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: Governing Through Crime

Living the War on Crime

By Jonathan Simor

The traditional left critique is to see the war on crime and governing through crime as exclusively about governing the poor. I've always argued that the real significance of governing through crime is its hold on middle class life. Thanks to Warren Rosenblum for this dispatch from Nancy Cambria's reporting in the St. Louis Dispatch:WENTZVILLE ? The trampoline outside the model home sits idle without a child insight ? and so does the patio's kid-sized table scattered with storybooksincluding Bambi and The Poky Little Puppy.From the vantage point of the home's surveillance camera, one might wonder,Where did the children go? Did the monitor in the kitchen just show a strangecar driving down the street?In a home with ample views of cows grazing in a nearby farm, child abductionscenarios might seem like the wrong sales pitch for a new subdivision inWentzville ? a city where the murder rate last year was zero and violent crimeat the hands of a stranger is nearly nonexistent...continue to full post

Full post as published by Governing Through Crime on September 10, 2008 (boomark / email).