Monday, May 20, 2013
Support your local sherriff
Michael Moore postulated in "Bowling for Columbine" that violence in the street causes fear, and fear causes knee jerk thinking. It leads to the creation of police based organizations which, though good short term, are problematic in the long term. Some would suggest that police based organizations are a Conservative, or Republican solution, and the fight starts. I humbly suggest that we draw back a bit, and drop those words as emotional devices which have no place in a rational discussion.
I will reserve the discussion about fear, personal armament, anticipatory retaliation and such for another time, and point out that a police force which walks about the street instilling fear into the inhabitants is, in my opinion, a VERY bad thing. This troubles me more than a group of gang bangers out hanging about looking for trouble!
Is there an answer? Sure there is. Local policing, made up of people of the social-economic-ethnic group should be very active in the community. When was the last time you heard of a group of cops getting involved in a game of shinny? Or a pick-up basketball game? (I know, pretty hard to do when loaded down with all that gear!) What I call "support your local sherriff". There should be community leaders keeping a very high profile...community leaders "taking the air" with a couple of police and a few "hard cases" seeing and being seen about the neighbourhood.
Now I know this doesn't work in a lot of places....graft and corruption are just so part of the culture that some nationalities don't trust their police at all! My reply to that of course is "how did Miami clean up their famously corrupt police force? How did Chicago shake off the mob? Questions difficult to answer in a simple little blog like this one!
Sidney Australia had a "hood" which was very, um...problematic. A town on the suburbs called "blacktown". It was the lightning rod area, about a kilometer square which caused all the crime, gangs, and drug use in the city.
This is what they did about it. I'll shut up now, and humbly suggest you go to that link, watch the video, and you will see what I mean!
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3402882.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This is a goldmine of information about how a community can shift out of the crime gear. I'm hoping that Chicago and some other hot spots can use initiatives like these. Your discovery of this very pertinent subject is one of the reasons I like to visit this blog. Thank you.
Mr. Scarpacci, you are MOST welcome. We may not agree on all the solutions to societies' ills, but we certainly agree that burying ones head in the sand, (doing it the old way) is simply not working. Sometimes it DOES work, so I have never advocated throwing standard policing and court sentences. Sometimes they work. Me, for instance, was told by the judge that if I was in basic training when my remand hearing came up, he would let it all disappear. Twenty years of service followed, and I am not the same long haired, pot smoking hippie I was back in '75. In my case, standard policing and a judge I learned to respect made all the difference.
The best part of military service is that I learned to see the problem, not what I "think" is the problem. Some might see a bunch of kids throwing rocks at school windows, I see kids who are undisciplined and have nothing to do with their time. I see a football team! Others see juvenile delinquents who need locking up! My way has worked. Their way has failed. Some might see PTSD soldiers turning into alcololics in the legion...I see people who need a goal. Fixing antique cars, for instance, is now a veteran's staple gateway back into civilian life.
(google that...its startlingly simple and effective)
nice post
pankajkapoor.in
Post a Comment