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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   34129 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 2024

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Recently I have been getting more and more fed up with the failure of my local government to provide basic safety - which is, after all, reasonably speaking the most important purpose of government.

What I know is that I subjectively feel that the level of street crime now is too high compared to what I would wish it to be

Can you clarify what exactly you're seeking regarding safety that you're not getting now? Is this impacting your life directly, and if so, how?

Edit: looks like you added more detail in an edit, saying that you were attacked directly, so feel free to disregard. But I guess more info about those attacks might be useful. What was the context, what was the motive, what was the outcome, etc?

In my case for awhile we had mailboxes being hit frequently, sometimes more than once a week. We also had a park a few blocks away used as a free shooting range a couple of times in the early morning hours.

We live in a wealthy neighborhood in a suburb of Seattle. My home is more than a couple million bucks and it’s not the nicest one around. Our cops are actually responsive and pretty good at tracking down criminals. But felonies are adjudicated at the county level, and the criminals know that unless they murder someone it’s not going to be taken all that seriously.

Even murders aren’t taken that seriously recently. A guy got killed when he confronted car prowlers in a mall parking lot. Prosecutors asked for 14 years, the judge handed out 12.5 year sentences, which certainly means less than 12.5 years: https://komonews.com/amp/news/local/men-who-murdered-victim-during-car-burglary-at-southcenter-mall-sentenced-to-prison-murder-stealing-cars-hyundai-stolen-vehicle-surveillance-video-king-pierce-counties-washington-tukwila

we had mailboxes being hit frequently

adjudicated at the county level

Isn't vandalising mailboxes a federal offence?

I made a report to the postal service once, got back a form response, and nothing else happened. I think my report was probably better than average since I had the theft on video, though wasn't able to read the thief's license plate.

Here's the response I got in December of last year:

This is in response to your recent inquiry concerning suspected mail theft.

This Service Request XXXXXX has been forwarded and is currently being reviewed by the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).

The Postal Inspection Service is the law enforcement of the United States Postal Service. Complaints alleging mail tampering or theft come under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Postal Inspection Service. This inquiry does not require you to contact either the Inspection Service or the Postal Service. A Postal Inspection Service representative will contact you if this inquiry requires further investigation.

Please note, information provided in a mail theft complaint and reviewed by the Inspection Service does not always result in a criminal investigation.

Alas, we are a long ways away from the days of Postal Service Badassery.

Christ. I heard about that case back when I lived in Seattle. There are better cities and metros out there. My life got way better when I got a place at the same rent on the other coast.

At the moment I don't want to describe the details because I do not wish to risk doxxing. However, I might change my mind about this later.

I've put more than enough details on the motte to be doxxable and it doesn't appear anyone has tried.

I have no clue what I'm talking about with this stuff, I've never been attacked or felt particularly unsafe where I live. If I'd been attacked multiple times, I'd probably move away, start carrying mace, find different routes to take, start driving instead of walking, start walking around in groups for safety, idk.

I assume you've spoken with the police about it and they told you they can't do anything? If you want to try to change your neighborhood instead of just changing your habits, maybe I'd start by finding out about existing town halls, and see if anything is already being done about it. Do you sense other people have been impacted like you have? If nothing is already being done, then speak at your town hall and try to show people this is a big problem. Try to make some sort of council through your town hall that can make suggestions to the police about where they should be policing. Or maybe start a neighborhood watch? If none of that works, then find some other people who have been affected as you have and start a viral campaign to showcase the problem and try to humiliate the local police, show everyone they're not doing their jobs and normal people are suffering.

I don't think anyone would actually recommend going Charles Bronson on them.

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