As I read this piece at City Journal on the explosion of crimes against property in San Francisco it occurred to me that we are evolving not only into a country of haves and have nots but one that is so expensive to maintain that we can’t afford it. Our system assumes a common understanding of the basic of right and wrong, e.g. the Ten Commandments, that the behavior of most people is restrained by conscience, and that the authorities need only deal with a low level of crime.
I’m concerned that we are evolving towards a society that requires a level of police presence that would make East Germany’s Stasi or CeauÈ™escu’s Securitate seem laissez-faire by comparison. Who benefits from the world to which we are evolving? Only criminals as far as I can see. The poor bear the brunt of crime. The rich pay the costs of keeping the crime away from themselves.
Not just there.
Thursday last my run down 1992 LeSabre got boosted. I’d left the door unlocked and someone hammered the lock casing off and hammered a key into the hole. That apparently works. Reported the theft, and Sunday morning I was awakened by the police at 4:00 AM.
They were doing me a favor, they had my car in a parking lot after a short pursuit, perp escaped, and they couldn’t shut the car off. So instead of having it towed to impound, they let me drive it home.
They had thrown out or stolen all of my things, and left their clothes and cigarette butts and Mountain Dew cans, and hypodermic needles and used band aids, and burglar’s tools. Smelled like perfume and marijuana.
I was very surprised when the police told me they had taken fingerprints and DNA. Didn’t think they’d put that much into it.
I do sort of feel violated, I know how that feels now.
I, too, have been a victim of crime (on more than one occasion). It has a lasting effect.