Quote Originally Posted by jp1 View Post
It really must be sad to have such a pessimistic outlook on the world. And to live in such a dangerous neighborhood. Maybe you need to move.
Pessimistic? More like realistic. Thanks for your concern, but I don't see why I should let hoodlums force me out. I also don't see why I have to spend much of my own life energy figuring out how to fix them if it's not something that interests me.

I do live in a crime ridden area, as any view of comparative crime stats would show, and I mention it only to establish my creds as having a stake in how criminals are treated.


Feel free to look up the Harlem Children's Zone's concepts and what successes they've had. Or don't and continue to bitch and moan about how black people are just horrible down to the core of their being and will never change. To alter another tired phrase, we all can choose to be as hopeless as we want to be.

When I wrote that post yesterday I actually, believe it or not, tended to agree with you that once someone was in the criminal justice system getting them out of it for any length of time was highly unlikely. Then on the plane last night I listened to a recent This American Life episode where they did a story about a program in Richmond CA to try and reduce recidivism. The city looked at the stats and found that, unlike your perception that there are lots and lots of really bad guys out there (and probably theirs as well) only 17 people, in a city of just over 100,000, were responsible for almost all of the shooting crimes in the city. They created a program to target just those guys, the worst of the worst, and now years and several groups of guys later, 80% of the people who went through the program haven't been arrested again. I'd encourage you to go find and listen to the podcast, but again, I realize you may not want to burst your pessimistic bubble.
I never made any statement about how many criminals there are and obviously l didn't say "black people are just horrible down to the core of their being and will never change." Whoah, that's a lot of junk you are attributing to me. Yep, I don't think that Nanny G throwing money at social problems always, or even most of the time, brings human services up to optimum levels. I have known 2 kids who came out of jail and who stayed on the straight and narrow, but they had families with means who were able to focus them on job/living clean and provided support for same.

One single bad actor can cause troublesome events for a lot of people over a long time, and that's why locking them up is important. It's relief for me and people in my neighborhood.

I guarantee that if you lived and hung out in the places I do, you'd be relieved and happy when cops catch these shooters and killers and put them away. I'm sure you'd also continue to be interested in finding a better solution as you are now. There are many people who live here who lament the current "system" while also supporting police in catching criminals. So be it, type on the internet all you like about Ira Glass expounding on a solution. I will eventually hear this TAL show since I hear most all of them. But I want to grow lilies and iris and lead a life uninterrupted by criminals. When you and Ira solve it all, let me know.