I must return to Europe.
In the link below, you can read about policemen in the schools of Texas.
Much could be said about this phenomenon. However, I shall now limit myself to commenting upon only one aspect of it.
One purported justification for the use of harsh penalties is the so-called "broken windows theory". Roughly, this proposal states that if you have harsh penalties for minor offenses (such as breaking a window), you will also manage to eliminate more serious violent crimes.
According to the sociologist Loic Wacquant, in his book "Punishing the Poor", there is zero evidence for this theory. Professional criminologists and sociologists do not believe that such
policing tactics decrease crime. (There is a link to his book at the left of my homepage under the rubric, "The Grouch Reads".)
It is true, however, that certain individuals (policemen and not especially well-qualified self-proclaimed experts) have gotten a lot of mileage out of proclaiming this "get tough" policy.
I will also say in passing: When I lived in Bratislava (Slovakia), and Vienna (Austria), I lived with much less fear than I live with today (living in El Paso, Texas---and god I hope I can escape soon!).....
Fear in my life: In El Paso, I fear to drive on the so-called freeways. The behavior of other drivers is unpredictable. A worst case scenario is: I want to change lanes, but as I am doing so or am about to do so, drivers on my left and/or my right also do so.
Moreover, drivers follow one another too closely when driving at dangerous speeds.
They follow so closely that they would smash into the car in front if that car had to
slow down. Following closely is the rule on the roads. It is a dangerous driving policy.
Everytime I leave the freeway I breath a sigh of relief.
Other fears: As a pedestrian, I take my life into my hands when I cross the street. Drivers are not, as a rule, pedestrian-friendly.
It is also true that citizens of the USA are irrationally frightened of crime. I myself a more afraid of the police, as, in my experience, they are not open-minded or especially polite, but are prone to be aggressive, suspicious, and over-bearing. Moreover, in my experience, the police have a low IQ and do not know how to read.
In Slovakia, by contrast, the police were not especially friendly, but they simply were not aggressive and in-your-face in the manner of the Texas policemen I have encountered.
In Bratislava and Vienna, when I happened to be on the street late at night, I had no fear. In the USA, if I happen to take a walk after dark, I fear getting hit by a car, I fear getting bitten by a stray dog, I fear getting shot by a frightened home-owner who fanatasizes that I am a criminal, and I fear police harassment (The police apparently operate on the policy that anyone who is on the street after dark, and not driving a car, is suspicious.).
So far as life in general goes, it might be worth mentioning that I don't have any sort of health insurance today, but that I did when I lived in Bratislava and Vienna....
Oh, what's that I hear? A voice saying, "You don't work, so you don't deserve health insurance." True enough, according to the conventional meaning of the English expression "paid employment", I have none. Neither do women caring for their children. But, let's talk about who gets paid, and what they get paid to do.
By my reckoning, the following so-called professions make zero positive contribution to the society:
---weapons manufacturers who produce weapons used in wars of aggression
---politicians who are bought and paid for by the 1%
(or the one-tenth of one percent) who really run this country
---advertising executives who create distracting and misleading attention-grabbers
which provide zero information about the product featured, but create a sort
of dream-world illusion of happiness
---Hollywood producers, actors, etc. etc. who produce advertising, and spectacles
that are designed to earn money, and do not achieve the status of art,
---bankers, financial managers, hedge fund operators who gamble with money that does not belong to them,and who wish to turn everything into a commodity,
----lawyers and judges who serve the interests of the 1%,
----journalists who serve the interests of the 1%, who trivialize the scientific
evidence that anthropocentric global warming is real....
----technically oriented individuals who design computers and electronic conveniences for the pleasure of those living in the richer part of the world, and exploit the
poor in order to do so.....
You say I don't deserve health insurance because I don't 'work'? The thing you call 'work' is not noble or good. The thing that is conventionally called 'work' is not a contribution to the well-being of humanity---rather the opposite. No, my friend, I think I deserve a reward for not hurting humanity......even if I have never contributed anything positive, at least I have not increased the damage currently being done....
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You can read below about policemen in the schools of Texas:
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