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crime and punishment folly

Crime Fighters Give Up

Paul Jacob on the leading edge of policing culture

Fight crime — give criminals all your stuff today!

This isn’t my view. But it’s the apparent view of some — I hope not many — Canadian police officers.

At a recent public meeting about coping with crime, a Toronto police officer told people that to reduce the chances “of being attacked in your home, leave your [car key] fobs at your front door. Because they’re breaking into your home to steal your car. They don’t want anything else.”

To reduce the risk to you personally, give up in advance.

Are you following the reasoning? Because I’m not. And I am very disinclined to leave my car keys and cash and my Taiwanese history library in a heap near the front door to buy off home invaders.

Instead, perhaps everybody in high-risk neighborhoods should install a trap door in their vestibule, rigged in such a way that anybody who forcibly breaks into the home is immediately dropped into a vat of starving piranhas.

AIER’s John Miltimore sees an “obvious problem” with the policeman’s helpful advice. The problem is that he is asking people to encourage burglary and theft, to make it “easier, not harder, to steal vehicles, diminishing the time it takes to commit the crime, thus lowering the risk involved.” If a lot of people follow the advice, this would tend to increase car thefts.

It all reminds Miltimore of the movie Robocop and its crime-ridden landscape. “There’s something dystopian in normalizing this kind of violence. . . .”

To avoid dystopia, let’s defend ourselves instead.

And our cars. And car keys. And . . .

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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4 replies on “Crime Fighters Give Up”

Nowhere are the ordinary folk citizens; we are subjects. The state is not our servant; it is our master. And it sees ever less need to act on behalf of us as it acts on behalf of itself. We are conditioned to acquiesce, and it has ever more power to overwhelm us if we will not. Amongst Western nations, Canada and Great Britain are especially degenerate in this regard, but the condition of every nation is shameful.

It’s a no-win situation. Defend yourself and your property and you risk being charged with a crime if the perpetrator suffers any injury. You’ll risk losing everything when the home invader falls through your trap door and dies from a head injury. That’s basically what law enforcement has been dealing with in many cities. Why should they put their lives on the line when a mistake or an unforced error can result in total ruin for them? The law of the jungle is taking over. If the choice was between your money or your life, which would you choose?

If the perp falls into the vat of piranhas and dies, simply reset the trap door.
Are we really getting to the point that this might be the only way to survive?

I like the trap door idea. It’s a win all the way around. Fish get a meal, society has one less criminal to deal with, and I dont have to walk to work the next day.

I also like the idea of swift judgment and timely and public execution of punishment. Might not deter everyone, but will certainly deter the convicted.

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