Note to the "ladder of force left"

[Peter K.]

>Criminal justice doesn't exist to catch all those who commit crimes.
>The main purpose of the police is not to protect people from those
>who commit theft, robbery, rape, murder, etc., though in a limited
>number of cases it may accidentally protect a few of us.  It mainly
>exists to discipline us all (Cf. Michel Foucault, _Discipline &
>Punish_), while creating an ever larger pool of potential criminals
>(Cf. high rates of recidivism), especially if punishments meted out
>are really harsh.  Likewise, the "war on terrorism" may possibly
>destroy a few terrorists, but if it does, it does so only
>accidentally.  It won't make us safe from future terrorism; in fact,
>it will help to perpetuate it.
>--
>Yoshie

I don't think it's so cut and dry. Does this definition of criminal justice
go for every society on the planet for all of human history? Or just
for the Superterrorist Superpower?

I know if I lived in the ghetto I would hope and desire for some police
presence and criminal justice framework - not of the Cincinati or
L.A. variey of course - along with economic development. Its much,
much easier to take the long view when the worst thing that has
happened to you is that you've been mugged.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/21/national/21FEAR.html

New York Times / National
10.21.01
Fear Is No Stranger in Chicago Ghetto
By JOHN W. FOUNTAIN
CHICAGO, Oct. 20 — The puddle that was a little boy's blood on south
Komensky Avenue is washed away now. A miniature license plate, with the
words "You've Got a Friend in Jesus," hangs on a tree in memory of that boy,
Robert Anderson III, 4, who was killed by a stray bullet this summer while
making mud pies in front of his home on the city's West Side.

Life has returned to a shade of normal in Robert's neighborhood, known as
K-Town. But normal is relative in a place where tragedy is as certain as the
next morning's sunrise and where people live by the mantra that no matter
what comes, life goes on.

Now that the shooting has stopped, parents and children go about their lives
on Komensky Avenue. And sometimes Robert's family can be seen on the porch,
facing the spot near the tree where three months earlier he was shot in the
back.

"You just got to live life the way it was before," said the child's cousin
Gloria Reese, 22, her words rinsed with a dose of fatalism and reality.
"That's what you live for," Ms. Reese said. "You live to die."

In every corner of the country, life seems more fragile, more dangerous. The
Sept. 11 attacks and the continuing anthrax scare have made people
everywhere approach even the most mundane decisions of everyday life with
extra care, tinged with fear: Do I get on the plane? Do I go to the mall or
to the movies? Should I open this letter? Is it safe for my children to go
out and play?
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