How do you fix that though? Genuine and sincere question. I yearn for a better world to live in where we as a species and planet are able to survive, but thrive, without endangering others in the process. It always takes just a few to ruin things for everyone else. How do you take that mindset and change it in a more forward and positive direction. If there was one trait I could take away from humanity, it would be greed, but there is no black and white answer. Something like that would take generations. My favorite quote is, "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in".
studies have shown that the severity of punishment actually has very little effect on crime occurance rates - what does have a large effect is the expectation of being caught.
from what i can see, we have a passive society with lenient legal systems these days. feels like every day you hear of some violent attack from a 32 times convicted felon that was released without bail like the week before. What's more is that poor or anti-social behaviour is tolerated, things like playing loud music on a train for example.
a layer close to the core, people feel like they're the only person that matters, they are the main character - in contrast, in japan, it is normal for people who arrive to work early, to park the furthest from the building, assuming that someone running late will need to park close to the building. They care about their community, they participate in it and they self regulate their collective behaviour. We do not.
we need better policing both from police but also from citizens. people should hesitate to make a scene in public or to do something anti-social. Reddits like r/ImTheMainCharacter should be starved of content.
well said. Not that I want to prop up Guiliani (because the last decade of his career was an absolute cringy embarrassments) , but he did turn NYC around by doing exactly what you propose -- the broken windows theory. He met a lot of pushback, but he started enforcing minor punishments (fines) for minor crimes (e.g., panhandler/window washers, graphitti, etc), and enforced punishment jail time, etc. for worse crimes (and mandatory bail for most crimes.)
Now? NYC criminal system is a joke. No bail for non-violent crimes. You get a desk warrant and a court date, which no one ever shows up for. Non-violent crimes (theft, vandalism, car break ins, etc) have sky rocketed in NYC, because no one expects the punishments to be enforced, and if they're caught, NYC has a baked-in "catch and release" criminal system.
NYC literally started to give accused criminals gift cards, metro passes, and ball game tickets for showing up for a court appearance to their court date, as incentive to return. Needless to say, most took the gift cards, and never showed up. google it, it's true.
I will never ever subscribe to the “reward bad behavior” theory. Fuck that shit. Meanwhile, decent people get hammered making an innocent victimless mistake.
exactly. impose penalties for all crimes, even if it's a $10 fine, but make sure its enforced. And bring back bail. If people know there are consequences to their actions, they'll think twice before committing a crime.
I don't even bother driving in NYC anymore. the amount of smash and grabs in cars -- in broad daylight -- is astounding. Fuckers don't even look to see if anything is in there, they smash the window, root around for shit, and move on to the next car. Knowing with absolute certainty the cops won't touch them.
newest thing is traffic racing in NYC. google it on youtube, there are several posters that literally one dude is doing doughnuts around a cop car, then takes off, knowing he's fine because NYC has a no-pursuit (and no spike strip) policy.
I started working in the city in the 90s, and whatever you say about him, he really turned it around. It went from a complete shithole, to a fun, vibrant, safe city. Now it's a shithole again.
He started his downward spiral after 9/11, when he actually tried to suspend voting because he thought it would be disruptive to the rebuilding effort--- that more than anything foreshadowed his upcoming lunacy.
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u/Albaholly 3d ago
It also prevents desperate people from falling into line with greedy people.