Megan McCardle reminds us that a big part of the Ferguson explosion was driven by the constant fining that towns engage in to fund themselves. But she misses half of the story: the school solution for towns like Ferguson that are in decline due to demographic transition is broken windows policing - enforce every picayune regulation, bust everyone with a whiff of Marijuana on them and otherwise impose white, European social norms by force as a replacement for the norms that existed when it was a European American community.
And that's the rub: broken windows policing "works" insofar as police enforcement, fines, arrests and prison stays go through the roof. Trying to impose your values on a community that does not share them requires brutal coercion which is what broken windows policing looks like to the young minority men who it targets.
I don't have any trite answers but the tendency to impose Euro American standards and see all variance from them as pathological has poisoned relationships between police and poor communities. The cops have too much law to enforce: they are expected to deal with serous crime, enforce an unenforceable drug war and be values enforcers for hundreds of community regs. Too much law means any cop can probably cite any resident for a dozen violations any time they want. The result is that the police become feared and hated as only a particularly brutal and self righteous nanny can.
A good first step to sanity would be legalization of Marijuana and decriminalization of other illegal drugs. Doing so would take a big enforcement load off of the police and give them a chance to be on the residents' side for once.
A good second step would be to consider the cultural compatibility of immigrant groups we let in and exclude those who will have trouble adapting to a modern pluralistic republic like ours. This probably means most muslims and probably quite a few people from very primitive Latin American cultures.
A good third step that is likely unachievable without the abolition of the public education system is a return to an assimilationist norm in everything we do from schooling to employment. Demand that everyone live up to traditional (and yes they are European and Judeo Christian) behavioral standards and be quick to deport those immigrants who fail to do so.*
Pipe dreams all. So long as the left get's electoral benefit from isolated racial and cultural minorities there will be isolated racial and cultural minorities. So in the meantime, enjoy all of the violence and police oppression.
*There is a reason why Finland has very little law, few people in jail and virtually no disorder while Sweden is swinging towards American levels of disorder: Only four percent of Finns are foreign born while seventeen percent of Swedes are. And the large majority of Swedes who are foreign born hail from less developed, mostly muslim nations. And a (very foolish) nation of nine million is admitting another 100,000 problem immigrants every year. Who says the Swedes are 'good government' types?
A good second step would be to consider the cultural compatibility of immigrant groups we let in and exclude those who will have trouble adapting to a modern pluralistic republic like ours. This probably means most muslims and probably quite a few people from very primitive Latin American cultures.
A good third step that is likely unachievable without the abolition of the public education system is a return to an assimilationist norm in everything we do from schooling to employment. Demand that everyone live up to traditional (and yes they are European and Judeo Christian) behavioral standards and be quick to deport those immigrants who fail to do so.*
Pipe dreams all. So long as the left get's electoral benefit from isolated racial and cultural minorities there will be isolated racial and cultural minorities. So in the meantime, enjoy all of the violence and police oppression.
*There is a reason why Finland has very little law, few people in jail and virtually no disorder while Sweden is swinging towards American levels of disorder: Only four percent of Finns are foreign born while seventeen percent of Swedes are. And the large majority of Swedes who are foreign born hail from less developed, mostly muslim nations. And a (very foolish) nation of nine million is admitting another 100,000 problem immigrants every year. Who says the Swedes are 'good government' types?
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