New Posts
  • Hi there guest! Welcome to PoliticalJack.com. Register for free to join our community?

Crime & Punishment

Zam-Zam

Senator
Actions, as well as inactions, have consequences:

How America's Progressive Citadels Became Crime Centres

Left-wing policies have been a disaster in the US's most liberal cities


We usually associate violent crime and disorder with America’s impoverished inner cities — places like New Orleans, the south and west sides of Chicago, or long distressed suburbs like the Bronx. But today the centre of American crime is increasingly to be found on the West Coast, within some of the country’s wealthiest and most celebrated cities.

The explanation is new, too: instead of the traditional link between poverty and crime, this crime wave has more to do with policy. Virtually all the cities with the most notable crime outbreaks — San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles — are places with progressive prosecutors working to limit punishments for looters, organised thieves and the unruly, occasionally violent, homeless. The cities, with the exception of Los Angeles, are also among the whitest in the U.S., with a large population of educated people.

The lax legal environment has made west coast cities the happy hunting ground for “smash and grab” thieves on a hitherto unprecedented scale. These cities have also seen rapid growth in violent crime, which is never far behind disorder on the streets. Once these places, notably Portland, were seen as urban exemplars, but few would choose a city whose downtown has collapsed under months of pressure from radical demonstrators and suffers from record homicides.

California’s deliberate reduction in the punishment for minor property damage under $1000 has been linked to a spike in shoplifting, particularly in San Francisco. Mike Shellenberger, author of the recently published San Fransicko, suggests criminals and the homeless go to cities where they face the least chance of prosecution; the homeless tend to migrate where they are free to camp and avoid prosecution for property crimes. They are even given hotel rooms as well as free drugs and alcohol.

California is one of just a handful of states to see dramatic increases in its homeless population. According to Shellenberger, between 2015-2020, San Francisco’s homeless grew by 32%, despite tripling its funds to address homelessness. In contrast to the rest of America, California is one of just a handful of states to see dramatic increases in its homeless population.



Complete text: How America's progressive citadels became crime centres - The Post (unherd.com)
 

RickWA

Snagglesooth
Actions, as well as inactions, have consequences:

How America's Progressive Citadels Became Crime Centres

Left-wing policies have been a disaster in the US's most liberal cities


We usually associate violent Crime and disorder with America’s impoverished inner cities — places like New Orleans, the south and west sides of Chicago, or long distressed suburbs like the Bronx. But today the centre of American Crime is increasingly to be found on the West Coast, within some of the country’s wealthiest and most celebrated cities.

The explanation is new, too: instead of the traditional link between poverty and Crime, this Crime wave has more to do with policy. Virtually all the cities with the most notable Crime outbreaks — San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles — are places with progressive prosecutors working to limit punishments for looters, organised thieves and the unruly, occasionally violent, homeless. The cities, with the exception of Los Angeles, are also among the whitest in the U.S., with a large population of educated people.

The lax legal environment has made west coast cities the happy hunting ground for “smash and grab” thieves on a hitherto unprecedented scale. These cities have also seen rapid growth in violent Crime, which is never far behind disorder on the streets. Once these places, notably Portland, were seen as urban exemplars, but few would choose a city whose downtown has collapsed under months of pressure from radical demonstrators and suffers from record homicides.

California’s deliberate reduction in the punishment for minor property damage under $1000 has been linked to a spike in shoplifting, particularly in San Francisco. Mike Shellenberger, author of the recently published San Fransicko, suggests criminals and the homeless go to cities where they face the least chance of prosecution; the homeless tend to migrate where they are free to camp and avoid prosecution for property crimes. They are even given hotel rooms as well as free drugs and alcohol.

California is one of just a handful of states to see dramatic increases in its homeless population. According to Shellenberger, between 2015-2020, San Francisco’s homeless grew by 32%, despite tripling its funds to address homelessness. In contrast to the rest of America, California is one of just a handful of states to see dramatic increases in its homeless population.



Complete text: How America's progressive citadels became Crime centres - The Post (unherd.com)
It always gives me pause “liking” a post that conveys an awful truth. But truth is necessary.

Have I mentioned lately how MUCH we are looking forward to moving away from the Portland area later next year? The youngest will finish HS and we will have given her the stability kids need - off to college she goes…and the heck out of Derangementville, USA we will move.

It is interesting that this current (and historically unprecedented) crime explosion is acutely and very demonstrably self-inflicted…very directly attributable to intentional policy. Policy execution is a clear, direct straight line - free of nuance or ambiguity - to criminal outcomes, both violent and property. What’s more, because direct causation emanates from ideology rather than practical/pragmatic policy assessments, there is no remorse, and no public sensibility that changes (whether to policy or politician) are needed. In other words, the trajectory remains unchanged, because there is ideological conviction that isn’t tethered to functional and tangible outcomes. Oregon will continue down this path and will double down…as will its near twin, Seattle. Rest assured that San Francisco will not reform. So it goes.

Time to move to a place where normal, decent, well-adjusted folks are not the outlier. Oregon’s majority will not miss us.
 

Zam-Zam

Senator
It always gives me pause “liking” a post that conveys an awful truth. But truth is necessary.

Have I mentioned lately how MUCH we are looking forward to moving away from the Portland area later next year? The youngest will finish HS and we will have given her the stability kids need - off to college she goes…and the heck out of Derangementville, USA we will move.

It is interesting that this current (and historically unprecedented) Crime explosion is acutely and very demonstrably self-inflicted…very directly attributable to intentional policy. Policy execution is a clear, direct straight line - free of nuance or ambiguity - to criminal outcomes, both violent and property. What’s more, because direct causation emanates from ideology rather than practical/pragmatic policy assessments, there is no remorse, and no public sensibility that changes (whether to policy or politician) are needed. In other words, the trajectory remains unchanged, because there is ideological conviction that isn’t tethered to functional and tangible outcomes. Oregon will continue down this path and will double down…as will its near twin, Seattle. Rest assured that San Francisco will not reform. So it goes.

Time to move to a place where normal, decent, well-adjusted folks are not the outlier. Oregon’s majority will not miss us.
I wonder if there will be an exodus from the major population centers on the west coast in the coming years...I'm sure you're not the only one contemplating such a move.

Or will there be a political reckoning? As they say, something's gotta give....
 

RickWA

Snagglesooth
I wonder if there will be an exodus from the major population centers on the west coast in the coming years...I'm sure you're not the only one contemplating such a move.

Or will there be a political reckoning? As they say, something's gotta give....
I don’t foresee any significant political reckoning on the West Coast. I’ve lived many different places and I can tell you that - without a doubt - the iteration of Democrat leftist we have here is quite distinct from the left of places such as Minnesota, Massachusetts, or New Jersey. The West Coast left - and especially the Northern California, Oregon, and Washington left are not only more extreme and more marxist - they are more violent. Boston wouldn’t tolerate four straight months of daily downtown riots and molotov cocktail throwing at cops as does Portland…nor would it house the sort of violence and mayhem that Seattle officially accepted when six city blocks were taken over and actively RULED. The Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front were not born and headquartered in the liberal bastions of Hubert Humphrey, or Ted Kennedy, or Mario Cuomo. They festered and infected the people of the West Coast - especially Oregon. These sorts of folks are a dysfunctional mess, wholly impervious and immune to any self-reflection. They are walking, breathing numb scar tissue. There’s no feedback loop possible, this side of divine intervention.

Therefore, in my estimation, there will continue to be an exodus of the decent from these areas - functionally further concentrating/purifying the putrid elements. Whatever very modest braking mechanism we normal folks were (and we lack numbers to be any serious braking device) will be gone. I can’t tell you how many families we know that already fled to Idaho. It looks to me like places such as Portland will continue to circle the drain. It’s a shame, but this isn’t earthquakes or hurricanes - it is actively, enthusiastically, unrepentantly self-inflicted.

Sad stuff.
 
I wonder if there will be an exodus from the major population centers on the west coast in the coming years...I'm sure you're not the only one contemplating such a move.

Or will there be a political reckoning? As they say, something's gotta give....
They aren't gonna leave their culture and their values at the state border.
They might leave the west coast, but they will bring their culture and values with them.
As we see with the increasingly purple Texas and Georgia.
 

Dawg

President
Supporting Member
It always gives me pause “liking” a post that conveys an awful truth. But truth is necessary.

Have I mentioned lately how MUCH we are looking forward to moving away from the Portland area later next year? The youngest will finish HS and we will have given her the stability kids need - off to college she goes…and the heck out of Derangementville, USA we will move.

It is interesting that this current (and historically unprecedented) Crime explosion is acutely and very demonstrably self-inflicted…very directly attributable to intentional policy. Policy execution is a clear, direct straight line - free of nuance or ambiguity - to criminal outcomes, both violent and property. What’s more, because direct causation emanates from ideology rather than practical/pragmatic policy assessments, there is no remorse, and no public sensibility that changes (whether to policy or politician) are needed. In other words, the trajectory remains unchanged, because there is ideological conviction that isn’t tethered to functional and tangible outcomes. Oregon will continue down this path and will double down…as will its near twin, Seattle. Rest assured that San Francisco will not reform. So it goes.

Time to move to a place where normal, decent, well-adjusted folks are not the outlier. Oregon’s majority will not miss us.
Earthquakes rumbling Oregon
 

Dawg

President
Supporting Member
They aren't gonna leave their culture and their values at the state border.
They might leave the west coast, but they will bring their culture and values with them.
As we see with the increasingly purple Texas and Georgia.
If they don't they may as well remain in the shitholes they moving from, it's clear you don't get far from home or know what people think.

BS, many have moved here and they talk smack about Cali
 
Last edited:

Dawg

President
Supporting Member

Dawg

President
Supporting Member
Yep - I read that (didn’t feel them as they were offshore). Earthquakes are far from the biggest issues facing this place though. :-(
Oh of course and it's reported daily of how bad

BTW: it's hard to believe ya girl is headed to college from when I learned of her birth!
 

RickWA

Snagglesooth
Oh of course and it's reported daily of how bad
It almost doesn’t seem possible/real that so many people can be so utterly disjoined from reality. They vote for the same people and policies that specifically prevent their safety…
but our hands are tied - we must vote the way we always have…”
 

Zam-Zam

Senator
They aren't gonna leave their culture and their values at the state border.
They might leave the west coast, but they will bring their culture and values with them.
As we see with the increasingly purple Texas and Georgia.
Who claimed they would?

Non-sequitur.
 

RickWA

Snagglesooth
Oh of course and it's reported daily of how bad

BTW: it's hard to believe ya girl is headed to college from when I learned of her birth!
The speed of time passage is insane, Dawg. I can't believe it myself,
 

Zam-Zam

Senator
I don’t foresee any significant political reckoning on the West Coast. I’ve lived many different places and I can tell you that - without a doubt - the iteration of Democrat leftist we have here is quite distinct from the left of places such as Minnesota, Massachusetts, or New Jersey. The West Coast left - and especially the Northern California, Oregon, and Washington left are not only more extreme and more marxist - they are more violent. Boston wouldn’t tolerate four straight months of daily downtown riots and molotov cocktail throwing at cops as does Portland…nor would it house the sort of violence and mayhem that Seattle officially accepted when six city blocks were taken over and actively RULED. The Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front were not born and headquartered in the liberal bastions of Hubert Humphrey, or Ted Kennedy, or Mario Cuomo. They festered and infected the people of the West Coast - especially Oregon. These sorts of folks are a dysfunctional mess, wholly impervious and immune to any self-reflection. They are walking, breathing numb scar tissue. There’s no feedback loop possible, this side of divine intervention.

Therefore, in my estimation, there will continue to be an exodus of the decent from these areas - functionally further concentrating/purifying the putrid elements. Whatever very modest braking mechanism we normal folks were (and we lack numbers to be any serious braking device) will be gone. I can’t tell you how many families we know that already fled to Idaho. It looks to me like places such as Portland will continue to circle the drain. It’s a shame, but this isn’t earthquakes or hurricanes - it is actively, enthusiastically, unrepentantly self-inflicted.

Sad stuff.

At least we have seen some pushback against the banality of the "defund the police" movement, now all but dead.
 

RickWA

Snagglesooth
At least we have seen some pushback against the banality of the "defund the police" movement, now all but dead.
Yep - while many departments still suffer from legacy “defunding”, their primary hurdle now is that city-governing leftists HATE them. As a result, cops are leaving in droves - and their replacements are nowhere to be found.

Oh…and of course leftist DAs who refuse to prosecute…
 
Top