Broken Windows

[Teresa]

Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The Tipping Point about the "broken window theory" which basically says that areas of high crime often begin with disorder which can manifest as simple blemishes like broken windows, graffiti, ignored trash, etc.  These blemishes send a message:  No one cares.  I remembered this theory as I passed a white stucco shopping strip this morning while lyrics from a Sesame Street song rose up as well:  Which of these things is not like the others/Which of these things just doesn't belong...  Located in the strip were the following businesses:  Dog Groomer, Goodwill Donation Center, Storage Units, Postal Net, Pawn Shop, Dialysis Center.  The decision to put a dialysis center beside a dog grooming facility seems very disordered to me.  Isn't that a crime of sorts, like putting a Dunkin' Donuts beside a crematorium?

[Edward Dean]

 

We have the largest prison population in the world by leaps and bounds and I think were running far afield of the reality of the issue you both speak of. Grandma purse snatchers et all, are a teeny tiny fraction of violent criminals. The vast majority of violent crimes are perpetuated against their own. The biggest population of prisoners are drug related.

As for Robs 'Boss Tweed' the largest job creation was mostly through 'union apprentice programs'. Our friends to the north have an excellent system of "Technical schools." They know that every kid is not college material but give them fully funded access to a trade of choice. They then go the extra mile by providing employers with an hourly tax subsidy to employee the neophytes to give them experience and fully funded 'health' insurance.

To prove the point, we here in the boarder states import a huge amount of Canadian nurses and toolmakers because we have a shortage of trained technicians. Percentage wise Canada has a HUGE population of immigrants that they welcome and none of the vitriol or problems we have. They have a very old and large black population with nooooo problem! Why dat? Their educational system and a simple thing called respect. 

Maybe it's time for 'big brother' to learn from 'little brother'. The proof is in the pudding.

Oh I forgot; they have a higher tax rate and we wouldn't want to do that! But now our middle class doesn't have to worry about taxes because they're not working, only the rich bitch about that sore point.

What is the point of government if we can't take care of our lowest common denominator? Solve the problem don't bury it. It's all about words! We are Capitalists not Socialists! And you know that Socialism is next door to Communism and that's the godless evil empire! No system is perfect but who says we can't borrow ideas from the other side?

[bolton carley]

all discussions aside, i love the way your mind works in this one from gladwell to sesame street to dunkin' donuts.  that makes me smile.

[Teresa]

That 23 year-old you speak of was unemployed for 12 weeks.  She has an inheritence coming her way, something my great grandmother gave my grandmother who then passed it down to my mother then me.  I gave the 23 year-old some of this heirloom in small increments while she looked for work in her chosen field.  The search wasn't easy but she stuck with it and no, she didn't flip burgers but she would've if she had to.  I have.  Have you?  She's making decent money now but will be living with her "middleclass mama" for a bit because some "po' folk" fuck put a gun to her head.  She's afraid to go back to her apartment.  I can't blame her.  Her lease is up anyway.  No one bled but it's violence just the same.   He shot trust dead.  He took away her sense of safety.  She can't get his ugly face out of her mind.  Go ahead and defend his attitude born of (nonspecific) "conditions".  Send him a sympathy card.  This discussion is over.

[Robert Crisman]

I have read Gladwell, or at least enough to know the kind of games he plays. As for cut-and-pasting words, you've done quite a bit of that yourself with regard to mine. I think guys who do the things you've described--rape grandma, etc.--are bad guys and should be locked away. But that's not anywhere near the majority of things that send people to prison, most of which are non-violent drug crimes. As far as your assertion that "there are jobs, just no jobs people want" goes, how the hell do you know? We've got a 20% jobless rate in this country, once you factor in all those who've stopped looking for work because they can't find any, including quite a number of people who got bounced in the meltdown and subequently; do you think that all these people are just shirking or something? Then, there are all those homeless who work, who sleep in their cars or wherever--a growing number of people, at least before the job  market collapsed--and who really can't make ends meet and are fast running out of road. You going to tell them to be good?

"Flip burgers, clean houses, mow yards"--all well and good, and pretty much just another injunction to all the po' folks to straighten up and fly right like the rest of us are doing. Of course, the po' folks might not be too impressed with the way we get to fly, you know what I mean? I wonder what they'd think of this middleclass mama I know, for example, who pays her 23-year-old daughter's rent every month precisely so she won't have to "flip burgers" or otherwise get her hands dirty while she looks for a "decent" job. Nice work if you can get it... Out of reach for most po' folks though.

Let me be real fucking clear: I think guys who rape grandmas and commit violent crimes should be put under the jailhouse. And stealing from grandma should be dealt with severely as well. And you can do all that and more--and it won't put much of a dent in the crime rate at all. Guiliani went after the "glass breakers" and put a lot of them in jail, but a lot of them are getting out now, after getting a phd in criminal activities up at the state prison, and meanwhile, all the states are going flat-ass broke to pay for our prison system, and nobody believes that things are going to get better.

You've got to look at conditions... Oh, but I said that, didn't I? Well, okay, llet's do this: let's just say for a minute that all these criminals are just as you describe--not at all true, but let's just go with it. They're mad at the system, have trouble with authority, they feel they've gotten the shitty end of the stick, you name it. Shame on them and all that. This as well is an attitude born of conditions--not the right attitude, of course--but conditions nonetheless, conditions moreover that are demonstrably set up to make things harder for poor people, etc. Conditions that as a matter of fact mitigate against a lot of folks' pursuit of happiness, etc. Almost a bit unconstitutional, wouldn't you say? But suppose these underlying conditions were to change? What then? Might not all these bad attitudes change along with them?

By change of conditions I mean first of all an equalizing of job opportunites and job training and education, and equal education in general. None of this exists at present; all those programs have been aborted or never got started. Of course, they take money, whole lots of money--which the Pentagon wants for new weapons, and meanwhile the Tea Party doesn't want to pay taxes, so fuck public education and equal opportunity, right? Ah well...

You side with the Tea Party here. Too bad. And it does put you in the position of advocating a get-along-to-go-along policy, a sort of whistle while you work flipping burgers kind of approach; there's no middle ground between that and what I'm saying needs to happen if any change is to be made.

[Teresa]

Robert, you can be angry till the cows come home and cut and paste my words upside down to make your point.  But no one can force anyone to steal a grandma's purse.  To rape grandma.  To break her face because she screamed when they shot her dog just before they took her tiny TV.  No jobs?  Mow yards.  Flip burgers.  Clean houses.  There are jobs, just no jobs people want.  And I don't advocate people "go along to get along"; people are free to disagree all they want, to rant, to write livid letters and books about all that pisses them off, but DON'T STEAL GRANDMA'S PURSE!!  What about this point is so difficult to understand?  A person can be poor and not steal, kill, rape, vandalize, mame.  No excuses.  None.  You seem to be advocating crime or at least making excuses for criminals.  You're saying, "Oh, they can't help it.  They're poor.  Criminals can rightfully blame __________.  Whatever.  And you should read Gladwell before you knock him.  What he writes resonates for a reason.   

[Robert Crisman]

What you're saying is, those who are angry at the system or authority or anyone who humiliated him/her are those who've learned "helplessness" and are the ones who have things in common with criminals. But then again, suppose there are no jobs? Suppose you can't move, except maybe to another place just as shitty as the one you moved out of? Takes money to move to a better place. And on and on; I could go through the whole litany here but I think I'd be wasting my time. There are those who make it out of poverty by working the three jobs, etc., but those are pretty exceptional people, people who've managed to accomplish something most middleclass folks never even have to think about trying to do, and couldn't if they tried. You don't have to make excuses for the criminals to see that poverty continues to play an enormous role in the crime rate--and least because people learn "helplessness" and choose their own "victimhood". Hell, the first gangbangers in this country were my people, the Irish in the 1830s, who were poor. Then old Boss Tweed and Tammany got 'em jobs, by dealing with gangbanger-turned-labor contractors, and the Irish, given that toehold, worked their way up to become politicians and cops--not so different than gangbangers--but "respectable" just the same. Tammany gave the Irish those jobs, by the way, because they didn't want to give 'em to the free Black folks in New York at the time...

It would be interesting to see what the crime rate would look like if all the middleclass folks got dumped into poverty, you know? Which might happen sooner than you think, given the state of our financial system and all...

As for anger at the system and authority, et al., what you're advocating by implication is that people go along to get along, regardless of how corrupt the system is or how illegitimate the authority. That's the logic of your position. No thanks. I mean, why shouldn't you be angry if someone has easier than you do because of discrimination and all the rest of those lovelies? It seems to me that, if you're not angry at that, there is something entirely lacking in you, and that is the problem, not anger. Or would you try and deny that discrimination exists and has played a huge role in maintaining the socio-economic status-quo? I'd be careful with that one...

As for Malcolm Gladwell, he's just another racist rightwinger, Jamaican though he may be, who got his start, I believe, in places like the Heritage Foundation, and so forth. He's made a career out of looking at such phenomina as poverty, without bothering to consider where it might have come from--some scholar!--and in the process effectively conflating it with race, and thereby adding his voice to all the other academic "conservatives" who effectively equate crime with being black. I'd love to have a half hour with him in public debate, and cut off his head, so to speak, and show all the people that he had no brains whatever.

[Mike Handley]

I like Ed's idea, too. But it ain't gonna happen with the current Congress, and I'm at a loss as to why it didn't happen with the last one.

[Edward Dean]

Excellent discussion T.

The reason for a dialysis center in a run down area is because blacks and Hispanics have the highest level of diabetes. The second reason is that most poor people are plagued an with overweight condition that causes 'fat induced' diabetes where large fat cells block the insulin. Diabetes and excess fat cause the kidneys to start shutting down.

 

As for the 18 to 24 group, nationally this group is the most unemployable demographic in the US. Here in the Detroit this groups unemployment rate is over 40%. It's not a matter of want...... it's can't. The only easy answer is bring back the WPA from the thirties. It worked then and can work now.

[Mike Handley]

I'm with T.

Y'all can quote ME on this (because, like everyone, I have a belly button, too): It's in the wiring. Lucky breaks help immensely. Pitfalls can knock you on your ass. But if you're wired to do so, you can make a better life for yourself.

[Stephen Torelli]

Teresa--Bravo!