Truly we stand at a great moment in time, where we may start dismantling the oppressive, injust system we have or miss a great opportunity to reform our criminal justice system, starting with the Police. While the worlds outrage is galvanized I hope we don’t miss this opportunity by focusing on the riots and looting. The world is watching, I hope we stop the legal carnage.
On a more macro level I agree with your premise about using punishment to control people. As a past child and now a past parent I agree that punishment and threats of punishment are ineffective. They might make people feel better, but they don’t right wrongs or fix problems. History shows that in 18th century England the penalty for pick pocketing was public hanging. The crime most prevalent at public hangings? Pickpocketing. In a more contemporary light, the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, but based on gun sales in America, which qualify us as the most heavily armed Citizen population in the world, our criminal justice system has not made us feel safer. And based on crime statistics, our criminal justice system has not reduced crime, instead it has given more Americans the social label Criminal.
When we value all human life and human potential enough to focus our efforts on eliminating poverty, ignorance, poor access to healthcare, rehabilitation versus punishment for all citizens we will see change. But until then a hungry person with no options to feed themselves other then theft will steal. Until then as long as we are able to rationalize beating and killing people based on our rationalizations, other humans will do the same based on their rationalizations. Our amazing inability to see the connection between how we treat people and how they treat us and/or other people is an amazing blind spot in our intelligent thought as a nation.
Finally, as long as we continue to marginalize people and deny them legitimate opportunities they will continue to operate on the margins of society and engage in illegitimate activities.
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