zlacker

>>pseudo+(OP)
I wonder if any of the scientist or commenters in this thread have ever lived in a bad hood. The hoods require more and better policing, the worst offenders, who kill orders of magnitude more people are criminal gangs. You remove police - you'll get spike in homicides.

>>Someon+ts
I grew up in a bad neighborhood and was the victim of violence on multiple occasions. I have what the academics call "lived experience". It wasn't any kind of weird fluke, it was exactly the kind of violence you would expect from this kind of area: Being attacked by groups of improverished youths, looking to rob and assault people for money and enjoyment. The things these privileged ACAB protesters believe are absolute nonsense. These kids were not out there assaulting people because the system had let them fall through the cracks. These were individuals who had purposefully eluded ever integrating themselves in the system. The gangs would act in their own self interest to the fullest extent until the police stopped them.

>>fearin+k21
So what is your response when it's coming from someone that did live in a bad neighborhood,like me? I grew up on the south side of Chicago, around the Back of the Yards area which was particularly bad in the 90s. I've been robbed at gun point and had to live avoiding alleys, avoid wearing certain colors of clothing, have had to grow up seeing dried blood on my walks to elementary school, etc. And I still say ACAB and support defunding the police.

In your view, these are people that don't wish to integrate themselves, and in my view, these are people that never had much of a chance to begin with. The public schools I went to were so underfunded, and I am lucky that I took a different path than the one of least resistance. A lot of the people I grew up with that joined gangs were abused as kids, had learning disabilities, grew up with violence, didn't have a proper learning environment, didn't have after-school programs to go to when they wanted to avoid violence and abuse at home, etc. I'd rather take money from police departments and funnel it to actually giving those kids a chance.

>>loveha+Z91
I can't account for why you think the way you do.

I had an early life typical of some of these places. My area was not as bad as the one you describe FYI. I made so many mistakes in my own early life that really set me back, some of which could potentially be attributed to the nihilistic attitude of my surroundings. As a result I'm perhaps more sympathetic to the downtrodden people of these areas than you might believe. That being said, my own success in life has made me slightly less sympathetic to these people than I used to be. I underwent a massive attitude change in my early 20s that changed my entire life. I stopped blaming other people for my problems and took responsibility for my life, it was like flicking a switch. All of a sudden everything in my life slowly began to function, I started to receive positive results from my actions. I understand that not everyone can become rich. You'll have greatly different results if instead of becoming a software engineer like I did you're just bagging groceries. That's always going to be the case though.

I truly understand that getting through to kids from broken homes can be difficult when their parents, like mine, have created such a hostile environment for their kids that they base their entire conceptual model of society on their broken home life. Having said that, there's no one out there telling people that getting hooked on hard drugs is a good idea, yet it still happens. These kids know what living a good life looks like. They make their own bad decisions. I really do believe in offering all the support we can to help at-risk children avert ruining their lives. They're not all going to be saved, no matter what you do. I feel like those who are capable, and interested, will always seek out better things for themselves eventually.

>>fearin+Nn1
I mean I'm glad you had your light bulb moment but that doesn't always happen, does it? Furthermore, the issue isn't that "they're not all going to be saved, no matter what you do," the issue is that society gives up on them before they even have a choice. E.g. their elementary school has its funding cut, their after-school programs are cut, they family is broken and/or abusive--why are you expecting a child to grow up and learn how to make the right decisions?

And as for making the right decisions--I have a few issues that have worked hand-in-hand to keep me from having a long and stable relationship. I know which bad decisions I've made in the past, I know as I making them that they're bad, yet here I am, single and at 31! It's something I'm still trying to work through. So having said that, I am not going to judge someone for their bad decisions if I can't always pick the right path myself. And I'm sure you're not always sticking to the right path, either. I mean, I'm sure there's a billionaire out that there could go through your life decisions and judge you for not having a fleet of yachts yet. It's easy to be like "don't do meth!" and then not do meth, but I don't know what those people are going through that they thought that meth was a good idea. I don't want them in jail for it, either. I think there are far better options.