Cops, Crime, and the Economy
Some time ago I was on patrol in a part of Los Angeles known then as now for its high level of crime. A woman driving through the neighborhood stopped me and posed some questions. She had been living in one of L.A.’s far-off suburbs, and she was contemplating a move into town where she would be closer to her job. In some ways the neighborhood would have been ideal for her. It was affordable, for one thing, and it offered handy freeway access for getting to her workplace downtown. Even when L.A. traffic is at its worst, which is to say most mornings and afternoons, she would have saved two hours on the road each day if she had moved from her current home in the suburbs.
Then came the snag: “How’s the crime around here?” she asked.
I confess to experiencing a fleeting temptation to equivocate. The woman, if I can render a judgment based on that most cursory of meetings, struck me as someone who would enhance the surroundings. She seemed educated and pleasant, she was well dressed, and the car she drove reflected, if not prosperity, a certain pride of ownership. She was in short the kind of person almost anyone would want to see moving in on the block, and the kind of customer any merchant would welcome. And as a police officer in the area, I reasoned that this woman’s home would be one less whose occupants would add to the neighborhood’s ills and my own workload.
But I could not lie to her. The answer to her question about neighborhood crime was anything but an inducement to settle there. There had been, I told her, a gang-related murder only two days before, just a few blocks from where we were standing. Burglaries and street robberies were common in the surrounding area, and the nearby major thoroughfare, on which she would have to drive on her way to and from the freeway, was well known for the prostitutes who did a roaring trade at all hours of the day and night, a trade which often involved servicing customers in cars parked on the adjacent side streets, making for the occasional unpleasant surprise for adults and unwelcome educational experience for children.
The woman thanked me for the information, and I wished her luck in her search for a new home, which I was certain would not be in that particular neighborhood.
Those who condemn “white flight” would argue that, because not everyone in the bad neighborhood is a criminal then fleeing the neighborhood unfairly punishes noncriminals who stay behind for the actions of others. But if I stay, then _I_ will be victimized, which I don’t deserve — and when it comes to avoiding unfair punishments my _first_ priority is to keep such from landing on _me_. The critics, it would seem, condemn me for not accepting “my fair share” of victimization.
What California needs is a good “shall issue” concealed carry law so that they good people in such neighborhoods refuse to be robbed or carjacked.
.Absolutely spot on An armed society IS a polite – and safer – society.
Not to mention a Florida style “castle doctrine.”
Gotta protect the law-abiding from the lawyers who would be happy to prosecute or sue them for putting a goblin down.
If not for the fact that my mother and brothers live there, I would say that what California needs, other than a Governor/legislature that knows how to say not to say NO to liberal ides and spending, is a good earthquake that will turn the entire state into an island off the coast.
Hmmmmm. The giant earthquake scenario. If we went through that and survived could we be our own Republic, and not be part of the US again?
Tempting.
Bill, you have no idea how many states are HOPING that California leave the union and takes that silly 9th Cir Court with you! it is no joke that Californians are dislike so much that travlers from California are told to remove their car lic plates as to avoid “the traffic citations” in other states, and the glare of people in other states.
When I was home shopping in Texas I had my truck spit on-they spat right on my California lic plates-I could not wait to dump them once I left
Part of that “Earthquake Scenario” is that the big ‘un obliterates SF and SAC while that particular court and the idiot legislature is in session; creates a 26 mile wide channel between San Ysidro and Tijuana [can you say "Avalon"?]; spares the lives of honest tax payers; and leaves the rest of the state intact but far enough off shore for political independence. Btw, the Texans I know around Austin are too polite to spit on CA license plates. Towards, maybe, but not on. For all they know I might hold a carry permit.
Jack, I enjoy your writings and know you are a true Patriot. I certainly agree that crime chases away commerce and investment.
After all, my own manufacturing plant in Memphis, TN has been broken into or had expensive vandalism over 30 times in 5 years! However, you talk about Oakland, CA as if they can’t afford police coverage. The failed liberal system of paying off unions for votes has disabled their police coverage. With cops in Oakland making over $100K a year with huge , unsustainable pensions that have broken their Treasury, they now plead for hlep to the Feds without having made any of the obvious sacrifices that any family or small business has had to make during this downturn.
As much as I support law enforcement, I do not support it at any price!
Your article is good and makes a good point but the roots of the lack of law enforcement in those cities is unsustainable spending in order to curry votes and build up Unions to control voting blocks. Unfortunately, the laws of economics are teaching us all a lesson. I ask that you consider the role of economics in your future writings. You are an important voice and need to be heard.
Your comments re: the city of Oakland ring true. Inept city leadership, unwilling to deal with serious lack of integrity and responsibility issues among themselves and in their core constituencies, chose to throw money at the problem instead of fiscal sanity. Most voters there deserve what they are now receiving. Laid off officers probably do not
Jack Dunphy conveniently ignores the corruption of the police unions. The majority of police officers in California have scammed the system. Regular citizens who earn their living in the private sector should primarily perceive the cops as their enemy. The typical police officer has the ethics of a burglar, con artist, or mugger. This is a harsh fact that can no longer be ignored.
I more or less agree with you. Since the police forces have been militarized, and issued APCs and high-rate-of-fire machine guns, and other military equipment, the type who wants to become a cop has changed. Jack’s employer, the LAPD, has never really been the the height of civility toward the public they are alleged to be serving, but it has gotten worse over the years.
I not so fondly remember the officers standing in front of Fairfax High each day when school let out. Their source of amusement centered on screaming faux-German “orders” at the passing school children. Many of those kids went home to parents who had tattoos on their arms courtesy of the German government. Hey, great stuff, and always good for a laugh at roll-call down at the station house.
I distrust most law enforcement officers and avoid them as much as I can, just as I would avoid any force that shows all indicators of being an occupying military force rather than peace officers.
It is interesting that the friendly grizzly speaks about distrusting the police and the not supporting any military occupying force. Please, grow up and try to at least some exemplary statement against the police. You merely don’t like the police because you rebel against authority. All the people that I know, friends and neighbors, don’t have any problem with the police. You know why? Because they are law abiding citizens. The average law abiding citizen does not have to look behind their shoulders to see if the police is behind them, sure except when they may occasionally be speeding. If the police is so bad, if this country is so bad, if the city you live in is so bad, either do something about it or leave. Go to some of those countries south of the border to experience what a corrupt and occupying military force is truly like. You will come back and apologize.
yes, but in those days, crime was much lower than now. There were such things as law and order, unlike now. Of course they also went after distributors of mary jane as well. Hmm….
How friendly are you to the thugs and vermin who attempt to steal your stuff at gunpoint?
I thought so.
Can’t have it both ways.
I’ll believe you more when you start putting down the criminals. You really want to start siding with them?
The police unions Jack knows best may take a biased position but they have not proven to be corrupt, in spite of your opinion. Rank and file officers throughout the nation have little control over their unions, so “scam” is simply a false flag. And I suppose the local drug dealer or street prostitute would be more effective in protecting a citizen in your bizarro world? Your lack of ethics in making sweeping generalizations is the only fact thats obvious here. Grow up and learn to make reasoned, sensible arguments or your points will be ignored.
Someone had a bad day!
We all dealt with an overbearing motorcycle cop who tickets you at 4:59 pm when a left turn becomes legal at 5:00pm; and insufferable cops high on just being a cop. And yes a lot -and probably most- game the system but the fire department does the same thing; so do city officials.
At least I get value from the LAPD. And the SIS. Aside from those motorcycle cops with their droopy mustaches and silly traffic tickets, the bulk of LAPD are good people. I’d rather they game the system than the ones who couldn’t make LAPD and went to CHP instead.
My wife has two uncles who are cops in a small, relatively bucolic NE town, one a Sgt. and one an Lt. Both took early retirement; the Lt. saying to me, “I can’t work with the guys who want to be cops these days. They’re cowboys. I drew my weapon 4 times in 28 years on the force, and we’ve got guys now who draw 4 times in a shift!”
grow up
Thanks for the synchroniztic thinking. In a way that is.
Boom towns have less cops. Safe towns have less cops. Here’s my findings. Stick with them.
(1) Cops cause crime.
(2) More Cops means more crime.
(3) Less cops means less crime.
(4) Cops do not lower crime.
I put the seemingly least defensible finding on top. But it’s true too. Since I have confidence in the underlying truth of my findings I will not provide further evidence or argument for them. Truth has a way of arguing for itself very well once it is remarked upon.
Now I follow hard truth with mere theory.
Theory 1: The way to fight crime in crime-plagued cities is not with police. It is to treat the problem as if it is insurrection. Isolate and invade the worst city neighborhoods with a army, level the most infested places and transport the rebellious elements to a series of basic POW labor colonies in barren areas.
If you do not do this it happens anyway for all practical effect. Look at Detroit.
Theory 2: To reduce crime in a municipal district remove all the police from that district and isolate it.
Theory 3: To make a city stronger, fire most police.
Cops may every well inadvertently cause more crime. That is because they usually support left-wing politicians who provide them with high salaries and lavish pensions. To be blunt, they have been bribed. Police unions only care about getting the goodies. They would support the devil if that might advance their agenda.
Public sector employees should have never acquired the so called right of collective bargaining. This must be reversed—or the country will not survive.
Most cops I know are very strong conservatives and wouldn’t give a plugged nickle to left-wing politicians. You’re confusing “unions” with “officers”. They are not the same.
I will agree too many police [and other public employee] unions are too short sighted to serve their constituents well. It does little good to fight for a dime when that dime means your egg-laying goose will die. Unions should be in the forefront of keeping public agencies solvent and financially healthy, but most seem to sadly lack the mental capacity to make those attitude adjustments. Goodness knows too many local politicians are only in it for the money they can siphon off.
Leveling a community and herding the occupants off to confinement wholesale has already been tried. It all depends on who is defined as “criminal”. Use the search engine of your choice and key in “Warsaw Ghetto”.
Another big problem with your idea follows on to what happened in Warsaw. The police are smiling and greeting you and patronising your businesses this week. You are declared “undesirable” the next week. The week after that, Jack’s brothers in blue are screaming “raus! raus!” at you as they herd you into the trucks. Why? Because it is the law, and they obey orders.
Jack, I am sorry. But your brothers behind that big blue wall have brought sentiments like mine out. I am white, I am free of any arrest record, and haven’t even had a ticket since 2001, and I deserved it. Still, I avoid you people like the plague; it is my sense of self-preservation. With so many laws on the books, if an officer has not met his quota, he is gonna bust me for something, ANYTHING, if I am handy.
OK, show me exactly WHERE in America we’ve had the equivalent of the warsaw ghetto and mass murder executions a la Aushwitz? Is this like, some cop once took your drugs away years ago and you still haven’t forgotten it? that what this is?
Factoid: One of USA’s most heavily copped city, more cops per person?…Beverly Hills. Gee, wonder why the crime rate’s verryyyy low compared with say,…Compton, El Segundo, Hacienda Heights, South Central, etc. Wonder why?
The problem with your upside down “sychroniztic” thinking is that life is not the same as playing video games. This is real life and they are real people. I will now compare my own competitive but never-the-less proven theories with your set:
(1) Crimes cause cops.
(2) More Crimes means more cops.
(3) Less crimes means less cops.
(4) Crimes do not lower cops.
Hmmmmm. So, bvw, when comparing your four against my four how many folks who actually pay taxes and don’t live in group homes would vote for yours? I think your view of reality is seriously skewed.
Is there a poster search feature on PJ Media?
In any case, Bill Gannon, your ‘findings of fact’ are quite wrong! Please see my response to Mark.
bvw unless you provide some links to your claims, the “facts” you rely on are merely experiences and opinions, as mine are mine. It seems to me you are speaking of two different things – the act of policing and the efficacy of the justice system. I totally agree with the position that our justice system is whacked and is not “just”. But I’ve lived long enough to understand that’s not caused by cops, but by lawyers. In an efficient and just system you are right about one thing. The bad guys that robbed your home would be in some type of custody and indebted to you for the damage and loss they caused until they had made full restitution. But lawyers have made sure that won’t happen.
I’ve long dreamed of starting a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to collecting old buses in which to drive full loads of lawyers off cliffs, but that’s another post.
bvw said:
as if that were some deep, dark truism. Duh. Boom towns are usually booming because crooks have lots of opportunities to scam victims. Once a town’s had the opportunity to hire and train enough officers the scamming trickles down and the town might not be “booming” in some minds anymore. To others it might now have become a great place to live and work and grow a family. Even if the scammers don’t agree.
BVW, have to been smoking some of that medical pot or something-man, that’s the only thing I can think of for your twisted logic.
The state must have shut off your psyc meds
John-the-retired,
I am sane and sober.
bvw, the non-retired
“the notion that poverty causes crime is a myth that stubbornly refuses to slip into the grave it has long deserved.”
While I agree this is a common myth so is this one
“The recession could still affect crime rates if cities cut their police forces”
Police rarely prevent crime. True crime prevention only comes from the citizenship and from arming and defending legally the rights of citizens to defend themselves, family and property.
Crime is going down because more laws are being passed to enables this defense and more guns are hitting the streets.
Not necessarily true. It can go either way. A well-run force’s presence can seriously dampen bad guys’ interests in doing bad stuff.
This is mostly spot on. What works best is a partnership between cops and citizens. In cities where that happens things usually work well.
“Not necessarily true. It can go either way. A well-run force’s presence can seriously dampen bad guys’ interests in doing bad stuff.”
A police state can suppress crime… rarely can any rational US Constitutionally based police force even hope to counter 5% of crime committed. At best police can hope to be at the crime site to be in time to show up while the crime is still being committed… even then in the best of cases your looking at an insanely more number of crimes with an insanely large and fast reacting police force to once again get above the 5% margin.
If you are talking about crime 100% you may have a point. But if you are talking about violent crimes and/or crimes that cause a high dollar loss you are wrong. Smart policing can drive those particular stats down to where they become extremely manageable. Notice I’m not claiming every police agency uses “smart” policing. They don’t. That might be what you have personally experienced. Sorry for that.
I don’t remember who wrote it, but someone remarked that to blame poverty for crime was a slander upon the poor. This makes me think about that some more.
Diana, you are right to consider this. I’ve seen extremely poor neighbors band together in a low-budget version of Neighborhood Watch and turn their block’s fortunes [not their wealth, per se] around. To do it they learned to work with cops and found them anxious to help, some even on their own time. But they turned around their own “attitudes” first. It always starts there.
Sorry. Dianna
The picture below the title of the article got garbled;
It should read: Police, do not cross line.
The term for the other side of the line is ‘Abandoned Area’;
Abandoned by the city because _all_ the city workers, from
Police to plumbers, refuse to enter such a dangerous area,
and the city is too broke to pour money down a rat hole.
Crime is caused by the unethical who are given opportunity without chance of retribution by Government.
The concept of “Police” is very new historically. In the past the people would bring a malefactor before a magistrate, the the bad guy would be tried and hanged.
More police only means more corruption and more crime.
More law is useless if that law is not understandable by the people.
The only solution is a vigilant populace guided by custom and ethics, and a length of finely oiled hemp (not for smoking).
Mark: YES. Our modern concept and scale of “Police” is very new historically. Yes, in the past the people were responsible for bringing order to their environs and if needed would bring a malefactor before a magistrate. The accused then got the chance to directly confront his accuser. THAT lowers crime, as most people don’t like having to be judged in order to have someone else judged. Thus people did to a greater extent than today, tolerate the tolerable. Minor violations to public decorum, or minor crimes against person or place were dealt with individual to individual. The focus was usually upon restitution of lost value, and not the modern focus on punishment.
Say I am robbed and the robbers captured. This happened to me two years ago, three robbed my home when my daughter stepped out for a twenty minute walk. They stole considerable value in that time, and ran out the other door as she returned. They were caught in a another township. Can I sue them for restitution of the thousands I lost when they stole it? It would not make sense, they are broke and in jail. In older times they would be jailed by night and work for me to pay off their debt during the day. Such practice does indeed REFORM the criminal. Only the most pathological do not reform and need 24-7 imprisonment.
I am not at all for hangings and jail. WASTEFUL! Better the whip and indenture to cure the criminal.
You write “More police only means more corruption and more crime.” YES! As the foul grizzly replied to me above “haven’t even had a ticket since 2001, and I deserved it”. He “deserved it”! What a rotten way of thinking of oneself! When a municipality employs police it begins increasing the number of things that are criminal. Crime increases!
Moreover, as Obama-Holder-Napolitano and a bad-faith Federal Judge have claimed against Arizona — once there are Police assigned the role of pursuing the criminal and the malcontent, all others must stand down. That was a bad ruling, for sure, but it recognized the practical actuality of what occurs in an community when they hire ‘professionals’ to do things. The designated professionals, by human nature, grab for more and more authority and shut out all competition.
I have seen that up close. I helped my local police catch a murderer a few years back and they rewarded me by threats and banning me from the news conference.
Hangings are a good idea- for crimes against bodily integrity: murder, rape, kidnapping, dismemberment.
I “deserved it” because due to a lack of attention, I made a left turn that resulted in two perfectly good vehicles being damaged. Ergo, I deserved it. It was not some ch1ck3nsh1* 65 in a 60 zone at 3 in the morning on an empty freeway.
Grizzly — This is America. You have a duty to not self-incriminate. I assume you made those whom you hit whole, likely via automobile insurance, right? NO ONE ‘deserves’ to be prosecuted. We do have to prosecute some bad actors, but you are NOT one. There was no need for a cop to handle that accident, was there? I mean did some one threaten you, or did you threaten them?
For the record I am not saying police of some form are not needed. What I am saying is that police — especially those of the modern form known as ‘cops’, after the copper buttons of their special unique military-like uniforms — cause crime. They sometimes stop crime, so the equation is thus: Too many cops net out more crime. Too few cops net out more crime. Generally we have TOO MANY.
The older form of police were more like watchmen. It is important for a healthy community that problems within it get solved as much as possible by the people in it. Not by ‘professional’ external experts. The solutions by the people are better solutions.
I have spent a lot of time as a police officer and would have to say the majority of these posts are so far off base as to have no basis in fact at all. Thinking that the fact of reporting and catching a criminal increases crime is idiotic, allowing the crime to occur and go unreported and the person responsible go unpunished does not decrease crime. Police officers do not have quotas, they can catch as many lawbreakers as they want. To every one that claims I just got arrested because I am (pick one, black, mexican, have long hair, gay, or in the case of whites you would not have arrested me if I was black) I reply what were you doing just prior to being arrested? These folks all want to claim it was the fault of the person that caught them and not the fault of the activity they were engaged in, pure BS. Are there exceptions and are there bad cops out there, sure but not to the extent that whiners and moaners claim that want to blame someone else for their own actions instead of taking responsibility for it themselves.
Amen. Its always someone else’s fault. Its sad when they grow up and find out mommy and daddy didn’t raise them very well.
In Baltimore,MD where I live we are watching a local political contest for State’s Attorney. This position is currently filled by an incompetent but connected black woman named Patty Jessamy who has failed to manage the Baltimore governments prosecution of our criminals effectively. The local police chief has come out in favor of her replacement from the $225,000/year job by supporting her white opponent for the Democratic primary. As in many Democratic/Progressive inner cities crime is a major problem and Baltimore is near the top of the list. Another characteristic of crime ridden inner cities is an entrenched black government who refuses to vote in competent leadership and bands together to keep out any “white” candidates. One of the commentors who happens to be part of the African American community stated that we will never vote out State’s Attorney Jessamy because the black community regularly lines up buses from all the black churches,black social organizations and black colleges and delivers thousands of people who have no idea who or what the State’s Attorney office is or does but know how they are to vote. Until we can organize better than they can we are going to continue to see the inner cities regarded as a secure “job bank” by the inner city minorities and watch the destruction of the entire community.
Poor people have poor ways. That’s a simple truth. Poor behavior includes criminal behavior. When poor behavior is incentivized, you WILL get more of it. Large cites across the country incentivize poor behavior, in exchange for political power, which comes from people connected to that largess, which is why you find leftist political police leadership in charge of mainly conservative police forces.
Meanwhile the poor are paid to thrive. It will be a never ending death spiral until the city either collapses, like Detroit, or new leadership stops the breeding of the poor. I strongly suspect LA will become like Detroit.
Taking your comments on Baltimore and Maryland at face value, we have seen this scenario played out too many times. What these leaders in Baltimore have done is become modern day “Uncle Toms”, except that the voting “slaves” think they’re free and the “Toms” know otherwise. It is slimy politics at its worst. It is Detroit 40 years ago. Oakland 10 years ago. It is the future on all cities where voters vote only on racial or party lines. If a voter isn’t smart enough to think for him/herself there are always sharpies out there who will “manage” those votes for the manager’s personal benefit. History proves this time and time again.
To all of you would listen to the likes of BVW I would say this. Why don’t you go down to your local police station and ask if they have a ride-a-long program, if they do then ask if you can participate. I guarantee that one night in a patrol car will change your mind about what it is that police do or what they can prevent. Or better yet why don’t you take bvw and the two of you go live in a town with no police presents and then come and tell us all how having police causes crime. There is only one word for people with bvw’s attitude and that word is MORON.
Jim,. when did the modern police department get started?
I get the feeling your not from the U.S. your speech patterns indicate E.U. maybe? I avoid the police, but then again I don’t break laws and can’t stand the common scofflaws, which are prevalent in our society.
“Normal” Oh really? You are really reaching! I was born in New Jersey. I have a real genuine BIRTH CERTIFICATE too. Where are you from “Normal”? Mars? Venus? Uranus?
Jim those idiots won’t do that-90% of them are cowards. They can tell you all about the jobs peace officers do becuase like BVW, Mika, and the others “they read about it” or “saw it on TV”.
It is attitudes like thiers that say “who cares if the Laker Fans burn LA” or the idiots in Oakland burn that city after a jury verdict-I got the hell out! As long as they don’t burn Police/Fire Pensions-I could careless these days.
California and those who live within it deserve what they get-they voted for Prop F and all the other silly stuff going on. They have disarmed themselves thinking “guns are bad”, they are about to legalize dope-yea, way to go! Every Villiage has an idiot they laugh at-among the states, our village idiot is California and the crazy wacked out stuff it does.
Jack hit it on the head-those that can leave-we are doing that to the number of 800,000 people in the last 5 years
Loaded question. Define “modern” then google it. Imo most western states followed the Texas Ranger or Wyatt Earp traditional approach to law enforcement, and most eastern states followed the “common law” English copper methodologies of Great Britain. But all of them modified their systems quite a bit to fit their needs. The “modern” requirement for basic peace officer training in CA began in earnest during the late 1950′s.
Two points:
(1)
THE MILLIONAIRE COP (firefighter, teacher, federal bureaucrat) NEXT DOOR
By Rich Karlgaard, Forbes Magazine 6/28/10 issue
[EDITED by Freeper Liz] Who are America’s fastest-growing class of millionaires? They are police officers, firefighters, teachers and federal bureaucrats, who, unless things change drastically, will be paid something near their full salaries every year–until death–after retiring in their mid-50s….a retirement sum worth millions. Based on a realistic 4% return, an $80,000 annual pension payout with full health benefits implies a large pot of money–$2 million, to be precise.
That $2 million also happens to be the implied booty of your average California policeman who retires at age 55……..in Carlsbad, Cali, the average firefighter or police officer typically retires at age 55 and has 28 years of service w/ an annual city pension of $76,440 (but that’s only one pension that we know of—could be several pensions per retiree).
SOURCE http://www.forbes.com/
(2)
Modern Police practice — where the uniformed Police essentially take over all aspects of community law and order — derives from the same cohort of sociologists who gave us Marxism. The operative root basis for modern police is to achieve a state monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. No wonder SO MANY modern police chiefs are not 2nd Amendment friendly! No wonder they militarize so readily!
New crimes and regulations upon behavior are coded into law just to allow the exercise of that monopoly power. For such power must be demonstrated to be claimed.
—
Yes citizen, you ARE GUILTY of some crime! Once (or how many time it takes) you stopped in your car and forced to sit silent and present papers like some convict headed out on work release or arrested, grabbed, cuffed and pushed to the ground like a dog for some trivial public misdemeanor — you get the message. The psychological imprint of subservience to your Police leaves an indelible mark on all. Few resist to stand like men against such degradation.
The internal morality of the subservient to such cold power is weakened. The internal checks a person has against committing real crimes are weakened. After all, it’s no longer wholly his own responsibility to be an upstanding moral citizen. The Police have arrived to tell him when he is bad. It’s their job.
—
Cops cause crime. That truth is bigger than just the aforementioned aspects, but the monopoly of power and the power of monopoly is a significant aspect of that truth.
Point 1. You didn’t link to the article, just to Forbes front page, so couldn’t follow your thought. But if you’re point is wages and retirement rates are out of control in many communities, I agree with you. Blame the politicians and the unions, not the cop on the street.
Point 2. You have a quaint way of misstating the process. Every arrest or citation by an officer is processed through a judicial system which is – or should be – separate from the enforcement arm. Though officers are hired and paid by local entities, they are agents of the state. They are in uniform and wear badges so citizens and others may know that they represent the state. Unpopular laws may be changed by action of the state. Cops don’t make laws, nor do they sometimes agree with ones they are duty-bound to enforce.
The reason so many Chiefs of Police say they don’t like the Second Amendment is because they have whored their professional selves to the leftist politicians that hire them and are simply parroting the required party line. Except where there’s been a history of irresponsible gun use coupled with gutless prosecutory decisions, most of the rank and file usually support responsible private gun ownership.
And the truth is just the opposite. Crimes cause cops [to be hired]. What you believe is simply illogical.
Crime may or not be getting worse, but the police in general certainly are. I marvel over the effect cellphone videos and capturing bad cops in the act have had on the perceptions of the general public. Public opinion of police is low and getting lower.
In response, the police have started arresting bystanders for filming their misdeeds and charging them with felonies! Yeah, I know, this article is about whether police have an effect on violent and property crimes. And those kind of crimes are actually a relatively minuscule portion of the crimes police deal with, and only grudgingly at that. (try filing a property crime report sometime if you don’t believe me). Too much of what the police expend their energy and our money fighting is non-violent, victim less crimes. It is not about protecting and serving, it is all about the police gaining more and more power and control.
Think about that hobgoblin known as “officer safety.” Generally, being a cop does not even rank as one of the top 10 most dangerous jobs in any year, and it is never in the top five. More bank tellers were killed on 9-11 than cops.
Prior to the US Supreme Court’s recent pruning back of the “automobile search incident to arrest rule,” I witnessed four traffic stops on 1/2 mile stretch on a busy thoroughfare in a very low crime area. In all of them, the cars were being brusquely searched, presumably for “officer safety!” All of them were occupied by young people, who we can assume will from now on exhibit the same seething hatred of police that so mystifies the police. Jeering at civilians and calling them “morons” because they are sick and tired of their public servants treating them this way just adds fuel to the fire.
I agree, and sometimes it seems cops are their own worst enemies. It is extremely difficult to maintain self-control in the midst of an adrenalin rush. That’s always been a problem.
Absent a specific court order, I agree cops arresting people video-taping their activities from a public location is stupid and short-sighted, and should be illegal to do.
Define “victimless” crimes. Never ran into one of those. Just crimes whose victims didn’t have as much clout with the public as others.
Sigh. I think you mean “administrations” or “politicians” who represent the state, not “police”. The former are the ones who make the laws. Cops they hire have the job of enforcing those laws. They themselves have a hard enough time keeping everything shipshape in their own personal lives. The farthest thing from officers’ minds is “controlling” how others live. Unless, of course, the “others” are scamming victims or trashing laws.
Respect and admiration for Law Enforcement may be in decline in California-but not in Texas. We honor our peace officers like we honor our military people. This lack of respect seems to go hand in hand with the “progressive agenda” out in California. They only thing it really is doing is making it easy for corruption with elected officals to occure-just look at LA’s mayor who controls the Chief of Police
Jack’s recent post covered the LA CoP topic quite well. Hence my reference to CoP’s being “whores”. The public thinks the CoP of an agency represents the views of her/his officers. For political and ego-stroking purposes most CoP’s try to maintain this fiction. Except for a few toadies riding on CoP coat-tails the opposite is more often true.
Dudes and Dudettes,
It’s so easy to read between the lines of this article. For example:
“The woman, if I can render a judgment based on that most cursory of meetings, struck me as someone who would enhance the surroundings. She seemed educated and pleasant, she was well dressed, and the car she drove reflected, if not prosperity, a certain pride of ownership. She was in short the kind of person almost anyone would want to see moving in on the block, and the kind of customer any merchant would welcome.”
So in other words, she was white, right? White people are so responsible for their actions and behaviors while those with brown skin are so messy and disruptive, poor whitey has to pack iron just to get out of the car in the hood. Honestly, it must be rough, what with all the dark skin people moving here, what happens to the lilly white suburbs that are left? ‘m’
So Mika, I assume you are saying this artical is correct. It did not take you long to start the “race baiting” and “poor whitey has to pack iron just to get out of the car in the hood.”
Gotta news flash for you-I WOULD NEVER GO TO THE “HOOD” BECUASE OF THE THUGS! Even IF I was armed! Take a stroll down to 101st and Grape Street sometime with your Rolex on in newer car and see what happens.
If you LIVE to tell about it-I would love to listen to what you have to say!
When I walked a footbeat down on Skidrow, we would see people like Jack was talking about moving into those new big “lofts”. LOL, we called them “urban pioneers” which were settlers in a hostile world. It did not take them long to call because their crap got stolen out of their car during a BFMV, or to have us throw the wino off their door step who used it like a toliet. “Trash” comes in all colors-get real-Jack could have been talking about some Yuppie from Westwood moving down to 5th Street and Spring Street for all you know.
You are making an assumption. Your personal bias influences your assumptions, apparently, and that in-and-of itself cuts off communications. Sad. Or is it merely denial of reality on your part?
Mika,
Nice try, but you’re wrong. The woman was black. Sometimes people who read between the lines only see what they want to see.
–Jack Dunphy
Oops! I didn’t know. I clicked on your name and…well, I didn’t realize. Well anywhoo……….
OMG! That dude just totally zinged me! Oh well, I guess I deserved it for being a stupid b?tch! party on, dudes.
Before you start trying to sort out crime and the economy in an area you should read “The Curley Effect” by Glaeser and Shleifer
Other examples are a mayor of Detroit in the 1970s and Mugabe in Zimbabwe. It would be interesting to know if the same electorate shaping could be done by city council members in a city like LA. In any case, the poor, crime ridden neighborhood might not be bad, it might just be drawn that way. The cops are just the whipping boy for these politicians who use them to blame the problems on and as a foil to redirect anger toward.
Spot on, JKB.
“Here in California, prisoners are indeed being released early, though in Los Angeles the ill effects have yet to be manifested. Crime in the city continues to fall, though perhaps not at the rates experienced in recent years.”
That is exactly, precisely the OPPOSITE effect the police were predicting would happen. Wow, one would almost … ALMOST … think that some of the things the police proclaim about crime and punishment might be self serving! And gosh, who would have thought that by leaving police and prison budgets untouched, and to continue California’s mad prison building bubble would actually IMPROVE the dire straits of California’s budget deficits and economy!
Hire more police, build more prisons and reduce the deficit AND improve the sick economy … a remarkable prescription that no sane economist has ever announced.
Sooo…you’re for the drugs, right? You dont want ANY cops on the street, right? Criminals are victims, cops are pigs, crime will go down all by itself if the thugs just be allowed to do what they do.
What kind of leftists are out there today? Dont want cops or prisons built to house the criminally guilty? Oh, you want more convicted felons to be furloughed too, right? So, following your wisdom, once a jails too full…….just let ‘em out. Into the streets. Into your neighborhoods.
Love to see what song you sing when they all start coming into your neighborhood and start eyeing your kids. No, that stuff never ever happenscause all cons are good victims at heart, right?
Your words, your logic. Dont lock up criminals ever, crime will magically disappear.
Usually the media matters trolls dont come round here too often.
well said Tom
You may be crowing too soon. Give it a year and then look at it again. The “Wheels of Justice” takes time.
This Republic managed for almost 200 years to live with drugs, which since the ill-founded War on Drugs, have been illegal. Consequently, we have undergone the most massive increase in the indicia of the police state in a free society in world history. We have spawned a ravenous and bloated law-enforcement/prison-industrial complex that is second-to-none in size and scope in the world. Our drug prohibition scheme, in an identical repeat of alcohol prohibition, facilitated the murder of 28,000 Mexicans in the last three years.
Thomas Jefferson grew marijuana. The Founders to a man enjoyed legal opium products. They would all be imprisoned felons today.
Yet when the dishonesty of the tenants of the Police State is proven by the police’s own statistics – crime goes down when prisoners are released early – they resort to nasty name-calling. Understandably their livelihood, what they “protect” at all costs, is at stake. Since this is a conservative web site, one has to wonder why the police are so eager to deprive citizens of their very liberty, for “crimes” that the Founding Fathers committed with impunity.
For what?
Hum, crime goes down huh-well let see, convict gets released under your states NEW POLICY-he shoots it out with LAPD officers in Foothill. Convict gets released under your states new policy and within 24 hours he rapes a women in Sacramento-yep, sounds like we are making this up! Wonder what the Vict’s of those crimes have to say. The State of California is just begining to see the effects of this idiotic policy-what the heck I can carry a gun lawfully in my state.
War On Drugs hug, seems to me that the Prop Pot people “claim” they can balance the states budget if California “legalizes” marijuana-in total violation of Fed law. They made this same claim in Oakland-yet the city is as broke as ever and now going to lay off police officers-sounds like Cali math to me once again!
Police State?? Oh my, you are out of touch with what is going on out on the left coast. This artical was about basic economics and how public saftey is being effected by Californias budget mess-has nothing to do with your views of “the war on drugs” a “police state” or that libral trash you posted
You are dead wrong with your “timing”. “Illicit” drugs have been illicit for well over a century and a half. The definition of what is and isn’t illicit has changed over the years, but you are apparently too young to be spouting off wishful thinking as “wisdom”. The WOD is a johnny-come-lately. Ever heard of “prohibition”? It wasn’t just a movie.
Damn Jack, what a great article-you hit so many topics right on the head with this article! Tell me which LAPD copper has never been asked the question about crime in the area by a home buyer! Why do 80% of LAPD coppers, LASD, LAFD, AND others live in Simi, Santa Clarita Valley areas, or down in Orange County-we know why! We say NOT my family-so we move. It was out of the City-now it’s out of the state! “Economic recovery on a local scale, whether in Los Angeles, Oakland, or East St. Louis, is largely dependent on the willingness of citizens to live and spend money there. Wherever people don’t feel safe, those who are able pick up and go elsewhere. They take their money with them, leaving those remaining just that much poorer.” You hit this one right on the head! “ NO KIDDING!
I was born and raised in California up near Modesto-90% of my family still lives in this area. My partner’s family moved from Mexico to Los Angeles-they are now thinking of MOVING BACK TO MEXICO due to high taxes and crime in South Gate. When I retired from LAPD we decided that we were no longer going to put up with the “California BS”. We got sick of paying for all the deadbeats. Modesto is a toliet as is most of the state these days-we won’t put up with it!
We were flat out sick of the UTTTER BULLSHIT in LA and California so we took a leap of faith and moved to Texas on June 21, 2009, and never looked back! Jack, short of my joining LAPD, and retirement from LAPD-this move was the best damn thing we did for ourselves! I know the whole “gay issue” has nothing to do with this-but in some ways it does. Just think about this-gays are hard core “liberal democrats” for the most part-but even now we are starting to hate the BS of California! We “crossed the isle” BIG TIME!
What does it say about California and “tolerant” Los Angeles when gay guys sell everything they own, pack up, and flee “liberal California” to the “Bible Belt” to a “dry community” run by “Southern Babtist”? We have a large amount of “disposable income” which was earned in the City of LA-now we spend it in Texas which is very much a “red state.” Who cares about this crap of “gay marriage”- we are like everyone else-WE WANT LOW TAXES, RESPONSIBLE/SMALL GOVERNMENT, and safe communities! Texas is a “law and order state” without a doubt. My partner just got his concealed weapon permit and now “packs” a .357-hell, he could not do this in California and he would be at the mercy of the gangsters and thugs! In Texas you are within the law to use “deadly force” to protect PROPERTY!
In Texas, if you commit a “capital punishment” crime-we expect you to pay the price for your crime with your life! That never happens in California! We were sick of paying for schools for others kids that cost too much. We were sick of paying more for the state to hand out “section 8”. We were sick of the lack of “immigration enforcement”-we were sick of it all! For 47 years we believed the crap that “California leads the nation”-that’s just flat out parasitic California horse crap! Jack, we enjoy spending our Cali cash in Texas-we know that it puts people to work, helps our local economy, and deprives California all at the same time. We limit our travel to California to twice a year-and our goal is to spend as little money on the state as possible. We would rather visit Mexico before California and often do go south-once every month!
We are not the only former Californians who feel this way. Our UPS lady is from Long Beach, the TV repairman is from Whittier, our Butcher is from Thousand Oaks, our gas man is from Goleta, and we have people at our gym from Fresno, San Diego, and Sacramento. We now have a saying among those who fled California, “we would vote for Rush Limbaugh but he is far too liberal for us”-these are Ex-Californians talking!