Porch pirate owns a Bianchi

[Louis]

Originally Posted by slowpoke

It is but a modest proposal.

To quote Swift...

[DRZRM]

Thanks for saying that, I'm surprised how few folks said it before.

Police are not overwhelmed with crime, crime is down across the board in this country while police spending is up. Police target certain crime, and they do it in order to bring certain populations into the criminal justice system.

White people use drugs at very similar if not slightly higher rate than Black people in this country overall, but black people are arrested for drug crimes at a rate three times higher than whites. Once arrested they are more likely to be sentenced to prison than whites, and when whites are sentenced to be incarcerated they serve shorter terms. If this were happening in Black or Latino neighborhoods, I promise you that the police "serving" those neighborhoods would invest more time is solving these crimes.

The three strikes laws that are OVERWHELMINGLY applied to non-white people have the potential of putting people in prison for life for petty drug crimes, or petty crimes in general. We have more people in in the criminal justice system in this country than almost anyplace else in the world, and the explosion of for profit prisons and ways of making money off of the prison system overall since the 1970s has taken place in the face of decreasing rates of actual crime in this country.

If we are going to argue for cutting fingers off (and just to be clear, I am not) let's at least see balanced policing throughout our society. Target white collar crime, or even the locations of prevalent drug use in this country like suburban high schools and college campuses. Hell, people driving a certain amount over the speed limit on public roads (25 mph?) are likely more of a danger to me and my family and all of ya'll on road bikes than some small time drug dealer facing years in prison.

The criminal justice system in this country is a travesty, it is racist from its origins through to today. That said, I find it hard to imagine state sanctioned corporal punishment and murder are going to actually straighten things out. For a sense of how well that works out look at what's happening in the Philippines or Brazil.

Here's one interesting link to an article that draws largely on FBI data to support the racial bias in US policing. If you wanted to read an interesting book on the subject Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow is very good, as is James Forman's Locking Up Our Own, which someone else mentioned above.

I imagine this should touch off another interesting conversation here. Please let me just state for all the law enforcement officers on the forum, I'm not calling anyone individually a racist, and some cities, states, and departments are better than others, but black people in this country have a deeply different relationship with police than white people do, and that should be recognizable as a problem regardless of your race or politics.

Originally Posted by goonster

What's wrong with it is that it would make us freaking barbarians.

We have a social consensus on reasonable penalties for theft, and a legal system to determine guilt and impose sentences.

Each community can provide additional funding to its local PD, to prioritize the enforcement of these crimes. Or they can continue to enjoy low taxes . . .

[redir]

Yup. And now that heroin isn't just a ghetto problem it's finally starting to get the help that it needs. It's a sad state of affairs.

[old_fat_and_slow]

Getting back on topic.

Yeah, that Bianchi at 8:55 definitely has Campy 11 on it. Looks like dude has a sweet Gibson Les Paul hanging on the wall too.

Original thief that dumps package in parking garage is driving a Lexus!

[Jaybee]

Ethics and wealth are not necessarily correlated. If anything, they might be negatively correlated.

Also, I know plenty of people who have nice houses, nice cars and nice toys, and a nice pile of credit card debt too. What you or I decided to roll into our retirements or kid's college fund they decided to spend on toys.

[William]

Originally Posted by paredown

A good start, as are the program where they will put it in a car if one is parked. And yes, it would probably be a good idea to make alternative delivery arrangements, like Amazon locker, picking up something valuable at Fedex etc.

Well, they were planning on capturing all faces that come into view of the video and compiling a database, then using facial recognition software if anyone "suspicious" comes into view and is wanted for anything the police will automatically get called to come to that location.

Good? Not good?

Apparently the ACLU feels it's not acceptable to be compiling a database of people's faces who have done nothing for the purpose of possibly catching someone with an active warrant.








William

[Jaybee]

Nice post, DRZRM. A lot to unpack there. In addition to the reading (and both of those books are on their way to my house), I'd also encourage Season 3 of "Serial" if you're a podcast person.

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by William

Well, they were planning on capturing all faces that come into view of the video and compiling a database, then using facial recognition software if anyone "suspicious" comes into view and is wanted for anything the police will automatically get called to come to that location.

Good? Not good?

Apparently the ACLU feels it's not acceptable to be compiling a database of people's faces who have done nothing for the purpose of possibly catching someone with an active warrant.








William

I agree with the ACLU. But it's coming anyway.

[Black Dog]

Theft is bad. Stealing is bad. I would argue that the visceral response to someone taking your delivery from your porch should be shared with the massive theft that goes on in most wealthy democracies. That is the avoidance of taxes by corporations and loopholes that allow the richest individuals to pay the least amount of taxes (proportionately). It may not be criminal, but it is certainly organized theft, as it places the burden on the those with less to fund the infrastructure and institutions that create the opportunities for people and corporations to gain wealth. Money that could be used to make real improvements for everyone; like policing the theft of amazon shipments from porches. Everyone should assume their fair share of the burden.

[Peter P.]

Originally Posted by redir

I cannot imagine what kind of society we have become when we start thinking chopping off the hands of a thief is appropriate. Is this the new normal they speak of? You cannot be a moral leader in the world if you do not act morally.

While chopping off someone's hands for porch theft might be considered excessive, I feel there is some value in corporal punishment. Hang on while I put on my flame retardant suit...

There is certain segment of people who do not respond to a rational justice system. They are indifferent to societal norms, or have just weighed the costs of crime vs. the legal ramifications of getting caught and on their scale of justice, it's worth it.

We assume or expect that after the first time the porch thief is caught, their experience through the justice system would be sufficient to reform their behavior. But when it doesn't, and this petty theft continues, what's next in an attempt to change their way of thinking?

As children we didn't have the capacity to reason, but we sure understood a spanking. It was cause and effect. As we aged, through youth, teens, and beyond, we gathered enough experience and knowledge that corporal punishment should not have been necessary.

I'm not advocating we start chopping off joints, fingers, and hands (Lord knows I would be missing something!) but the question I pose is, when that first standing before the court in judgment isn't enough to shame us into good behavior for "petty" crimes such as porch theft, what's next when incarceration seems excessive and the convicted have no money to pay fines anyway?

I'm sure we'd all love to see an exploding box that doesn't inflict injury on the porch thief but scares them straight, but when that doesn't curb their behavior and the perps know it's a crime not likely to be investigated and prosecuted, can it be left in the hands of the porch owner to protect their package?

Kind of rambling but at least it will incite discussion!

[jamesdak]

[goonster]

The reason we are talking about this is not that the punishment is too lenient, it's that the local PD declined to pursue the case at all.

[Blue Jays]

A person desperately awaiting urgent prescription medication delivery (and only missed FedEx because they were in the bathroom) likely is not feeling happy about opportunistic thieves.

[mktng]

Originally Posted by Blue Jays

A person desperately awaiting his/her urgent prescription medication delivery (and only missed FedEx because they were in the bathroom) likely is not feeling happy about thieves.

do they legit leave prescription meds without signatures?

or are you just throwing fuel into this fire :P

[Blue Jays]

Originally Posted by mktng

”...do they legit leave prescription meds without signatures?...”

Yes, they do.