http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/17487.html
mattog...@aol.com
by Thomas Sowell
The Left and Crime: Part II
August 22, 2006 12:24 PM EST
Do higher rates of imprisonment reduce crime? Is crime a result of
poverty, unemployment, and the like? Are alternatives to incarceration
more effective in preventing criminals from repeating their crimes?
Some people would hesitate to try to answer any of these questions
before going through a lot of hard evidence and thinking it over very
carefully.
But many on the left can answer immediately because they know what
answers are already in vogue on the left -- and that the only reason
others don't accept those answers is because they are behind the times
or just hard-hearted people who want to punish.
It is one thing to believe that policy A is better than policy B. It is
something very different to believe that those who believe in policy A
are wiser, more compassionate, and generally more worthy human beings
than those who believe in policy B.
Turning the empirical question of the results of policy A versus the
results of policy B into the more personal question of a wonderful Us
versus a terrible Them makes it harder to retreat if the facts do not
bear out the belief.
If the choice between policy A and policy B is regarded as a badge of
personal merit, either morally or intellectually, then it is a
devastating risk to one's sense of self to make empirical evidence the
ultimate test.
Not only in the United States, but in other countries as well, the
political left has held steadfastly to its assumptions and beliefs
about crime for at least two centuries, not only in the absence of hard
evidence but in defiance of two centuries' accumulation of evidence to
the contrary, from countries around the world.
Where the dominance of the left is greatest -- in the media and in
academia, for example -- facts to the contrary are seldom heard.
The futility of imprisonment, for example, is a dogma on the left. It
does no good to point out that crime rates in both Britain and the
United States soared during the decade of the 1960s when poverty rates
were going down -- and imprisonment rates were also going down.
It does no good to point out that soaring crime rates in the United
States began to turn down only after the declining rate of imprisonment
was halted and reversed, leading to a rising prison population much
deplored by liberals.
It does no good to point out that Singapore's imprisonment rate is more
than double that of Canada -- and its crime rate less than one-tenth
the Canadian crime rate. Many in the west were appalled to discover
some years ago, that an American first offender in Singapore was
sentenced to corporal punishment.
Few of the indignant critics bothered to consider the possibility that
this might be a way to prevent the young man from becoming a second
offender -- and perhaps saving him from a worse fate later on if he
continued to disregard laws.
Self-defense against criminals is anathema to the left in both Britain
and the United States but in Britain the left has greater predominance.
Britons who have caught burglars in their homes and held them at
gunpoint until the police arrived have found themselves charged with a
crime -- even when it was only a toy gun.
Given the prevailing view in the British criminal justice system that
burglary is a "minor" offense and the fierce hostility to guns, even
toy guns, the homeowner is far more likely to end up behind bars than
the burglar is.
The left's jihad against gun ownership by law-abiding citizens has
produced a flood of distorted information. International comparisons
almost invariably compare the United States with some country with
stronger gun control laws and lower murder rates.
But, if facts really mattered, you could just as easily compare the
United States to countries with stronger gun control laws and higher
murder rates -- Brazil and Russia, for example.
You could compare the United States with countries with more widespread
gun ownership -- Switzerland and Israel, for example -- and lower
murder rates. But that's only if facts are regarded as more important
than the dogmas of the left.
Millions of crime victims pay the price of the left's illusions about
crime -- and about themselves.
Amanda Williams
@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
> http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/17487.html
> by Thomas Sowell
> The Left and Crime: Part II
> August 22, 2006 12:24 PM EST
>
[... drool zapped ...]
>
>
Sowell ???... rotfl...
Hmmmmm....
Violent crime is rising... the prison population as a per capita % is the
highest (by far) in the world among democratic nations... (of course that
COULD be due to all the "conservatives" doing time for corruption and
kiddie porn.. <snicker>)
Seems to be working out great eh?
Dumb rightards are like the Burbon Kings of France
"they learn NOTHING and they FORGET nothing"
--
AW
<small but dangerous>
MFOgilvie
Amanda Williams wrote:
> mattog...@aol.com allegedly said in news:1156332540.541497.109920
> @b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
>
> > http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/17487.html
> > by Thomas Sowell
> > The Left and Crime: Part II
> > August 22, 2006 12:24 PM EST
> >
>
> [... drool zapped ...]
>
> >
> >
>
> Sowell ???... rotfl...
>
> Hmmmmm....
>
> Violent crime is rising... the prison population as a per capita % is the
> highest (by far) in the world among democratic nations... (of course that
> COULD be due to all the "conservatives" doing time for corruption and
> kiddie porn.. <snicker>)
Could be, but the real human beings already know that's not the case.
You'll have to do better than that.
MFOgilvie
CL...@KNICKLAS.COM wrote:
> On 23 Aug 2006 07:00:58 -0700, "MFOgilvie"
> <matthew....@lmco.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >Amanda Williams wrote:
>
>
> >>
> >> Violent crime is rising... the prison population as a per capita % is the
> >> highest (by far) in the world among democratic nations... (of course that
> >> COULD be due to all the "conservatives" doing time for corruption and
> >> kiddie porn.. <snicker>)
> >
> >Could be, but the real human beings already know that's not the case.
> >You'll have to do better than that.
>
You are not a real human being, so you are not allowed to comment on
anything. Shut up and go back to playing with your chew toy before I
turn on the shock collar and lose the switch.
MFOgilvie
CL...@KNICKLAS.COM wrote:
> On 23 Aug 2006 04:29:00 -0700, mattog...@aol.com
> wrote:
>
> >http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/17487.html
> >by Thomas Sowell
> >The Left and Crime: Part II
> >August 22, 2006 12:24 PM EST
> >
> >Do higher rates of imprisonment reduce crime?
>
> of drugs
>
> Not bank robberies
>
> Not murder (except connected to drug deals)
>
> Not rape, kidnapping etc
>
> What the fuck would a dumb cocksucker like Sowell, who
> sits out at Stanford, never having worked a day in his
> Uncle Tom life, know anything?
Last time anyone checked, drug possession was still a crime. Note to
the South Dakota state police: gary roselles is still walking the
streets. you guys are derelict in your duty to remove all vermin.
MFOgilvie
CL...@KNICKLAS.COM wrote:
> On 23 Aug 2006 11:30:12 -0700, "MFOgilvie"
> <matthew....@lmco.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >CL...@KNICKLAS.COM wrote:
> >> On 23 Aug 2006 07:00:58 -0700, "MFOgilvie"
>
> >anything.
>
> OGLEBOOGLE
Your inability to handle the truth about yourself is duly noted. How
does that shock collar fit?