There is a really good article in the NYTimes about the so-called Ferguson effect. Finally, somebody has something enlightening to say on the subject. I highly recommend.
Of course, most people won’t notice the article because right next to it there is yet another inane article about Alicia Machado’s ass size.
“… most people won’t notice the article because right next to it there is yet another inane article about Alicia Machado’s ass size …”
Arite, arite … I’ll go read it, but I can’t help but think the whole time …
I LIKE BIG BUTTS AND I CANNOT LIE
[ahem] 🙂
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BTW, you might have missed this latest iteration of the opiate addiction problem in America …
Apparently some people in parts of Middle America think it’s a fantastic idea to get wrecked on elephant tranquillisers, with predictable results:
NPR —
“Deadly opioid overwhelms first responders and crime labs in Ohio”:
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/25/495052633/deadly-opioid-overwhelms-first-responders-and-crime-labs-in-ohio
“… but the recent surge in overdoses is being blamed on an even more potent drug called carfentanil. It’s 100 times stronger than fentanyl, a more common synthetic opioid that is itself much stronger than heroin. Carfentanil is used to sedate elephants. It can be dangerous to even touch it without gloves.”
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The Ferguson Effect article is quite good if not surprising. Police in most major cities already have a problem with willingness of witnesses to come forward. Police lawlessness only makes that much worse.
Hypothesis: There’s a death spiral at work. Police become more lawless when they see a lack of community support and an inability to convict people they arrest, and their actions further reduce community support?
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“There’s a death spiral at work”
I’d say it’s more of a vicious circle as (often justified) mistrust on both sides creates a toxic self-reinforcing system. I wish I knew how to break that cycle but I don’t so I’ll shut up now.
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“There’s a death spiral at work.”
My, how pessimistic! You and I are both old enough to know that the world’s got a few good spins left — maybe even a few trillion left — before it all comes undone and goes whirling off into space.
We’ve come a long way from the 1860’s, when the United Stated was engaged in a fratricidal, shooting civil war, and even from the 1960’s, when the revolution was inevitable, and life as we knew it was coming to an imminent end. The current “most important Presidential election ever” will be over in 37 days — and no matter who’s elected, life will go right on when the sun comes up on day 38.
(Okay, a big picture response to a specific, small-picture problem. But the Apocalypse isn’t at hand, and I feel the need to say so occasionally.)
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37 days! Whatever will we do for fun? No more crazy tweets from Trump.
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Nobody will care any longer about his tweets 37 days from now.
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Indeed! And that’s a testament to American Exceptionalism — that much-doubted but oft-demonstrated reality that functions like an invisible gyroscope, keeping Western civilization — indeed, this entire planet — spinning steadily on course, when others think that all is lost. 🙂
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So many eyes will be focused on the overhaul of whitehouse.gov that nobody will care about Twitter …
🙂
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As the saying goes, you live – you learn. Was shocked by the discovery that corporal punishment is an accepted part of American schooling system and began wondering whether police violence against blacks can be truly separated from violence in other places in American society. By that I mean both violence that was directed at policemen and at their future black (and white) victims during their childhood and teen years. In Israel, a school teacher who touched a student would be fired immediately.
You are against homeschooling and I am with you here. Wanted to ask how you would behave if you had to send Klara to a school which applied corporal punishment. You wrote about bad experiences in your special school, but you were not beaten there. Some American schools from the article sound simply savage.
Article from 2016:
In public schools in the United States, black children are twice as likely as white children to be subject to corporal punishment.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2016/01/14/schools-black-children-and-corporal-punishment/
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And what if I had to send her to school where little green aliens were teaching? 🙂
On a serious note, the US hasn’t adopted the concept of rights of children, so many forms of barbarity against children are possible.
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“Was shocked by the discovery that corporal punishment is an accepted part of American schooling system.”
I don’t know that it’s an “accepted part” of the school system. It is illegal in most public schools. Growing up, I have never seen nor heard of corporal punishment being used in any school I was associated with. I literally don’t know anybody who witnessed corporal punishment in their schools as children.
Corporal punishment should never happen of course. And if happens even once, it’s too much. But I would hardly describe it as a common problem in American schools.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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