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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   28011 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 27, 2024

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I think people aren't worried about cat burglars, they're worried about vagrancy and the associated crimes that come with it. With nonexistent fare enforcement vagrants can ride just for fun, or to get out of the elements, instead of being constrained to a relatively small area.

This was a concern in my area, but the local government gave us a huge confound by opening a big no-barrier shelter in our wealthy enclave a year before the light rail was due to be completed.

Its also true that they feed off each other. Vagrants need their drugs, so drug dealers will migrate to where they are. Then those dealers have existing criminal networks so their coordinated robbery of CVS and Walgreens for all the razors and tide they have every Monday has a resale network. Then the dealers have the money to move to that area permanently, and all of the sudden the local high school has replaced a weed problem with a fentanyl problem.

I think people aren't worried about cat burglars

Also lots of these crimes are more crimes of convenience than 'cat burglar drives 2 hours out of their way to a random middle class suburb and conducts elaborate stake-out to steal their TV'. I also genuinely believe that burglary is less lucrative than in previous eras unless you happen to land on a house where there's significant amounts of jewellery. Tech is cheap (and increasingly secured + the expensive bits are mounted flat screen TVs), people hold less cash.

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