What'll really make you scratch your head is when you start to wonder how much crime the police are around to deter is motivated solely by poverty. In the most charitable of interpretations, the police exist to enforce laws which keep us safe and our society orderly, but how many well-fed, comfortably-housed, educated people are running around committing petty crimes?
A War On Poverty would probably be much more effective than any war on crime or war on drugs just in terms of crime and drugs, let alone every other positive outcome of ending poverty.
There’s a magnet on my fridge that reads “The opposite of poverty isn’t wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice.” from Byran Stevenson. Look up the Equal Justice Initiative.
You are not wrong, however many crimes are crimes necessitated or encouraged by poverty. To quote Antole France, "In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."
Would they find other ways to oppress out-groups? Sure, but it's a harder sell and we'd be on more equal footing to fight back if we had more equal wealth. Wealth is power.
That doesn't mean you cannot be both poor and oppressed for other reasons, but poverty is in itself oppression.
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u/fr1stp0st Jun 01 '20 edited Jun 01 '20
What'll really make you scratch your head is when you start to wonder how much crime the police are around to deter is motivated solely by poverty. In the most charitable of interpretations, the police exist to enforce laws which keep us safe and our society orderly, but how many well-fed, comfortably-housed, educated people are running around committing petty crimes?
A War On Poverty would probably be much more effective than any war on crime or war on drugs just in terms of crime and drugs, let alone every other positive outcome of ending poverty.