[Summit] Wow

[Greg Gerritt]

Nearly every other western industrialized country has much lower crime, and
especially much lower violent crime rates than ours.  They also have lower
poverty rates than us, national health care, and spend much less on their
military (US spends more than  50% of all military expeditures on the
planet) .  We also have weak environmental laws compared to the European
Union.  Kids in the US grow up violent and poisoned.

If we had police departments with a track record of honesty and fairness to
the community, a track record of opposing racism, then maybe I could buy
into what Mr Welch proposes.  Sure I do not like it when folks break into
cars, and I support removing people doing that from the community, reporting
crimes, watching out for my neighbors ( I am always trying to slow down the
speeders on 6th St), but without addressing the underlying causes we are
pissing into the wind, without a system and a community that helps those
incarcerated break the cycle we are perpetuating the injustice.  Take care
of the root causes and the rest of the job is easier.

Greg Gerritt




on 1/7/09 2:11 PM, Andrew Nosal at andy at mapcenter.com wrote:

> No one suggested that street criminals be absolved.
> No one had anything bad to say about practical steps like reporting
> crime, lighting or having an alarm.
> Look around this world of ours, in different places and times, and you
> will see societies richer and poorer than ours that have very little
> petty crime, low incarceration rates, no one feels the need to arm
> their houses.  Other places are far more crime ridden than ours.
> Makes me
> 
> On Jan 7, 2009, at 1:19 PM, <mwelch16 at cox.net> <mwelch16 at cox.net> wrote:
> 
>> I think it's interesting that people are trying to empathize with
>> street criminals, compare them to 'Corporate America', blame the
>> military for funding violent video games, blame the government for
>> making the youth violoent, and blame the lead pipes for convicts'
>> poor decisions.  Enough already.  Can we please focus on concrete
>> problems and evidence based solotions?  I'd say this thread is
>> making me dumber, and I'm sure that Gerritt would say that I am
>> "blind" or "part of the problem" or some other catch phrase.  I've
>> heard them all in the propaganda-laced emails he sent me. Can we
>> bring to an end the thread of conspiracy theories and focus on
>> actual solutions?  Reporting 100% of the observed criminal activity
>> is a good start.  Personal responsibility regarding well lit
>> driveways, car alarms, house alarms, ?dogs, motion sensor lights,
>> etc-- all reasonable solutions.  Neighborhood watch is another
>> reasonable idea.  Tearing up every single lead pipe in America while
>> blaming the
>>  government, and every person above the poverty line for the actions
>> of the bottom 1% of citizens seems a little less reasonable.
>> -Matt Welch
>> 
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> 
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