Former LEO here. Don’t denigrate the enforcing of minor crimes. It has been shown that allowing “minor” incidences to go unenforced and unpunished creates a fertile petri dish for the more violent types. That’s why cleaning up graffiti and prosecuting violators is such a point of focus in many inner city areas. Small crimes beget large crimes.
I am well aware of broken windows policing. And am not denigrating the concept at all - fair catch. We know it works (see Rudy G in NYC). That said, criminalizing using straws, as they’re doing here in Cali, is plain stupid. LEOs have better things to do imho. I expect to be criticized for this, but legalizing pot (and I don’t mean driving under the influence) and some other similar things ought to be done.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067045/reviews
I remember thinking that even by 1970’s standards, NYC would not be alarmed by 7 unsolved murders. The scenario was somewhat helped by the ribbon around each victim plus dubbing the perpetrator “The Hydra.”
The Atlanta Child Murders
One third of victims between 7 and 12; one third between 12-15, and one third 15-28.
Is one such victim per month all that unusual?
Put another way, the kind of people who commit major crimes also commit lots of smaller crimes. The kind of person who kills is also likely to commit assault. A mugger needs to rob a lot of people to make a living at it.
Effective policing consists of recognizing when you have a chronic criminal on your hands, convicting him of what you can, and getting him off the street for as long as you can.
It's called the "broken window syndrome". If one allows a single pane in a multi-window wall to go un-repaired, many more will be broken in the days and weeks that follow. If you repair that broken pane, no further windows panes will be broken. The repair of the single pane shows that someone cares. The broken pane shows no one does and challenges others to break the remaining panes. It works for other buildings in the neighborhood as well as just the wall on which the broken pane exists as well. . . same for graffiti as you pointed out. Leave one un-painted out and more appears. . . until the entire neighborhood declines.
Agree with that.
I have LEOs in the family and am mostly supportive, but my experience with local LE in crime situations has been negative. After my house was robbed, there was ZERO interest in investigating the crime. ZERO. Where I live, the job of the police seems to be to write reports, not to solve or prevent crimes. Also to raise money by handing out tickets to non-threatening citizens for non-serious violations. Expired registrations seems to be their favorite.
the end of every month, they set up traps to troll for people on their way to work with expired registrations. They aren’t arresting illegals or hunting down criminals, they are harassing people on the way to work, soccer moms, and little old ladies for $.