stepsandladders

stepsandladders t1_iubq8pb wrote

Nope! Absolutely not. I wouldn't ever call the cops for any reason since data shows they are vastly more likely to escalate a situation and get someone hurt than defuse it and/or solve the problem. And besides, $800 would not impact my quality of life or the wellbeing of my family. You seem to be coming from a position of great ignorance about how prisons and police actually function in our society, so I'll stop replying now and suggest you read a book on the topic. A great accessible place to start is "Are Prisons Obsolete" by Angela Davis, but you can also just google "history of policing in America" and read a little bit about why police exist in the form they do. Best of luck!

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stepsandladders t1_iua5zyj wrote

You don't know anything about him either, and what difference does it make if they served time for assault or rape (unlikely, as those crimes are rarely convicted) vs carrying weed or excessive failure to pay fines (extremely likely)? Either way putting someone in jail or prison does nothing to address systemic issues of violence, inequality and deprivation that lead to actions deemed "criminal" by the state. Meanwhile, direct redistribution of money actually does exactly that. So yeah in general I'm on the side of people who have greater need and against dehumanizing people for having been put in jail or prison.

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stepsandladders t1_iu6jzx2 wrote

I think it's pretty fucked up that you're willing to condemn someone to lose years of their life based on a single incident you have absolutely no context for. Here's a thought experiment:

Imagine the worst thing you've ever done, ever. Now imagine that's all anyone knows about you and the only thing they think about when they think about you. Now imagine that because of doing that thing you are forced to spend months or years of your life in an institution well-known to be a site of physical, emotional, and sexual violence. Then you're released with no access to resources because you've been condemned by society to be a "criminal", and anything you do that might be seen unfavorably by the state has people foaming at the mouth to send you right back and call you a "recidivist". Pretty bleak existence!

I think the idea that "committing a crime" means risking "years of your life" is pretty fucked, especially for people who have no other options for meeting basic survival needs.

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stepsandladders t1_iu2urc2 wrote

Ah, I missed the word customer in the post. I am rooting for him slightly less enthusiastically now, but tbh it's a lot harder for me to feel sorry for someone who casually takes $800 out of an atm than someone who was recently incarcerated. Think of the potential fallout of this action for each person involved: one lost $800, which is a fair chunk of money but if you're pulling that out of an atm in one go it's hard to imagine that was your last bit of cash you're trying to stretch to make ends meet. Meanwhile, if that guy gets arrested he's back in jail and likely prison for robbery and assault. That's a lot of years of his life taken away, definitely a harsher consequence than losing $800.

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