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How US government solves violence and crime
To the Editor:
We worry about inflation and the cost of eggs and gas, but inflation usually goes away; in fact, it seems to be lessening now. However, what about the violence and crime that seems to be increasing everywhere: is it going to go away, or are we in a permanent state of incivility? Here's a view towards an answer, in three parts.
First, take street crime. The crime against George Floyd in Minneapolis was used by activists to charge that police were evil and should be done away with. Mistrust of police has also led to prosecutors who have failed to act on reported crime. Whether this sort of crime will continue is a political question: will voters who have had enough get rid of weasel prosecutors and restore police budgets, or will they be outdone by politicians who turn blind eyes to crime in the search for votes? How this turns out will vary from city to city, and state to state.
Secondly, take the anti-Israeli campus riots. Student riots come and go; they are as old as universities themselves. They create chaos and damage for a while, then they fade away, In this case, the riots started at the leading, high-status, expensive universities, which leads me to John's Law of Tuition, which says that tuition cost is directly related to the number of Left-wing progressive lectures students will be subjected to. As far as the anti-Israeli aspect of the current mischief is concerned, the rioting students are hypocritical and misdirected: if they are outraged by a superior political and military power that has displaced a native population, they should call for the return of much of the United States to the Native Americans. That's an issue closer to home.
The only aspect of the riots that should be addressed with action is the participation of these activists who show up at all the usual riots. Publicity is the key; the government should establish a national website with pictures of all these miscreants, with home addresses and parents' names. That should reduce the number of these fools.
Lastly, we have to consider technology. New inventions have great benefits, but often, unpleasant side effects. Gutenberg's printing press spread knowledge, resulting in increases in productivity and wealth, but also spread dissenting religious views that caused religious wars for hundreds of years. In 1973, the American Martin Cooper invented the cell phone, a device that has spread knowledge exponentially greater and faster than the printing press. The fact that native African farmers use cell phones to agree on market dates is evidence of its universal benefit. However, in 1997, a French engineer, Philippe Kahn, invented the camera phone and thereby opened Pandora's Box. Out came the camera phone, with certain ominous echoes of warning: "A picture is worth a thousand words", "Kids are most influenced, not by their parents or teachers, but by their peers", and, "Everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes".
Pandora's Box, for those who have forgotten, was a mythological case that when opened, let out something that at first seemed very good but turned out to be very bad. The camera phone has its agreeable advantages: "I just took a selfie in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa," or, "I have cute pictures of Jessica's baby". But then, for example, there is the matter of a scuffle on an airplane. Let's say that, twenty years ago, a stewardess spilled drinks on a passenger, who jumped up and punched her. Passengers would have gone home and told their families about the incident, and then that was all there was to it. Now, when a similar thing happens, a passenger with a camera phone films it, and it appears on the nightly news. That encourages other passengers to watch for incidents that they can film and possibly get paid for. Thus, an impression is created that airplane incidents are now more frequent, which is not the case at all. And, it's not just airplanes that get filmed: there are mall fights, school fights, and other disturbances where the one with the camera phone was more interested in filming the event than helping to stop the fight.
Careless use of the camera phone can also have deadly peril. A 17-year-old boy recently committed suicide when it turned out that an online girl that he sent nude pictures to was Nigerians who demanded money to prevent the release of the photos. And, on May 22, national news shed further light on these incidents. A video showed two boys, one of whom was choking the other until he fell unconscious on the ground. The video was filmed by another boy, with the clear purpose of selling it to a website that pays for similar films. The website is called, "Worldstar", and there are presumably similar sites. In this case, the boy filming the choking was committing the crime of abetting another crime.
The camera phone has become as dangerous as a gun and should be similarly regulated, at least by registration to an individual. It should be illegal for those under 18. For such legislation to be passed, the government will have to win a gigantic battle against Big Tech. Stay tuned.
John Brittain