A big question I ask people is "Why do we feel less safe even though crime is at an all time low?" Not a lot of people have answers, and I think way too many people aren't aware of that fact. It's one of the safest times to walk through any downtown core, yet people feel the least safe they ever have.
The thing is, I don't feel less safe walking down the street. I can't really relate to people who do. That drives the divide further.
That's definitely part of the problem. I had an incident recently where an older family member had a minor panic. Because I left my (mfg in 2006!!) vehicle running in the driveway while I ran inside. During the day. In a very safe suburban neighborhood. Just a flat out absurd concern and she leapt right to it, instantly. She's always been concerned, she's a grandma, but she wasn't pointlessly terrified like this years ago.
I think many of us don't realize how badly this irrational fear has taken hold, or maybe I should say how effectively this irrational fear has been deployed. Otherwise ~reasonable people are walking around thinking the worst is going to happen everywhere at all times, based on absolutely nothing - worse than nothing, it's based on weaponized deception.
That's really the problem. When I friends from small towns come and visit I can see they're on edge the entire time while I'm just doing what I do every day. Yes there's a person sleeping there. Yes someone is screaming a block down. There's traffic noise, and the subway isn't the cleanest - but it's normal, that's what I'm used to. It takes a bit of thicker skin, but once you realize nothing is really unsafe about it it gets easier. Problem is voters from tiny 20,000 population places vote with that fear already, and think that cities are unsafe. We can't bring everyone to the city and hold their hand.
My ex spouse got an app that gave alerts every time there was anything going down in our neighborhood. They went from cautious to walk around at night to "omg we live in a crime riddled hellhole with people being murdered everywhere" and stopped going outside. People now have access to so much information, often explicitly designed to make you fearful, and we suck at statistics
Assuming the statements are correct, maybe it's because people feel less safe. Fewer people go outside which results in fewer crimes being committed.
That's actually a big thing I'm into, and especially with the urbanist movement. People in America are very isolated, we live in suburbia, we drive our cars to work, and we work with our tight group of coworkers. We don't have third places anymore where you meet the people who live around you, and most don't take transit and aren't in an urban core so you aren't surrounded by people like you. Our neighborhoods aren't mixed in terms of wealth either, so when you do see a neighbor, you're seeing a mirror of yourself - someone who could afford a similar home in a similar region, and probably is just like you. So everyone becomes the other, and everything becomes very scary. It's probably why I feel fine walking through downtown. Everyone around me are just people like me, and by going out it reinforces that.
Crime is down because there’s less cops to commit it lmao.
Are there numbers about police staffing being down I can look at?
Police staffing has been going down since black lives matter became a thing. They dont get the same unquestioned respect and love like they used too so no one wants to be a cop any more. This one doesn't give years but it says 5% over the last couple years. The change is bigger in larger more liberal cities. Chicago is down 13% since 2018 , san francisco which inspired this meme is down 20% since 2017 and all the mayoral candidates are falling over themselves to say they'll solve it even though crime is down.
They would say it's because police are getting better at their jobs or something
...and if they can day that with a straight face, give them an Oscar!
(I say this as a kiwi looking from afar)
And when there are 0 cops, 0 crimes will be recorded. Brilliant!
I don't think that's what anyone suggests. However the opposite is what needs to be called out. Why do police departments consistently ask for more and more funding, usually looking for reasons to spend it (see urban assault vehicles, larger and more militarized forces) when crime is down already? If they're doing fine with the budget they have, why do we need to give them even more money?
"Defund the police" doesn't mean we have no police. It means they're overfunded. Let's see about defunding them and giving some of that money to other people, like mental health advocates or groups that help with homelessness - some of the main causes of crime. Wouldn't that mean the police can focus on things they are trained for while also cutting crime down at it's source? If someone is never desperate enough to mug someone in the first place, doesn't that mean the crime was prevented?
You're definitely on the right track.
The only actual job of the police is to file crime reports.
They do not prevent crime. Protect innocents. Make people show up for court etc. They have no obligation to stop a crime in progress or protect someone being hurt, even if they're standing right there and could stop it.
Anything in the justice system that you value is either done by someone else, or actually isn't done at all.
Let's abolish the police, therefore no one can report crime to the police, but then we see people reporting crimes elsewhere and as it turns out, crimes still happen, even when not reported to the police. This is a very good argument for increased gun ownership! No police, no law enforcement, no law, well I'll just have to take the "law" into my own hands. Can't see how that would cause chaos.
And when cities get revenue from traffic violations, traffic violations go up. Funny how that works.
well cant report crime if there is no one to report to no?
Just to play devils advocate here is crime going down because of underreporting (either from smaller budgets or corruption to boost the image of a town / department)
What's the source for this claim?
You could maybe argue that if the drop was only in small petty crime. Yeah a shopkeeper may stop reporting shoplifting after the 10th time the police don't respond. That under reporting goes down as the crime gets more serious. Your probably going to report a home break in to the cops even if you know they won't do anything since you're going to need a police report for insurance, home break ins have been steadily declining since 2018 when the police staffing "problem" started. This seriousness holds very true for murders which have dropped 12% over the past year
That's assuming the victims would be under reporting, if you're saying the police departments, government etc. Are under reporting then that's getting into conspiracy territory. Especially because we're seeing this trend reported across the nation so the conspiracy would have to be massive.
Also if the government had the ability to do this why would they start now? This idea isn't too complex so someone could have easily come up with it and started doing it a while ago. If that were the case we'd never see crime rates go up as the politicians would just under report every year and make it look like crime is going down. But we have seen reported crime go up, noticeably in 2022 , and instead of hiding that many politicians and police departments showcased it as a reason to Crack down on crime and increase there budgets.
veritassium did this fascinating af video mirroring a study on people's political biases and how it influences reasoning: it seems like the more educated or intelligent you are, the more your biases interfere with your ability to analyze positions that are contrary to your own views and that interference is proportional to your level of education/intelligence and the people who don't have either are able to reason mostly the same whether or not their biases where challenged.
I watched veritassium for a short while, but i can't take them serious with all the click bait. Can you provide a link to the proper study instead?
it's in the description of the video: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2319992
“video mirroring a study”
Lmao
Alternate title: A single "study" presented from someone on the street is typically not enough to change anyone's perspective on a subject, especially if that "study" presents "facts" that are contradictory to the listener's previous knowledge.
Humans aren't rational. Humans are rationalizing. If someone on the street giving you a basic chart with 4 numbers on it is enough to change your mind, you likely didn't have much of an opinion to begin with.
it's literally a study conducted by Yale; as in the ivy league university: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2319992
the video reproduces the study in a shortened format suitable for youtube.
But contrary to the prediction of SCT, such polarization did not abate among subjects highest in Numeracy; instead, it increased. This outcome supported ICT, which predicted that more Numerate subjects would use their quantitative-reasoning capacity selectively to conform their interpretation of the data to the result most consistent with their political outlooks.
I dunno if equating numeracy with intelligence is a fair read, but an interesting study nonetheless.
that's how he defines numeracy in the video but he used the word "smarter" on youtube. i didn't think it fit either so i just went with "intelligence" because it means acquiring and using knowledge in a similar way to numeracy; but was still in keeping with the source & the youtube video.
what fklag is that, it looks like usa but colors are off
It's the thin blue line flag , you'll see it all over the US by right wingers who think police are the only thing keeping us from murdering each other.
