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Train burglaries in LA

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Re: Train burglaries in LA

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Option 1) Upgrade the security on the containers Option 2) Re-work society from the ground up to eliminate any incentive for burglary It is no wonder why folks are drawn more to Option 1, which is about a bajillion times more approachable, but which doesn't preclude also working on Option 2 at the same time.

I want to caveat this whole thing by saying that I'm not a supporter of abolishing the police in case someone thinks I want to take funding away from law enforcement. "It is no wonder why folks are drawn more to Option 1, which is about a bajillion times more approachable, but which doesn't preclude also working on Option 2 at the same time." I think it does. Option 1 solutions of the world often mitigate the visible…

I think you're correct to a degree that when we choose Option 1 then it makes Option 2 less urgent.

But! Usually Option 1 is much less efficient long-term than Option 2, so – as long as we're both talking theoretically here – then theoretically the entity that is footing the bill for the 100k security force would see how freaking expensive it is and would advocate with a loud voice for Option 2 to get implemented as soon as possible.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#422
post #102

My observation from the comment sections to this post-apocalyptic video is the following: People focusing on how to prevent the theft of these cars, funding police, armed guards on trans, better security. I think this is an interesting perspective, it's very "American", it's like it has been accepted by these commenters that rampant thievery is a perfectly natural part of life and so, must be worked around rather tha…

Those who did this are not victims. They're culprits. That must be very clear. Remember the imagery from recent (any) riots? E.g. the mob plundering a Walmart? Those people are not starving. They are just greedy, uncontrolled and aggressive. They did not steal food. Just expensive electronic entertainment devices. Human behaviour is very predictable. There will always be a large number of people taking whatever they…

>They did not steal food. Just expensive electronic entertainment devices.

During the 2011 London riots, looters consistently avoided bookstores in favor of "shoes, clothes, computers, and plasma televisions". https://news.yahoo.com/pattern-london-rioters-leaving-bookst...>

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#423
post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s much more damaging to the mind and ability to have a functional life. My sister was a functional alcoholic for 25 years. When she started heroine, everything changed, and she overdosed within 2.

Alcohol is really bad for your mind. I don't think there is sufficient evidence, that heroin is worse than alcohol for your brain. She couldn't have been a functional alcoholic for 25 year if alcohol were an illegal substance. There are plenty of people who have a normal life on methadone or heroin if it is provided to them. As already stated, if you are an addict, getting the substance is the highest priority. Makin…

> is worse than alcohol for your brain

It depends on the definition of "worse". If cell death over time, then maybe alcohol is worse. If it's how much a recreational/entertaining dose disturbs the workings of the mind, the operation/rational/ability to live a normal life, which is the purpose of the mind, then I would say heroin is worse.

I would assume the amount of dopamine a drug releases is directly related to its ability to disrupt someones life.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#425
post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also reminds me of certain episodes of the The History of Rome and The History of Byzantium podcasts where they depict the collapse of complex systems when the breakdown of security occurred. During times when Roman security was good - the economy could develop complex systems of trade, which developed coinage, mathematics, architecture, and all sorts of specialists and artisans. When security was no longer reliab…

> hoards of barbarians you mean the citizens of neighbouring states (mainly nowadays france and germany) that refused to be colonized/enslaved?

No, I mean literally hoards of barbarians from as far away as East of the Ural mountains.

The Huns, for example, were not neighboring peoples. They were hoards of horse archers that came from, literally, a thousand miles beyond the Roman border to pillage.

Their destruction of the Roman borders is what drove other Germanic tribes to flee west, further destroying Roman stability.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just education, it's shitty parenting. You'd recursively have to educate Hitler's parents, and to do that you have to educate their parents etc. ad nauseum. Pretty soon you'd blow your stack. Naive interventionism is worse than just whacking Hitler.

Do people really grow up to be their parents? Did you?

They don't. People grow up to be like their friends, who in turn grow up to be like the general cultural sentiments among the adults they interact with. (Source: The Nurture Assumption.)

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#427
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> defunding police Police budgets are, by and large, still increasing in the US.

Faced with massive demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd, the Los Angeles City Council took a dramatic and symbolic step last year, cutting $150 million from the Police Department’s budget and promising to put that money into other social services.

As another commenter pointed out, this is not accurate.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hoards of barbarians you mean the citizens of neighbouring states (mainly nowadays france and germany) that refused to be colonized/enslaved?

Throughout most of history, any given culture was prone to call any surrounding culture "barbarians", or equivalent terms. The meaning was more akin to "foreigner", though there were also often connotations of ethnic or nationalistic superiority. This was the case amongst the Romans, previously the Greeks, also Persians and other tribes and cultures of the Middle East / Western Asia. And similarly in China. Nationali…

This is only partially accurate. The Romans and Persian, for example, did not consider the other, barbarians. Same between the Greeks/Egyptians/Carthaginians/Jews/etc...

What defined a "barbarian" group was that they we undeveloped scattered tribes - without central political power. They usually lacked written codified laws, formal political assembly, ambassadors, etc...

The Gauls, the Celts, the Germanic tribes, the Turkic tribes, etc... They all were considered "barbarians" because of their tribal community focused political structure. Few centralized buildings existed, lower literacy rates, etc...

These differences were very apparent when a soldier would leave from Rome or Constantinople, and then find himself conquering a Gaulic settlement where the biggest buildings were still made of wood.

Of course, as the centuries went on, these tribal communities became more and more centralize and organized until those differences disappeared.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I understand your argument, it ignores the fact that, at scale, there is a non-insignificant chunk of society that is willing to break and bend the rules for personal gain, causing others loss, simply because that's the most direct path for them to obtain what they want. This is, at least in my opinion, exacerbated by the size and the diversity of the US population, and its variety of creeds, affluence levels,…

I think it's a plus for society if some criminals go from petty theft to white collar sociapth investor conning CEO. (or more realistically salesman) Society saves on the need for physical security.

That's a pro, but now the blast radius of your malfeasance is also larger. Instead of stealing a couple of Amazon packages a day, you can now deprive tens of thousands of people out of their life savings, you can deprive thousands of a medication they might need, you're now able to corrupt law enforcement and officials without any moral qualms and so on.

"Safer" in the short term for the criminal and law enforcement, but overall much more damaging to society and the rule of law.

Re: Train burglaries in LA

#430
post #384
post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why crime us going up? It’s not. The long term trend in property crime in the US is down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States

Much has been decriminalized in California, so I question if these types of statistics can be accurate.

Theft has been decriminalized in California?
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