Murders and violent crime are increasing. One hears it all around, neighbors voicing their concerns – “The streets aren’t safe anymore”, “I just bought a gun to protect my house”, “The police are afraid to do their job anymore”.
Societal problems are complex. America has a many times greater percentage of its people in prison than other developed nations. It has much more gun violence. It has a greater disparity in wealth and income than other wealthy nations and that disparity has grown rapidly over the last 30 years.
The last few years have added other huge problems to our list of woes – the continuing saga of COVID, rampant inflation and the multiplying effects of climate change. We are not unique in our afflictions. Every nation is struggling with some mix of problems. But they seem particularly acute and paradoxical in the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.
When crime increases in the United States, we demand stricter enforcement, more police, longer sentences, less leniency. We manufacture more guns. It’s a vicious circle.
Ironically, in recent years we had finally begun to see a bi-partisan effort to address the problems of over-incarceration. And there seemed to be at least some recognition that we could begin to decrease inequality through investments in infrastructure, education, healthcare and childcare. But those efforts will probably go dormant now, as fear overtakes reason. No one will be in the mood for reform. Indeed, there will be indignant calls for aggressive police action and tactics, and for tightening the belt of government spending.
Why is there so much crime here? Why do we have so many firearm deaths? Why are we the undisputed world leader in mass shootings?
Until we understand and acknowledge that these problems have deep roots in our culture, our economy and our government we are destined to repeat the cycle again and again.
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