenon.
1. Police Accounting- 'The Truth About Chicago’s Crime Rates':
https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2014/Chicago-crime-rates/
"We identified 10 people, including Groves, who were beaten, burned, suffocated, or shot to death in 2013 and whose cases were reclassified as death investigations, downgraded to more minor crimes, or even closed as noncriminal incidents—all for illogical or, at best, unclear reasons.... Chicago found dozens of other crimes, including serious felonies such as robberies, burglaries, and assaults, that were misclassified, downgraded to wrist-slap offenses, or made to vanish altogether.'
2. The Kim Foxx Effect: How Prosecutions Have Changed in Cook County
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/10/24/the-kim-foxx-effect-how-prosecutions-have-changed-in-cook-county
'Foxx’s policy to prosecute felony shoplifting only for thefts of more than $1,000 led to a steep decline in charges, from 300 per month to about 70.'
'is Foxx dismissing more cases after charges are filed? If dismissal rates rise, fewer cases go to trial or end in conviction...
...For less frequent, more severe drug charges (trafficking, dealing, production), about 4,000 a year, dismissal rates have nearly doubled.'
Thank you for making my point so eloquently.
Agreed, but the "minor" crimes that go unreported are very harmful to individuals, not just the major crimes, and the minor crimes are 100 fold greater in frequency.
"100-fold"? There went your credibility.
I drove a cab for some years in Sacramento between the years 1986 and 2005. I noticed a shift toward more embrace of what might be termed "LA gangster culture" beginning in the mid-1990s. And it is a fact that much of that phenomenon was the result of the relocation of teenagers from gang-affiliated LA neighborhoods up to Sacramento. I don't find gangster culture especially charming as a style, and it did bring some new gangs to the area. It's a dead-end path for people stuck in that life into adulthood. But it didn't make my job that much more difficult. In fact, I had a couple of years in the late 1990s where I was practically bewildered about how well things were going. Like, not a single run-out in over a year? Amazing. Yes, cab drivers were always getting robbed, year in and year out. The only exceptions I know of were myself., and one other driver. I did notice things starting to get meaner after "9/11", especially once the Iraq War was on. Rougher, more belligerent. Sometimes directed at me, sometimes at my passengers, or just stuff I noticed on the street. Like there was more of a license to act obnoxiously. Not that much worse, but definitely harsher and meaner. But I got out of the game and moved to the East Coast in late 2005, so I don't know what happened on the streets of Sac after that. It feels weird that it was nearly 15 years ago.
I know that a lot of property offenses aren't being properly investigated in a lot of places these days- and I think that California has taken a wrong turn in being so lenient. But their prisons were bulging at the seams by the late 1990s. That's the result of confusing the War on Drugs with a crime control strategy. The War on Drugs is actually criminogenic. And it's worth noting that most of the worst unreported crimes- like home invasions, assaults, thefts at gunpoint, etc.- are found within the illegal drug economy. They're still crimes, and unreported crimes do have a way of empowering the perpetrators to do more of them.
But there's no intrinsic reason why the flowers of a simple annual plant should be worth $300 an ounce. And there's no intrinsic reason why hundreds of thousands of people who find themselves on the street in the grip of opioid addiction should be relegated to victim fodder for that small group of criminals who thrive by being antisocial predators, either.
I also think there are too many criminal-minded Americans these days. But that's also to some extent a knock-on effect of 40 years of overcrowding in the prisons, and the rise of the Gangland culture spawned and grown behind bars- particularly given that producing offspring is viewed as a hallmark of Manhood among males (of any ethnicity) in the gang-affiliated criminal life, while the duties of Fatherhood are more often given minimal attention (whether the father is behind bars or not.) And Gangland culture is nowhere without the economic underpinning of the illicit drugs markets that sluice tens of billions of dollars through the hands of criminals (while legitimate entry level jobs have paid non-living wages for decades on end.) So now we're into 3, 4 generations of dynastic criminality in some families. It should be acknowledged that various illegal street hustles have been part of "ethnic minority culture" for long before the 1960s. But it was a marginal fraction, at most. What the explosion of the drugs markets in the 1960s-1980s did was to increase the economic power of that formerly disreputable fraction to the point where they held the controlling interest in many of those neighborhoods. (At the expense of every stabilizing force, from independent business in the neighborhoods to the churches and the schools. Dollar for dollar, none of those institutions could match the appeal of profits in the illicit drugs trade.)
And, oh yeah, in the 1990s. this also happened throughout the rural white regions of the country, and every small-town economy hollowed out by globalization.
This points out a problem I've always had, the over-identification of the Drug War with anti-black racism- it confuses the issue in a lot of ways, not least by implicitly linking "drugs" and "blackness." I have no problem agreeing with the proposition that the Drug War is racist- but it's also unjust, corrupt, wrong, and inexcusably punitive for a host of other reasons. Referring to the Drug War as a simple proposition of a War Against Black Folks is a mistake, both in terms of identifying the central problem and because it provides no answers whatsoever as to how to remedy the problems caused by the Drug War. A criminal justice policy to address "mass incarceration" with mass releases and/or leniency toward petty criminals and retail drug dealers WITHOUT getting rid of the criminal monopoly over the (currently forbidden) drugs trade is liable to lead to the worst of both worlds- a massive increase in criminality, career criminal ("gang") power, and addicted users consigned to a social milieu where criminal values prevail. And if that happens, there will be a backlash. Spineless liberals will be blamed for that disaster, and the right wing will be resurgent.
So I exaggerated, great catch. You do make some very good points. A lot of the crime gang on gang goes investigated because the victims will not cooperate with police.
Many times no one witnessing a gang-related crime "cooperates with police", either. The gangs have the time and the inclination to coerce or buy silence; the police only have 8-hour watches with which to persuade witnesses to risk their lives as informants and witnesses. In the most practical respects, the gangs have more resources, more inside intelligence and counterintelligence, better infrastructure, and more easily mobilized personnel than the police.
Which is precisely why it's imperative to review how it is that situation arose in the first place. Street gangs were confined to a handful of US cities, prior to the 1980s. They didn't have nearly the membership or organizational strength in the 1960s and 1970s; I remember reading an interview with Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels "law enforcement assistance" group in New York City in 1979, and he was openly lamenting the fact that an epidemic of cheap high quality heroin had led to the collapse of neighborhood gangs in the city. But within only a few years, the gangs were back in New York, more well-organized and well-funded than ever, revitalized by the crack cocaine trade and the steady supply available from Caribbean-based transport networks.
The other part has to do with the wholesale breakdown of social taboos against forbidden substances in the American populace- particularly by the young, and people of early middle age- that occurred between around 1964 and 1980. Having lived through each and every years of the supposed "just say no" Reagan-Bush 1980s in various communities- including Republican strongholds- I can attest that the toothpaste was out of the tube by then, and it never went back in. And the intensification of the Drug War in the Reagan years only made the entire business more sordid, and the scene surrounding the use of forbidden drugs more ignorant, nihilistic, and sinister. Especially for the teenage cohort. An awful lot of other drugs piggy-backed on to the coast-to-coast mycelial network of illicit retail outlets already devoted to marijuana, exploiting that infrastructure as a gateway to a new crop of consumers. First meth, then Oxy, then heroin...all of which were cheaper on a per-dose basis than pot by the 1990s (which wasn't even close to being so in the 1970s.) From the standpoint of legal penalties, might as well get shot for a sheep as a lamb, so to speak. And all of the customers were criminal by definition. Pariahs. Privileges of wealth, class, and race undeniably provide a substantial advantage in terms of the risks of crossing paths with the police. But very few of even the most privileged illegal drug users enjoy outright impunity, or are under the delusion that they are completely exempt from legal hazards. At some level, all illicit drug users are aware of their law-breaking status. Furtive behavior, concealment, cunning, duplicity, isolation, and social immersion with other lawbreakers is the rule for everyone who participates in the illegal drug scene.
It's interesting the way that use of a formerly unheard-of substance has been found to catch on with a younger generation, while the older generations overwhelmingly abstained, either reflexively condemnatory or oblivious to a practice newly acquired by the youth, even when its popularity spread like wildfire under their noses. When Walter Raleigh brought dried tobacco leaves from the colonies to England, the strange new practice of burning the leaves and inhaling the fumes was made popular by British youths in their teens and twenties, not by their elders. Casual tobacco use has turned out to be a terribly unhealthy habit- but if the elders had responded to the newfound popularity of tobacco in the 17th century with a campaign of mass criminalization of the users, it would have made matters an order of magnitude worse all around, I think
With that in mind, the worst impacts on communities don't result from the use of drugs- not even hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. Admittedly, the harm from the abuse of those drugs is indisputable- as with alcohol. And there's a case to be made that heavy use of those drugs takes heavy users down faster than alcohol, with much more liability of acute lethal overdose. But the harm of illegal drug use has also been exaggerated as if it was solely to blame for the deterioration of the communities where the markets are concentrated, when the worst impacts on communities are actually about the cascade of direct and indirect consequences connected to the entrenchment of the institution of the illicit marketplace- and the price supports that make the trade so enormously profitable. A situation entirely due to criminalization and Prohibition.
Alcohol Prohibition only lasted 13 years. In only 13 years, the profits from that illicit marketplace moved ethnic syndicates made up of a small number of criminals from their home neighborhoods to wealth, status, and even enduring legacy of power related to political corruption. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened to the Irish and Italian neighborhoods- and to cities like Chicago and Detroit- if the criminal gang monopoly over the alcohol trade in those places had extended 40, 50, 80 more years. But Prohibition was different from the Drug War in some ways. For one thing, simple possession of small quantities of liquor in the Prohibition era was never a Federal crime...it was briefly considered, but quickly ruled out. For another, the illicit alcohol trade would have required a massive expansion of manufacturing and inventory capacity to bring in as much revenue as can be obtained from a network of stash houses for drugs. Illegalized drugs benefit from an enormous price-to-weight ratio even at the source end of the trade, and are so compact and fungible that they have features than more closely resemble currency or precious metals than consumer goods like bottled potable beverages.
My argument for dismantling the Drug War in favor of legalization and medicalization is not ideology based. It's reality-based.
The war on drugs was a failure, but it sure did reallocate money to the thousands of people employed to wage it. Look at it as a job creation act.
Correct at least here in L.A. I have stopped calling the police for theft and vandalism. I know other minority owned businesses that don't bother either. The police dept now have an online platform you can report misdemeanor crimes in Los Angeles (such as theft under $950), it's cumbersome, there is no consequence to the thief and sometimes the crimes don't fall under the chosen categories to report online anyway. I still do it out of principal, so the crime counts in statistics but I know some shop owners that can't waste the time. :(
Beyond the obvious and always present racism and the growing disaffection so many have towards a society and government that clearly does not care for large segments of the population, regardless of color, we have the growing ethos of a warrior mentality, not only among the military, but the police as well, which is seen at nearly any sporting event, where both groups are over represented, both on the field with police now everywhere, but also among many especially NFL coaches who seem to think desert camou fits all occasions, and of course, the now obligatory flyover of the otherwise useless F-35 flying coffin.
I did a tour in Vietnam in 67-68 with the 101st, and when I compare how were "protected" by a useless flack jacket and helmet compared to the robot like garments worn by the police, I can't help but wonder what these people think they're doing, other than to appear as outlandishly over dressed for the occasion. Instead of being ashamed of themselves, I have no doubt the quite like the appearance they pose. Whatever the case, you act like you dress, and the group psychology of the cops is apparent to anyone who has protested in front of them; many of them are clearly itching to apply some "asymmetrical warfare" to the sign carrying people in front of them.
Lastly, the last 19 years of pointless ME wars have not only stoked anti Muslim/Arab racism always latent in this country, many of those having served overseas now wearing blue, it has also clearly increased both the identification and tangible connection between Israel and its views regarding subject populations and both the US political elite and its police arm, many of which now receive training from Israel, a process that has made clear the connection between Israeli political/cultural influence, and events here in the US. Israel did not create the problem, but it has certainly used events to further its influence within this country. I'd love to have five bucks for every time I've heard someone in a position of power defend certain draconian security policies by mentioning how Israel has had to learn that lesson the hard way, and adapted to it. Seemingly, the mere mention of Israel in connection with any action that is questioned is supposed to both be the definitive justification and to end the conversation, there and then.
Dopers in Uniform
The Hidden World of Police on Steroids
By John Hoberman
Breaking down the “Blue Wall of Silence,” this landmark book investigates the widespread, illegal use of anabolic steroids in major urban police departments and how it contributes to excessive violence in American policing.
https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/hoberman-dopers-in-uniform