Chris Bray provides yet more examples of cultural decay and the collapse of law and order in America’s Trudeaupia, California under the loving care of Justin Trudeau’s spiritual twin, Gavin Newsom:
Today tells you about next year.
In a long history of murder in America, the historian Randolph Roth argued that violence follows other losses of trust and order. The murder rate surges in the face of “four distinct phenomena: political instability; a loss of government legitimacy; a loss of fellow-feeling among members of society caused by racial, religious, or political antagonism; and a loss of faith in the social hierarchy”.
Read that list carefully, because it should sound familiar.
Similarly, the originators of the theory of “broken windows policing” argued that peace and order grow from peace and order; neighborhoods are more likely to be calm when they’re “places where people are confident they can regulate public behavior by informal controls”. Crime follows crime; vandalism, for example, “can occur anywhere once communal barriers — the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility — are lowered by actions that seem to signal that ‘no one cares'”. The police commissioner William Bratton famously reduced all categories of crime in New York City subways by assigning officers to arrest turnstile jumpers who entered the system without paying. He sent a signal at the front gates.
“Broken windows” is a much-criticized theory: “He contended that the very notion of ‘disorder’ is subjective and racially fraught”. But the criticisms tend to reduce the complexity of the theory in order to “debunk” it.
Decay communicates. Disorder is a message.
A while back, here in So Cal, the police were using bait-bikes to trap bicycle thieves. They’d take an expensive bicycle, leave it unlocked, or poorly locked, stake it out, and wait. As it turned out, a great many bike thefts were done by bad boys with serious felonies on their record. They got a lot of parole violators as well. Set out a mouse trap, and nail some serious rats.
JWM
Comment by jwm — July 10, 2024 @ 21:37
I’m afraid I’ve grown cynical enough over the years to assume that even if charges were filed that no actual punishments were ever meted out, or if they were, they’d be “community service” or suspended sentences or whatever. Honest citizen? Throw the book. Hardened crim with a rap sheet longer than both your arms? Poor victim of circumstances who needs to be given a lot more chances … case dismissed with compensation for their inconvenience.
Comment by Nicholas — July 10, 2024 @ 21:49