Baltimore Mayor's Proposal:
Paying criminals $375/month not to commit crimes
I’ll bet the first reaction from many of Maryland’s taxpayers might be: “Ok, so sign me up!…and I’ll promise not to rob banks or steal Teslas.”
On a sober note—isn’t paying a criminal not to commit crimes a “protection racket?” Has society —or its local governments—become purveyors of mobster rackets instead of leaders and trustworthy public servants? It really is an Idiocracy when criminals can be rewarded with cash instead of being properly rehabilitated or re-educated. Ironically, paying politicians to underperform as city business managers is another award system that needs addressing as well!
WBFF reports:
“BALTIMORE (WBFF) — The city is expected to announce next week the offer of a guaranteed income if squeegee kids stay out of city intersections.
The size of the paycheck is still unclear; however, the city is currently offering potential criminals $375 a month in a separate program if they refrain from shooting other people.”
NY Post reports:
“A similar strategy has been used before in Richmond, California, one of the most dangerous cities in the country, which paid criminals up to $1,000 a month, as well as provided counseling and job help, NPR reported in 2016.”
Another detail has to do with de-funding the Police. I am one who believes Police need better training and especially in the areas of counseling and mediation skills. If we defund our Police, doesn’t this suggest that potential police candidates who may possess the characteristics of a well-rounded public servant might consider the pay grade unsatisfactory? …Meantime, we pay criminals not to commit a crime? Something is terribly askew here in terms of a value scale worthy of a sane society.
Baltimore’s mayor(Brandon Scott) lacks knowledge of a functional economy-of-scale approach to his city’s deeper issues regarding crime and the cause of crime. In a sense it appears that Scott thinks that money is the cause of violence,i.e., pay the criminals so they won’t have to rob-steal-or sell drugs for cash. Considering the fact that Baltimore’s drug economy (Fentanyl in particular) yields a profit for the dealers, or corrupt politicians(even when it is only a political campaign fund-raising PR stunt), the black market economy is a formidable foe— and paying off criminals will not provide the solution. The political rhetoric grows thicker as elections approach while the problems associated with poverty and crime fester.
Mayor Scott’s support for a program called “Safe Streets” appears as a genuine effort to cure a disease from the ground up, or from the street corner to the greater city at large. And yet, violence persists. Baltimore’s citizens are still stuck in a rut of economic desperation, and inflation— while exorbitant rents persist.
Baltimore Magazine reported this:
“On July 1, Safe Streets violence interrupter Kenyell Wilson was gunned down near the Cherry Hill neighborhood where he worked. Safe Streets had just celebrated a year without a single homicide at its site in the Cherry Hill neighborhood of Baltimore. Wilson’s death marked the second killing of a Safe Streets violence interrupter this year. Dante Barksdale, a close ally of the mayor, was killed in Baltimore in January.
Scott reasserted his support for groups like Safe Streets in slowing violence in the city, but also vowed to use every resource available through the Police Department to solve Wilson’s killing.”
Anyone familiar with the predictable (mostly Democrat) second amendment platform can see the proposed solution coming,i.e., guns are the reason we have so much violence and murder. But I’ll reflect on Bill Clinton’s remark about his insights regarding the issue that concerns most US citizens: “It’s the economy, stupid!”
In short form: Desperation and poverty kill more humans than the common cold or guns. And the typical neo-liberal response is to throw money at a problem—create more governmental programs—and to create more gun laws. This translates as: no authentic solutions proposed, and citizens remain marginalized and powerless to improve upon the circumstances they’ve inherited via inept and underqualified city managers.
This brings me back to two Bucky Fuller quotes I used in an article a couple of weeks ago— ‘Castles Made of Sand’:
“Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.”
“I was convinced in 1927 that humanity's most fundamental survival problems could never be solved by politics.”
The annoying detail re Big Bro Govt and the Nanny State is that state and municipal regulations favor the Oligarchs and real estate developers more than the folks who live in the city. Thus, all the political banter re “equity” and “equitability” is inauthentic nonsense based upon a race-card, race-baiting facade. If we wish to get serious about equity and a fair playing field for citizens (locally & globally) then we have to examine the root causes of impoverishment and poverty by design.
Access to resources is critical. An educational paradigm must be rethought. Teaching people how to think, and not what to believe is essential if we truly care about humanity’s future.
As a relevant digression—if a person living in the city has a ‘skin in the game’,i.e., property ownership—then pride and protecting one’s asset may follow. I’d propose that younger men who see little in the way of a bright future might be less inclined to join drug gangs if they were invested in their neighborhood’s future. Learning carpentry and masonry skills (ala Habitat for Humanity) could replace gangster behavior over time. While rewarding criminals with a paycheck for not committing crimes only underscores and labels a person as a “criminal” —keeping the entire cycle of poverty by design in motion.