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PaperclipPerfector  9d ago (text post)   25739 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 25, 2024

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I find an interesting contrast between this and a European country I visited, which shall remain nameless.

Some pickpocket stole the phone of a friend of mine but didn't prevent us from geolocating it. We went to the police fully expecting the usual recording of a police report that would never amount to anything but a piece of paper for his insurance.

But no, the local policeman took the info, told us to wait in the precinct, and after an hour or so turned up with the phone and the (visibly beaten) thief, asking us what we wanted to do with him. I got the sense that we could have roughed him up ourselves without even the need for a bribe.

After that I never really doubted that the police having more respect for criminals than law abiding citizens is a choice.

which shall remain nameless

Why?

And this is a political choice made by people who are not, themselves, police officers.

I have sufficient IRL far-right street cred to have ordinary cops admit to me that they wish somebody would solve the coordination problem to bring sombra negra here, or ensure that self-help vigilantism was ignored by the legal system.

After that I never really doubted that the police having more respect for criminals than law abiding citizens is a choice.

I don't think there are many police anywhere that have more respect from criminals than citizens. It's just that different places have different rules/expectations for how criminals can be treated. Unless by "police" you're referring more broadly to the criminal justice system.

I'm speaking in a The Purpose Of A System Is What It Does kind of way.

I have no doubt the French policeman I talked to a few years ago cared more for me than the guy who mugged me, but in the end the guy got off with a slap on the wrist even though he was a known criminal, and I never saw my wallet again.

It didn't have to be this way. Society has chosen that my property and time is less valuable than some known criminal's freedom. And I think that's clearly dysfunctional.

I'm guessing this was not Northern or Western Europe.

relevant

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