FBI director's speech at U. Chicago Law School

This is an egregiously editorialized title.

<i>I spoke to officers privately in one big city precinct who described being surrounded by young people with mobile phone cameras held high, taunting them the moment they get out of their cars. They told me, “We feel like we’re under siege and we don’t feel much like getting out of our cars.”</i><p>Even if this were true, it wouldn&#x27;t mean the blame lies with those holding the video cameras. If you, a police officer, are scared of being watched by those you police, of having your actions with those citizens recorded, maybe the way you approach your community needs to change.

&quot;Each drug dealer, each mugger, each killer, and each felon with a gun had his own lawyer, his own case, his own time before judge and jury, his own sentencing, and, in many cases, an appeal or other post-sentencing review.&quot;<p>This statement is demonstratively incorrect, given how the accused tend to be pushed hard from all directions to accept a plea deal and skip judge, jury and sentencing.

[0] includes a segment about Richmond, CA&#x27;s program to reduce violent crime. I wasn&#x27;t particularly interested in the ethics of &quot;paying criminals not to commit crime&quot;, but rather how such a small group of people were responsible for so much of it. If I remember the segment correctly, the first group of participants (few enough to fit around a table in a conference room) were believed to be responsible for over half the crime in the city.<p>[1] is similar. A single handgun is believed to have been used in ten shootings in Seattle (and I think there have been more added to that number since then), so SPD were investing quite a lot of effort in trying to find the possessors of that one firearm.<p>0: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thisamericanlife.org&#x2F;radio-archives&#x2F;episode&#x2F;555&#x2F;the-incredible-rarity-of-changing-your-mind" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thisamericanlife.org&#x2F;radio-archives&#x2F;episode&#x2F;555&#x2F;t...</a><p>1: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;spdblotter.seattle.gov&#x2F;2015&#x2F;07&#x2F;16&#x2F;police-looking-for-gunmen-pistol-tied-to-ten-shootings&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;spdblotter.seattle.gov&#x2F;2015&#x2F;07&#x2F;16&#x2F;police-looking-for-...</a>

Some entertaining bits:<p><i>Each drug dealer, each mugger, each killer, and each felon with a gun had his own lawyer, his own case, his own time before judge and jury, his own sentencing, and, in many cases, an appeal or other post-sentencing review.</i><p>Then again, it&#x27;s pretty common knowledge that public defenders are woefully understaffed, overworked, and underfunded.<p><i>The young men dying on street corners all across this country are not committing suicide or being shot by the cops. They are being killed, police chiefs tell me, by other young men with guns.</i><p>Except when, you know, we&#x27;ve got a lot of documentation where they very much are being shot by the cops. Pesky fact, that.<p><i>Lives are saved when those potential killers are confronted by a strong police presence and actual, honest-to-goodness, up-close “What are you guys doing on this corner at one o’clock in the morning?” policing</i><p>How much of this sort of policing happens nowadays? How much is cops intervening without throwing the book or calling in reinforcements?

We are in deep trouble if this is the kind of simpleton that makes policy at the FBI.<p><i>Although we have come far as a nation, we still have weed-choked neighborhoods.</i><p><i>Lives are saved when those potential killers are confronted by a strong police presence and actual, honest-to-goodness, up-close “What are you guys doing on this corner at one o’clock in the morning?” policing.</i><p>NYCs stop and frisk was found to have zero correlation to crime outcomes.

Once again, HN surprises me with its open-mindedness.<p>If you read this and feel strong emotional disagreement, one way to manage that emotion productively is to imagine yourself in the room with the speaker, and try to express your perspective in the way you&#x27;d find most likely to convince.<p>Another way to say that: the way to productively disagree is to talk <i>to</i> your opponent, not <i>at</i> your opponent.

Given the number of criminals I see on the streets, I certainly wouldn&#x27;t call the US&#x27;s current situation &quot;mass incarceration&quot;.<p>I would say the US has a shockingly massive crime problem.