Moreover, crime itself flourishes in contexts of economic insecurity like bacteria in a petri dish. So a war on poverty and insecure housing would be a far more effective answer to our problems than expanding police numbers.
Stalin insisted upon this. In the Soviet state, as inequality withered away, so would crime.
Didn’t quite work out that way of course.
Ah, it’s Owen.
Crime isn’t caused by poverty in the UK, Fagin’s pickpockets aren’t stealing to eat.
How does an abstract concept surrender?
From the Guardian report of the attack on Jones a couple of years ago:
“In a victim impact statement, Jones said that while the injuries he sustained healed rapidly, there had been a longer lasting psychological impact. Despite previously being on the receiving end of online abuse, it was the first time he had been subject to a physical attack.
Philip McGhee, prosecuting, said Jones believed it was “harder to ignore online threats now” and that “he no longer feels he can walk alone, and will take taxis even for short distances as on account of this attack he feels at risk”.
The three men were not detained in the immediate aftermath of the fight in the street, but the court heard that they were arrested after they were recognised from CCTV footage by officers familiar with Chelsea supporters known to police.”
Yeah, what institutional racists and homophobes. They need disbanding. Replace them, as per Owen’s suggestions, with an agency which registers insurance claims by victims; a mental health team; and measures to alleviate poverty and poor housing. Give Owen a couple of hundred quid for being thumped, and give the perps a sympathetic hearing from a street-nurse, and a nice flat for free. That should solve the problem.
Actually there is no relationship between crime, poverty and inequality.
If you look at murder rates, poverty and inequality in either Europe or Latin America there is no link when comparing neighbouring countries.
For example Uruguay has a GDP per capita 2x Paraguay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_American_and_Caribbean_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
But has a higher murder rate
https://www.statista.com/statistics/715019/homicide-rates-in-latin-america/
Alleviating poverty would cure crime, folks like Owen say.
So why do folks like Owen also complain about evil rich bastards and their prole-crushing ways? Poverty clearly ain’t a factor for these perps.
The USA’s war on poverty started in 1964 and I’ve seen one estimate that it’s cost so much they could have sent a cheque for $10k in today $s to each and every poor person every since then.
Of course it’s not about fixing poverty it’s about finding sinecures and permanent government jobs for the left.
The right are equally to blame in some respects by the insistence on bureaucratic behemoths like food stamps.
Sigh
Tim, the Soviet Union and the other glorious Peoples’ Democratic Republics solved crime.
By making nothing worth nicking.
“For example Uruguay has a GDP per capita 2x Paraguay”
And the USA, the richest country in the world, kills people three times every hour. Clearly, the correlation is the other way around, rich societies kill more people. Destroy capitalism to reduce violence.
In the early 1990s, I refused the offer of a job in Venezuela, because I thought that it was a bloody dangerous place. There were a couple of dozen murders in Caracas every weekend ( the company went bust anyway, the boss had cooked the books).
Have a look at this graph. Chavez started turning the country into a socialist paradise in 1999
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/VEN/venezuela/murder-homicide-rate
Pretty sure Stalin recognised the lie in this as well. The “New Soviet Man” was the supposedly going to eliminate the lack of success in applying communism to like actual existing human beings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Soviet_man
Was Stalin also a biter of pillows?
@Ottokring
“In the early 1990s, I refused the offer of a job in Venezuela, because I thought that it was a bloody dangerous place. There were a couple of dozen murders in Caracas every weekend ( the company went bust anyway, the boss had cooked the books).”
Proof that things can always get worse – depressingly
Sam Vara
interesting – so ‘the far right attacks’ angle was not far off a Jussie Smollett kind of scenario – he must have paid them off to keep quiet. Thanks!
Of course, what the quote there says is ‘economic insecurity’, not ‘inequality’. Not sure even Own thinks that Stalin did a good job of making people feel, in any way at all secure.
Good point otherwise.
“rich societies kill more people”
I suggest that the problem is more likely the population. A large chunk are @@@@@ [censored]. Many of the others are descended from religious nut cases and people who were fleeing the magistrate, the bailiff, or the wife.
I suggest it’s one of those cases where nurture amplifies the effects of nature.
Stalin effectively used the Vetinary method of crime control: He made it Official and incorporated it into the System: the Thieves’ Guild. The Guild of Accountants. The Assassins’ Guild.
So technically speaking he did do the job..
The amount of unlicensed crime dropped considerably.
Neither is it surprising that an institutionally racist police force is far more likely to stop and search Black citizens than their white counterparts.
Or maybe they’re just noticing who commits the majority of violent crime?