Dante Wright

[kaskaskiakid]

Terrible situation and a tragic mistake by the woman cop. I try to see both sides of the story in these incidents of police shooting black suspects. I wouldn't want to be a city cop for all the money in the world. And I do believe black drivers are targeted more than whites, and blacks are treated more threatening and harshly in interactions with police.

But once again, an important fact is being somewhat swept under the rug by the media, protesters, politicians, and many people in general - Dante Wright was resisting arrest. No one ever wants to talk about how many of these police shootings were precipitated by a suspect resisting arrest. Everyone should know that getting into a physical confrontation with armed police may end up with you getting hurt or shot.

Wright was stopped lawfully for expired tags. When his ID was ran, it came back with two misdemeanor warrants - although it is still unclear on the charges, it has been reported that one was for a small amount of marijuana and the other was a misdemeanor weapons charge. He was probably looking at a couple hundred dollars in fines. The police were making a legal arrest.

MIchael Brown's death was a result of him resisting arrest. And he had just assaulted a quick shop owner. Even George Floyd had resisted arrest, although after he was subdued it does not excuse a knee on his neck for nine minutes. When I see these police shootings are a result of resisting or fleeing arrest, I can't help but think everyone knows that once you decide to get physical with police, all bets are off concerning your personal safety.

Yeah, mistaking your pistol for a tazer and kneeling on someone's neck for nine minutes is inexcusable. But it bothers me when I see so many of these incidents happening where the victim is not totally innocent, and the police take all the blame.

If this comes off as racist, I can only say I try to see both sides, and the resisting arrest part of so many of these incidents keeps getting lost with all the political and social rhetoric.

 

[kaskaskiakid]

And then we have our president out there suggesting that this shooting was possibly intentional?? So much for unity...

Geez tiger, that's not what he said. He said the question that will have to be answered by the investigation is if the shooting was an accident, then was it intentional. I'm not even sure what that means. We finally agree on something, and then you couldn't resist putting your spin on a Biden comment.

 

[Pancho and Lefty]

I can't imagine why anyone would want to be a police officer now. Low pay, long hours, dangerous, distrusted and disrespected by a large portion of the public. Props to those who do it.

 

[Expect2Win]

I understand their fear of complying and being placed in the back of a car and taken to jail. There is no video in the backseat of a car, or in the jail cell. Who knows when he gets out of there for a little pot and a gun charge.

 

[3Rfan]

Terrible situation and a tragic mistake by the woman cop. I try to see both sides of the story in these incidents of police shooting black suspects. I wouldn't want to be a city cop for all the money in the world. And I do believe black drivers are targeted more than whites, and blacks are treated more threatening and harshly in interactions with police.

But once again, an important fact is being somewhat swept under the rug by the media, protesters, politicians, and many people in general - Dante Wright was resisting arrest. No one ever wants to talk about how many of these police shootings were precipitated by a suspect resisting arrest. Everyone should know that getting into a physical confrontation with armed police may end up with you getting hurt or shot.

Wright was stopped lawfully for expired tags. When his ID was ran, it came back with two misdemeanor warrants - although it is still unclear on the charges, it has been reported that one was for a small amount of marijuana and the other was a misdemeanor weapons charge. He was probably looking at a couple hundred dollars in fines. The police were making a legal arrest.

MIchael Brown's death was a result of him resisting arrest. And he had just assaulted a quick shop owner. Even George Floyd had resisted arrest, although after he was subdued it does not excuse a knee on his neck for nine minutes. When I see these police shootings are a result of resisting or fleeing arrest, I can't help but think everyone knows that once you decide to get physical with police, all bets are off concerning your personal safety.

Yeah, mistaking your pistol for a tazer and kneeling on someone's neck for nine minutes is inexcusable. But it bothers me when I see so many of these incidents happening where the victim is not totally innocent, and the police take all the blame.

If this comes off as racist, I can only say I try to see both sides, and the resisting arrest part of so many of these incidents keeps getting lost with all the political and social rhetoric.

How do you suppose a trained officer pulled a pistol instead of a taser, held it pointing at him for several seconds before firing and claims she meant to use a taser? The taser gun has a bright yellow handle and is on the opposite side of the belt in any video I've seen and is made of plastic and would be much lighter in your hand.
That said I've been saying for years now if people DO NOT resist there is usually no issue like this. The Floyd thang is about the least resistance I've seen in any of the videos when this kind of thing happens. The skid was definitley resisting and trying to get back in the car. Once he gets there any number of bad things could have happened.

 

[MOpossum]

I wonder if Biden or Harris are calling this a peaceful protest?

 

[MGHS]

How do you suppose a trained officer pulled a pistol instead of a taser, held it pointing at him for several seconds before firing and claims she meant to use a taser? The taser gun has a bright yellow handle and is on the opposite side of the belt in any video I've seen and is made of plastic and would be much lighter in your hand.
That said I've been saying for years now if people DO NOT resist there is usually no issue like this. The Floyd thang is about the least resistance I've seen in any of the videos when this kind of thing happens. The skid was definitley resisting and trying to get back in the car. Once he gets there any number of bad things could have happened.

I'm sure she is right hand dominate so grabbing the weapon on that side is very possible.....he is clearly was a high risk suspect who has a history of violence. Let's just say I'm sure she had a huge amount of Adrenaline pumping in her system. As you can see these things can get messy and never go just perfect like the training scenarios or the choreograph Hollywood BS that clouds everyone's perception on how this stuff goes down.

She will be punished and probably get manslaughter and time in jail which is woeful for a Mistake he caused by simply not submitting to police commands and force. Trying to flee and fighting with Police is never a smart thing. And he deserves zero pity for actions or the outcome. He cast his own lot.

I don't for a second believe she killed him on purpose in front of two other cops and wearing a Body Cam.

 

[kaskaskiakid]

I'm sure she is right hand dominate so grabbing the weapon on that side is very possible.....he is clearly was a high risk suspect who has a history of violence. Let's just say I'm sure she had a huge amount of Adrenaline pumping in her system. As you can see these things can get messy and never go just perfect like the training scenarios or the choreograph Hollywood BS that clouds everyone's perception on how this stuff goes down.

She will be punished and probably get manslaughter and time in jail which is woeful for a Mistake he caused by simply not submitting to police commands and force. Trying to flee and fighting with Police is never a smart thing. And he deserves zero pity for actions or the outcome. He cast his own lot.

I don't for a second believe she killed him on purpose in front of two officers

I agree with all that except I do feel pity for everyone involved, including the young man killed. Yes, he made a stupid mistake and it cost him his life. He was a 20 yr old kid with a couple misdemeanor warrants, and apparently not a hardened career criminal. Just as I feel sorry for the lady cop who made a stupid mistake.

 

[MGHS]

He held down a women and choked her in a effort to take 800+ dollars...I can't have pity for anyone who does that. He was waving a gun around, dealing drugs and other petty crimes. Not a Great kid at all.

Daunte Wright 'choked woman and tried to steal $820 from her at gunpoint', court docs show

DAUNTE Wright allegedly choked a woman and threatened to shoot her if she did not hand over $820 in rent money that she had stuffed in her bra, according to court documents. Wright, 20, was shot an…

www.the-sun.com

His family has already retained a lawyer Ben Crump to get some money. I find that a bit revolting as well.

 

[bullitpdq68]

I understand there is always going to be a few bad cops out the many good ones. We will always hear about all of these bad things these guys do and they will be magnified, but it is the many thing that go right every day that we don't hear about.

Ask a school teacher who over the last 30 years has taught how they believe times have changed in the classroom... and how what they do today is so much more under a microscope than it was 30 years ago. which makes it so much harder to do their jobs. How kids are so disrespectful and parents are not longer appreciative. My daughter's mentor who has taught for over 30 years told her today is so much harder than it was, and today if he was her age he would never go into teaching because kids and parents are not the same.

Now I say that because being a cop today is not the same as it was 30 years ago, people don't respect the law like the did years ago, even conservatives now will kill a cop if they believe they stand in the way of what they want. So imagine the changes you see today in the classroom but now on the streets where everybody you pull over or interact with could possible have a concealed gun or just be spoiling for a fight.

I want to say hey how did she not know she had her gun and not her taser, but how many of you who are questioning that have to make what you feel is a life or death decision in a split second while trying to save your life? I mean she was probable thinking I cannot let this person back in the car they could drive off in high speed and endanger the public. To me it sounds like she made an honest mistake...being human and making a mistake is part of that....what is sad is in this situation somebody had to die because of that mistake. But honestly she may have also saved others lives? Because had he made it back into the car there are so many things that come into play. I wonder had he been able to get in his car and was never shot... and drove off in a high speed.... and then hit some innocent family on the way home killing them all what would we all be saying now? Why didn't the cops do more when they had him pulled over...

 

[3Rfan]

I'm sure she is right hand dominate so grabbing the weapon on that side is very possible.....he is clearly was a high risk suspect who has a history of violence. Let's just say I'm sure she had a huge amount of Adrenaline pumping in her system. As you can see these things can get messy and never go just perfect like the training scenarios or the choreograph Hollywood BS that clouds everyone's perception on how this stuff goes down.

She will be punished and probably get manslaughter and time in jail which is woeful for a Mistake he caused by simply not submitting to police commands and force. Trying to flee and fighting with Police is never a smart thing. And he deserves zero pity for actions or the outcome. He cast his own lot.

I don't for a second believe she killed him on purpose in front of two other cops and wearing a Body Cam.

If she is RH dominate she would surely have her gun on that side not the taser. She held that pistol for a long time before she fired not to realize was not the taser. I know he resisted and I have said that is an issue in many fo these incidents. That said did his outstanding warrants qualify him for the death penalty?
Remember when California stopped a lot of their high speed chases because the results rarely matched the crime and endangered the public to boot?

 

[MGHS]

Her taser was on the Left side...in the heat of the moment she grabbed her gun on the right side was my point. She clearly in a life threatening situation being right hand dominate went with Muscle memory and grabbed the wrong weapon. No malice and no intent. And No his outstanding warrants did not qualify him for death but resisting arrest trying to flee and having warrants for Violence coupled with his actions resulted in his death.

Clearly this Man was a Criminal with zero respect for the law or authority. And his actions of resisting 3 officers and trying to flee endangering the public as well is what led to his demise. I look at it like this if a person Eats Fast food every day and tops it off with Ice Cream and they eventually have a Coronary event I'm not the least bit surprised and darn well not blaming the Fast Food Joints or Baskin Robbins outlets. If you buck up against the Law and the People charged with enforcing it often enough and with Violence then you have to figure one day you are going to get the black Marble.

 

[Expect2Win]

I understand there is always going to be a few bad cops out the many good ones. We will always hear about all of these bad things these guys do and they will be magnified, but it is the many thing that go right every day that we don't hear about.

Ask a school teacher who over the last 30 years has taught how they believe times have changed in the classroom... and how what they do today is so much more under a microscope than it was 30 years ago. which makes it so much harder to do their jobs. How kids are so disrespectful and parents are not longer appreciative. My daughter's mentor who has taught for over 30 years told her today is so much harder than it was, and today if he was her age he would never go into teaching because kids and parents are not the same.

Now I say that because being a cop today is not the same as it was 30 years ago, people don't respect the law like the did years ago, even conservatives now will kill a cop if they believe they stand in the way of what they want. So imagine the changes you see today in the classroom but now on the streets where everybody you pull over or interact with could possible have a concealed gun or just be spoiling for a fight.

I want to say hey how did she not know she had her gun and not her taser, but how many of you who are questioning that have to make what you feel is a life or death decision in a split second while trying to save your life? I mean she was probable thinking I cannot let this person back in the car they could drive off in high speed and endanger the public. To me it sounds like she made an honest mistake...being human and making a mistake is part of that....what is sad is in this situation somebody had to die because of that mistake. But honestly she may have also saved others lives? Because had he made it back into the car there are so many things that come into play. I wonder had he been able to get in his car and was never shot... and drove off in a high speed.... and then hit some innocent family on the way home killing them all what would we all be saying now? Why didn't the cops do more when they had him pulled over...

I agree that we don't hear about the good things, with any of them and it is wrong.
Everything is magnified nowadays and we hear and see more.
I am on year 25 in teaching so I think I can speak to the changes in the last 25 years.
I think the changes are not as big as some want to make them.
My teachers said "don't go into coaching, parents aren't the same and kids aren't respectful."
Meaning that those same feelings were felt by the generation of teachers before me, and probably the generation before them felt the same way.
I was talking to a guy running for our school board, and he was complaining how our students are disrespectful and ten minutes later told me a story about how he got in trouble for almost setting a bus on fire on a roadtrip, all I could think was that we don't have any kids here doing that.
Lawless neighborhoods were around 40 years ago, we all knew to stay out of East St. Louis back then.
NWA - "F the police" is 33 years old now.

 

[r14veer]

Her taser was on the Left side...in the heat of the moment she grabbed her gun on the right side was my point. She clearly in a life threatening situation being right hand dominate went with Muscle memory and grabbed the wrong weapon. No malice and no intent. And No his outstanding warrants did not qualify him for death but resisting arrest trying to flee and having warrants for Violence coupled with his actions resulted in his death.

Clearly this Man was a Criminal with zero respect for the law or authority. And his actions of resisting 3 officers and trying to flee endangering the public as well is what led to his demise. I look at it like this if a person Eats Fast food every day and tops it off with Ice Cream and they eventually have a Coronary event I'm not the least bit surprised and darn well not blaming the Fast Food Joints or Baskin Robbins outlets. If you buck up against the Law and the People charged with enforcing it often enough and with Violence then you have to figure one day you are going to get the black Marble.

I think this is the prevailing attitude within the justice system and our culture at large. I'm not opposed to our system on principal, but when you look at results, well, we have terrible results. We have top 3, most years, recidivism rates. We might consider trying something else, even if it fails...because we are already failing:
https://www.encartele.net/2018/04/what-can-us-correctional-facilities-learn-from-scandinavian-jails/

At least one state is giving it a go, for good or ill: https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/07/north-dakota-norway-prisons-experiment/

Pronouncing someone a "Criminal," as if it is some fundamental personality trait or defect rather than a behavior they have engaged in is not productive to society at all. People can and do change. Even some people with pretty heinous crimes on their records. We've all broken the law in some way or another, caught or not caught. Most of us have put a lot of people's lives in danger as we were breaking the law without even a thought for their safety, focusing only on getting somewhere faster, consequences be damned. Maybe we should keep our stones to ourselves.

Having said all that, I don't believe this officer's actions were malicious. But negligence (if that is what happened) is also a criminally enforceable behavior.

 

[kaskaskiakid]

I guess my question is "Why do we release the body cam video to the public?"

Because of the Freedom of Information Act. The district attorney knows it will be made public eventually and want to appear transparent. I don't like the idea of police of controlling when body cam video is released either. Police can't always be trusted with evidence.

 

[3Rfan]

Her taser was on the Left side...in the heat of the moment she grabbed her gun on the right side was my point. She clearly in a life threatening situation being right hand dominate went with Muscle memory and grabbed the wrong weapon. No malice and no intent. And No his outstanding warrants did not qualify him for death but resisting arrest trying to flee and having warrants for Violence coupled with his actions resulted in his death.

Clearly this Man was a Criminal with zero respect for the law or authority. And his actions of resisting 3 officers and trying to flee endangering the public as well is what led to his demise. I look at it like this if a person Eats Fast food every day and tops it off with Ice Cream and they eventually have a Coronary event I'm not the least bit surprised and darn well not blaming the Fast Food Joints or Baskin Robbins outlets. If you buck up against the Law and the People charged with enforcing it often enough and with Violence then you have to figure one day you are going to get the black Marble.

In the heat of the moment she is trained to know that hell she's doing and she should have known she had a gun in her hand not a taser! She pointed it at him for what is a long time in that setting then pulled the trigger.
I have said forever if these people dld not resist most of them would go home that night, or at worst spend the night in jail, but the would not be dead. We have NO idea how many times this happened to people before cell videos and body cams came along. I'm sure its a lot but there was no proof so the police got the benefit of the doubt.

 

[MGHS]

I think this is the prevailing attitude within the justice system and our culture at large. I'm not opposed to our system on principal, but when you look at results, well, we have terrible results. We have top 3, most years, recidivism rates. We might consider trying something else, even if it fails...because we are already failing:
https://www.encartele.net/2018/04/what-can-us-correctional-facilities-learn-from-scandinavian-jails/

At least one state is giving it a go, for good or ill: https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2017/07/north-dakota-norway-prisons-experiment/

Pronouncing someone a "Criminal," as if it is some fundamental personality trait or defect rather than a behavior they have engaged in is not productive to society at all. People can and do change. Even some people with pretty heinous crimes on their records. We've all broken the law in some way or another, caught or not caught. Most of us have put a lot of people's lives in danger as we were breaking the law without even a thought for their safety, focusing only on getting somewhere faster, consequences be damned. Maybe we should keep our stones to ourselves.

Having said all that, I don't believe this officer's actions were malicious. But negligence (if that is what happened) is also a criminally enforceable behavior.

Actions make someone a criminal....when you bring violence to others in a effort to make a profit that is Criminal activity and makes you a Criminal. Also most Criminals age out of that type of activity around 38-45 years of age. So yes people can change.

Also you might want to look at the difference between violent crimes in America and those in Let's say Norway. The difference might be in the class of criminal that we put into the system as compared to the difference in how we approach the penal system. Often comparing small countries like Norway with the same Population as Missouri and about double it's size is not valid.

I'm not against trying a different approach but even using ND as a testing ground is a bit ludicrous as the population and Demographic of that state is not inline with the hot beds of Crime in America...They don't even have 1 million people in that state. And the biggest City in that state Fargo is smaller than Springfield Mo.

Now if we wanted to do a Valid test case I'd like to ship over maybe around 4,000 of our most violent offenders and see how their system pans out.....Norway has less than 4,000 prisoners total and slightly over 1,000 of those committed violent crimes. Let's load up the system like ours is and give them all Kush living conditions and see if they can afford it and if the outcome is the same once the resources are stretched thinner.

I'm not against going to that system if it works. But I have serious doubts if comparing Norway's Criminals to America's is even close to valid.

 

[MGHS]

In the heat of the moment she is trained to know that hell she's doing and she should have known she had a gun in her hand not a taser! She pointed it at him for what is a long time in that setting then pulled the trigger.
I have said forever if these people dld not resist most of them would go home that night, or at worst spend the night in jail, but the would not be dead. We have NO idea how many times this happened to people before cell videos and body cams came along. I'm sure its a lot but there was no proof so the police got the benefit of the doubt.

She roughly had the gun in her hand about 3-4 seconds..not a long time when a Life and death situation is happening in real time and your focus is on the criminal....... and yes she is trained but Training is not full proof the human element is always a factor and mistakes happen.

I mean Doctors are trained to save lives and they fail all the time in that regard do to mistakes . Fire Fighters are trained to put out fires and Often times the buildings burn down and all they can do is contain the blaze and protect the surrounding buildings. Investors are trained to make money and often times they loose money for their clients and those losses are crippling. Teachers/Educators fail as well to educate or even make students functionally literate 43 million adults at this time are in that category......and guess what is one of the leading cause of Criminal behavior. Yeah Lack of education. And while a lot of that blame is on the parents and students....a equal share is on the educators.

But strangely we accept and make excuses for all those missteps by all those professions...but many when it comes to police officers who are in heated and deadly situations where their very life hangs in the balance show Zero quarter on any mistakes they make. Let's not forget most LEO have families at home waiting on them.

D.Wright would still be alive if he simply would of allowed himself to be cuffed and put in the Police Cruiser.

 

[kaskaskiakid]

Teachers/Educators fail as well to educate or even make students functionally literate 43 million adults at this time are in that category......and guess what is one of the leading cause of Criminal behavior. Yeah Lack of education. And while a lot of that blame is on the parents and students....a equal share is on the educators.

OK, but let's blame the social studies teachers specifically for not teaching kids that they shouldn't drive with expired plates and 2 outstanding arrest warrants, and then resist arrest and attempt to speed away with officers hanging on the car. Shame on social studies teacher. As a PE teacher, that lesson was not part of my curriculum, and therefore I was not required to teach it.

I think MGHS has a share of the blame since he is a social worker in an urban area. As he likes to remind us, he deals with many impoverished and dysfunctional families. He should be able to turn their lives around. Yeah, lack of competent social workers!!

 

[HomeyR]

She roughly had the gun in her hand about 3-4 seconds..not a long time when a Life and death situation is happening in real time and your focus is on the criminal....... and yes she is trained but Training is not full proof the human element is always a factor and mistakes happen.

I mean Doctors are trained to save lives and they fail all the time in that regard do to mistakes . Fire Fighters are trained to put out fires and Often times the buildings burn down and all they can do is contain the blaze and protect the surrounding buildings. Investors are trained to make money and often times they loose money for their clients and those losses are crippling. Teachers/Educators fail as well to educate or even make students functionally literate 43 million adults at this time are in that category......and guess what is one of the leading cause of Criminal behavior. Yeah Lack of education. And while a lot of that blame is on the parents and students....a equal share is on the educators.

But strangely we accept and make excuses for all those missteps by all those professions...but many when it comes to police officers who are in heated and deadly situations where their very life hangs in the balance show Zero quarter on any mistakes they make. Let's not forget most LEO have families at home waiting on them.

D.Wright would still be alive if he simply would of allowed himself to be cuffed and put in the Police Cruiser.

What a load of crap !

 

[r14veer]

Actions make someone a criminal....when you bring violence to others in a effort to make a profit that is Criminal activity and makes you a Criminal. Also most Criminals age out of that type of activity around 38-45 years of age. So yes people can change.

Also you might want to look at the difference between violent crimes in America and those in Let's say Norway. The difference might be in the class of criminal that we put into the system as compared to the difference in how we approach the penal system. Often comparing small countries like Norway with the same Population as Missouri and about double it's size is not valid.

I'm not against trying a different approach but even using ND as a testing ground is a bit ludicrous as the population and Demographic of that state is not inline with the hot beds of Crime in America...They don't even have 1 million people in that state. And the biggest City in that state Fargo is smaller than Springfield Mo.

Now if we wanted to do a Valid test case I'd like to ship over maybe around 4,000 of our most violent offenders and see how their system pans out.....Norway has less than 4,000 prisoners total and slightly over 1,000 of those committed violent crimes. Let's load up the system like ours is and give them all Kush living conditions and see if they can afford it and if the outcome is the same once the resources are stretched thinner.

I'm not against going to that system if it works. But I have serious doubts if comparing Norway's Criminals to America's is even close to valid.

You're right about Norway having far less prisoners, but I doubt it's because they're just inherently nicer. Our justice and prison system isn't the root problem here, though it does have its issues.

Norway doesn't have massive concentrations of poverty like we do nor is their income inequality even close to ours. People living in relative comfort just don't commit crimes at the rates that people living in poverty do. That's the real answer, rather than just a wholesale changeover to the Norwegian prison system: reduce income inequality and I guarantee we will see a commensurate reduction in all types of crime.

Also, maybe we shouldn't be imprisoning people for many of the things we imprison them for. There are other ways we can deal with behaviors that we have deemed crimes (somewhat arbitrarily in many cases).

 

[3Rfan]

She roughly had the gun in her hand about 3-4 seconds..not a long time when a Life and death situation is happening in real time and your focus is on the criminal....... and yes she is trained but Training is not full proof the human element is always a factor and mistakes happen.

I mean Doctors are trained to save lives and they fail all the time in that regard do to mistakes . Fire Fighters are trained to put out fires and Often times the buildings burn down and all they can do is contain the blaze and protect the surrounding buildings. Investors are trained to make money and often times they loose money for their clients and those losses are crippling. Teachers/Educators fail as well to educate or even make students functionally literate 43 million adults at this time are in that category......and guess what is one of the leading cause of Criminal behavior. Yeah Lack of education. And while a lot of that blame is on the parents and students....a equal share is on the educators.

But strangely we accept and make excuses for all those missteps by all those professions...but many when it comes to police officers who are in heated and deadly situations where their very life hangs in the balance show Zero quarter on any mistakes they make. Let's not forget most LEO have families at home waiting on them.

D.Wright would still be alive if he simply would of allowed himself to be cuffed and put in the Police Cruiser.

That was very dumb comparison. I do believe I said he would be alive had he done that but I've never walked in his shoes. Even if it's way over blown young black people these days have heard and seen so much of this they are scared to death now. Pointing a GUN at somebody for 3 or 4 seconds should be enough time to realize is NOT a taser.

 

[MGHS]

What a load of crap !

Really watch the video...it has a time stamp you can count along with....

 

[MGHS]

You're right about Norway having far less prisoners, but I doubt it's because they're just inherently nicer. Our justice and prison system isn't the root problem here, though it does have its issues.

Norway doesn't have massive concentrations of poverty like we do nor is their income inequality even close to ours. People living in relative comfort just don't commit crimes at the rates that people living in poverty do. That's the real answer, rather than just a wholesale changeover to the Norwegian prison system: reduce income inequality and I guarantee we will see a commensurate reduction in all types of crime.

Also, maybe we shouldn't be imprisoning people for many of the things we imprison them for. There are other ways we can deal with behaviors that we have deemed crimes (somewhat arbitrarily in many cases).

I 100% agree that poverty and the role models and culture that exist in Poverty keeps the train chugging along creating more of the same, break the cycle and things get better. Now how you go about changing that is the rub.....Gov. hand outs and freebies do not reduce the culture of poverty and the issues that come with it.

I would say the criminals in Norway are not near as violent...they only had 31 homicides in 2020....and that was the highest rate in 7 years....American averages around 46 per day. We will have to disagree on the Violent range of Norway's Criminals compared to American Criminals. Norway also has some weird labeling of violent crimes...prostitution, begging and exploitation of family members are put under the category of violence crimes. From what I can glean from the data is that Norway doesn't have the organized crime, drug related crime, and violence in their criminals that we have in America.

So why I am for Prison reform and such, I'm not sure that Norway's model is going to be as effective here as it is there.

 

[r14veer]

I 100% agree that poverty and the role models and culture that exist in Poverty keeps the train chugging along creating more of the same, break the cycle and things get better. Now how you go about changing that is the rub.....Gov. hand outs and freebies do not reduce the culture of poverty and the issues that come with it.

I would say the criminals in Norway are not near as violent...they only had 31 homicides in 2020....and that was the highest rate in 7 years....American averages around 46 per day. We will have to disagree on the Violent range of Norway's Criminals compared to American Criminals. Norway also has some weird labeling of violent crimes...prostitution, begging and exploitation of family members are put under the category of violence crimes. From what I can glean from the data is that Norway doesn't have the organized crime, drug related crime, and violence in their criminals that we have in America.

So why I am for Prison reform and such, I'm not sure that Norway's model is going to be as effective here as it is there.

I certainly don't think it would be effective if it were just plopped in here without the needed economic supports preceding it by probably at least a decade, maybe longer.

 

[MGHS]

I agree if we could fix the poverty issue...the criminality culture would diminish and that approach could be effective because the class of criminal would be similar. But American approach has always been to just throw money at a problem and expect it to magically disappear. That is why the war on poverty has been about as effective as the war on drugs.

 

[bullitpdq68]

I agree if we could fix the poverty issue...the criminality culture would diminish and that approach could be effective because the class of criminal would be similar. But American approach has always been to just throw money at a problem and expect it to magically disappear. That is why the war on poverty has been about as effective as the war on drugs.

I think the war on drugs and poverty go hand and hand and one is probable the root cause of the other. And also our society sets people up to fail, with or reward and punishment system....
Example a man gets a job after being out of work for months... goes to work but because they have been out of work they had to make a decision either food on the table or tag the car. So now he has a job going to work and gets pulled over for expired tags....has a bench warrant for some other small crime maybe drug possession ... So now he goes to jail doesn't make it to work the next day and is fired.... These sort of things play out all over our country everyday. It is a cycle...I think that is why many give up on getting a job.

 

[MGHS]

If you lose your job you get Unemployment benefits, EBT card, you can go to the Local food banks, Churches and the many other public and private resources America has for the Poor and out of work.

As I have pointed out I worked Income Maintenance for years and the Poor always have money for Cigs/Booze/Drugs and Weirdly Cell Phones,cable/Sat TV,Video games. and IntraWeb service, often wearing nice name brand clothing and heck they even get Section 8 housing and not to mention healthcare for free.

I mean Example A: come on Duante Wright had money for a Gun, Cell Phone, Web service, Drugs and such are you saying he couldn't pony up at most 30-50 bucks to pay his tag fee is naive.

https://i0.wp.com/www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/dante-wright-gang-signs-gun.jpg?resize=720%2C720&ssl=1

Maybe sale the Air Jordans and get money for the tags.

And yes living is about rewards and consequences.....everyone has equal opportunity but not equal outcome. That is life. As it should be. People should Fail and do fail, not everyone can be a success, to say other wise is pure lies.

As I've stated over and over a Culture of irresponsibility, lazyness and shiftlessness has blanketed the poor. The By Product is the Drug trade and the easy and fast money that comes with it.

It's much harder to get a education, develop a legit job skill, work 40-60 hrs a week for a starting/entry level wage than to sell Meth out of the trailer park or deal coke/heroin on the Street corner. I get why a lot of the Poor do it because it's easy and fast money and the other path is much harder and longer and takes a strong work ethic, which the poor use to have because it was the only way out of poverty.

But long term the easy Drug lifestyle leads to nothing but misery and the continued cycle. The Gov. and Society even makes it easier because we give out freebies that alleviates the responsibility of people needing to provide for their own basic needs. Get you some Section 8 housing....EBT/Foodstamps....Medicaid.....Energy Assistance.....AFDC......that covers housing, food, Health, Utilities and a Cash Payment......

But hey if you want to 100% blame the system that is your right.....But giving up a job because you did and had illegal drugs in 100% on you, as is not taking care of the bench warrant is on you.....not using some of your unemployment benefits to keep up to date tags is also on you.

 

[kaskaskiakid]

The rule use to be if you got fired, you cannot get unemployment for 6 weeks. Not sure about now.

 

[MGHS]

The rule use to be if you got fired, you cannot get unemployment for 6 weeks. Not sure about now.

22 days is the average....unless their is a issue to investigate and then it can take 4-6 weeks.