Rising Hegemon
I'm a day late and, as always, a dollar short, but I had to comment on Richard Cohen, as great a sociologist as he is a comedian:
The good news is that crime is again down across the nation — in big cities, small cities, flourishing cities and cities that are not for the timid. Surprisingly, this has happened in the teeth of the Great Recession, meaning that those disposed to attribute criminality to poverty — my view at one time — have some strenuous rethinking to do. It could be, as conservatives have insisted all along, that crime is committed by criminals. For liberals, this is bad news indeed.
I'm trying to figure out who set the definitions of this shibboleth, but I believe indeed it was like Richard Cohen, a prosperous white person of means who cannot see what's wrong with a little slap & tickle with the wives of others and a sex harassment incident here and there, who is allowed to call himself a liberal, who doesn't believe in liberal things.
And also, what TBogg said.
9 comments:
Even the liberal...headdesk
Ummm... hello, Mr. Cohen?
Abortion becomes safe and legal in the seventies, and over thirty years later, the crime rate is down?
I fail to see how liberals have been proven anything other than absolutely correct.
for the not so stupid we can see that although crime is down for the poor over the last 30 years, it is UP on Wall Street and in the corporate world...
sooo one could conclude from this that the policies that lessened the burden on the lower and middle class were effective, but the policies to "lessen the burden" on the already well off have made them greedier and more prone to crime.
Let me get this straight ... crime is down in the cities WHERE LIBERALS LIVE AND GOVERN, yet liberalism failed on crime?? WTF???
It could be, as conservatives have insisted all along, that crime is committed by criminals. For liberals, this is bad news indeed.
Cohen's reasoning is so convoluted, even the normally erudite Rising Hegemon commenters are confused.
He needs a ginormous colonic.
bad link! no tbogg, just the 'funny liberal'.
if karma rules, this jerk just begged to be mugged.
Hmm. During most recessions, property crime is a lagging indicator and rates of crimes of passion sort of plunk down in the middle of recessions, when things are looking their most bleak. Making assumptions now is no indication of what happens in the long run.
Another fly in Cohen's ointment (now, that's a disgusting metaphor) is that there are persistent anecdotes about some classes of crime that are being under-reported for political reasons (local politicians who've run on Law `N Order platforms don't like to see crime going up--makes `em look foolish--and there have been oodles of those Giuliani wannabes elected in the last decade or so).
Moreover, if, indeed, crime is going down, then why is it that the prisons are overflowing, and we have more people in jail than any other country in the world? Does that mean that prosecutors' offices are getting more efficient? Or smarter? Public defenders getting caught up on their sleep during trials? Or what?
When the data are inconsistent (such as the recent very mild drops reported by the FBI, contrasted with increasing rates of incarceration and probation), maybe there's more analysis to be done than Mr. Cohen is willing to do....
Probably a lot smarter to wait until this recession is really over--when employment is back to normal and people don't have to live in their cars--to make some assessments about crime rates and the sociological implications of poverty.
But, then, we are talking about Richard Cohen, after all, who never met an assumption he couldn't assault and batter.
http://www.truthout.org/revenge-zombies-palin-beck-limbaugh-and-return-dark-times59952
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