Reporting from Saint Louis here. The rise in crime here is palatable and undeniable. I’m a life long city dweller and while my family and I have accepted a certain risk of city life (I’ve been jumped, friends businesses shot at with semi-automatic weapons, family members shot at, car theft) these used to be rare. But in recent years they are not. In just the first half of this year, my parents experienced 4 such incidents including a friend who was tied up by an armed home invader and robbed.
While I support the idea of releasing non-violent criminals serving disproportionately long sentences, I also know the many violent offenders are never charged with those crimes because they are difficult to prosecute. Instead they prosecute on drug offenses; it’s easier to prove. I would love to see an analysis of this if anyone knows of one.
There is also a question of reporting crime. I have gotten the answering machine when calling 911. I have other friends who waited 3 hours for the police to show up. Others who were told an officer cannot come to a car jacking and they needed to make their report over the phone. So I’m asking myself, how many crimes are going unreported?
I’m glad she talked about the real choices young black men face, given society has failed them. But I’m increasingly frustrated that no one is willing to touch the roots of that failure or even considers there might be a limit to what government actually has the power to do about it. It’s all systemic racism all the time.
Reporting from Saint Louis here. The rise in crime here is palatable and undeniable. I’m a life long city dweller and while my family and I have accepted a certain risk of city life (I’ve been jumped, friends businesses shot at with semi-automatic weapons, family members shot at, car theft) these used to be rare. But in recent years they are not. In just the first half of this year, my parents experienced 4 such incidents including a friend who was tied up by an armed home invader and robbed.
While I support the idea of releasing non-violent criminals serving disproportionately long sentences, I also know the many violent offenders are never charged with those crimes because they are difficult to prosecute. Instead they prosecute on drug offenses; it’s easier to prove. I would love to see an analysis of this if anyone knows of one.
There is also a question of reporting crime. I have gotten the answering machine when calling 911. I have other friends who waited 3 hours for the police to show up. Others who were told an officer cannot come to a car jacking and they needed to make their report over the phone. So I’m asking myself, how many crimes are going unreported?
I’m glad she talked about the real choices young black men face, given society has failed them. But I’m increasingly frustrated that no one is willing to touch the roots of that failure or even considers there might be a limit to what government actually has the power to do about it. It’s all systemic racism all the time.