"Leftist positions on crime" -- can you be more specific?
[WS:] For one think the left is incapable of having a coherent position on almost anything - it is more a pipe dreaming than a position - as beautifully portrayed in the film "The Old Joy" http://www.kino.com/oldjoy/
So what I am referring to is a bunch of urban legends circulating on the left that try to create sympathy for criminals by minimizing the social impact of their crimes on communities and the suffering of their victims, and instead focusing on the suffering of the criminals as "victims" of alleged injustice, and employing various gimmicks aiming to exonerate them from responsibility for their own actions.
Just as a case in point, there is constant barrage of postings to this list on police brutality, and not a single posting on the brutalization of crime victims. It is as if the latter did not matter at all, and only the raw treatment of criminals or alleged criminals was of any concern.
Perhaps I should not use the word "leftist" to characterize it - it is a particular brand of populism rather than a coherent political ideology of the left.
One more thing - I frankly think that my further participation in this debate will lead nowhere,, as no positions will be changed or even taken into consideration. So as my *final word* on this subject let me summarize what the postings of "criminals' rights" activists on this list accomplished in my case: - I changed my position on prisons, now I do not think they work - I support alternatives to prison for non-violent offenders that would reintegrate them to society (no change in position here); - I changed my position on death penalty - now I support it now for violent and dangerous criminals (this is the second prong of the strategy to decrease prison population) - I changed my position on aggressive policing of delinquent behavior - now I believe it works because it disrupts social networks that have criminal potential - I changed my position on victim's rights - now I support them - I changed my position on the virtues of jury trials - now I believe they are basically feel-good popularity shows, but otherwise useless and ineffective - I changed my position on the right to bear arms and concealed weapons - now I support it (albeit the NRA types still make puke.) - I changed my position on Miranda rights and insanity defense - now I believe that these are lawyerly tricks to get criminals off the hook on technicalities and should be disallowed.
I believe that I am now with the majority of the Americans on those issues for a change.
Wojtek