TR> If you had paint sniffers and drunks all over the park your
TR> children use, would you want the police to do something
TR> about it? If you had drug dealers in your front yard and
TR> your children were afraid to go outside, would you want the
TR> police to do something about it? Are the police so evil that
TR> you would prefer to tolerate the drunks, paint sniffers, and
TR> dope dealers around your home?
I'd want them to do something about it and I want my
neighbors to do something about it also.  The police
can't do crap if the people aren't willing to help
themselves.  If the neighborhood doesn't care enough to
help itself then the only way you can 'help' it is to
flood it with cops AND keep them there.  Because if not
as soon as the cops leave the criminals will come back.
Also as long as the punishment for these petty crimes
are at most an inconvenience to the criminals then
arresting them is nothing but a waste of time and
money.  Lets use your drunks and sniffers as examples.
Your average street drunk/sniffer is at the bottom of
the existence scale; he has medical problems, he's
malnutrised, etc.  If he gets arrested he gets medical
care (for free), three good meals a day (for free), a
warm dry place to sleep IOW his life IMPROVES.  The
only draw back, in his view, is the lack of his high.
Now you keep him in jail for. . .lets say a month.  He
gets out rested and reasonably fit and most likely
he'll go right back the booze or paint.
What have you accomplished?  You have spent thousands
of dollars to keep a drunk off the streets for 30 days.
You also have taught him that getting arrested isn't a
bad thing, AAMOF it's a pretty good gig-a vacation,
except for no booze.
I know this for almost a fact.  I had a great-uncle who
was a drunk/bum.  He would live it up until it started
turning cold then he'd find a cop and do something to
get arrested and held for 90 days or so.  He'd come out
clean, well fed, fit, sober and looking for a bottle.
He did this year after year until he died.  BTW, he
supposedly said that getting sent to the 'funny farm'
was even better then getting arrested because there you
had more freedom and could find a bottle every now and
again.
Enforcing the law is a good thing but as soon as you
start things like "Zero Tolerance" in you are going to
have the same thing we now have in the schools.  People
going of the deep end.  In your "Zero Tolerance" life
after the 'big' criminals (drunks, druggies, etc) are
caught or ran off do you then go after the other
criminals like people who spit on the sidewalk (still
illegal in most cities) or jaywalk or drop a piece of
paper or maybe those who leave a public toilet w/o
flushing (not a crime hear, yet, but it is in "Zero
Tolerance" Singapore).  After all don't all of these
effect the 'quality of life' in a neighborhood?
                      Remember:  Freedom isn't Free!
--- timEd-B11
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