1. John “always has a puss on his face” Pocious, the self proclaimed maverick, who keeps Mayor Doherty on his NEXTEL speedial, is the FIRST councilperson to complain about any sort of unprofessional-ism (as a way to attack Gary) but yet he will sit on council inattentive and read a magazine, make unsympathetic faces, and habitually yawn during citizen participation. And when a comment interrupts his daydream and he comes to attention, he spews out arrogant one-liners AFTER the citizen sits down. He purports the image of being a neighborhood philanthropist (as if there are many needy citizens in Minooka) as a member of his local Lions Club International; yet he is like Robbin Hood Ronald Reagan when it comes to the community’s MOST dispossessed.
2. I love J.B. Davis. He is my sentimental favorite (although my intellect goes with Andy Spralageria!!). The so-called crime crisis has to be reexamined and looked at in its context—temporal and spatial (locally, nationally, and internationally). The data that is used to back up the accusations of ever-increasing crime is state police data (UCRS) that only records REPORTED crimes. The problem is that NOT all crime is reported to police. Some districts report more crime, i.e. some police dist feel like doing the paper work. Some police are nice enough to honor ‘stay out of jail free cards’ awarded by the FOP. Other dist are better at finding crime: note how much crime is being uncovered now that Southside is under strict scrutiny. No doubt murder and bank robbery is very accurate, but note that 90 percent of all crime is domestic within the household. Victimimization surveys, researchers tell us, are best suited to measure crime, although they too are problematic in determining a rate of crime.
Nevertheless, if we can assume for a moment that indeed the roof is falling and crime is forever increasing then I caution you that it’s too soon conclude the increase of crime is a long-term trend. As much as I despise the Mayor, it’s unjust that we hold him or his cronies personally accountable for the so-called increase in crime. There are many other variables—regional, national and international-- that MUST be considered for this increase. I’d be the first person to blame, trust me. But we must not ignore other variables.
I sympathize with the concern of crime, but I don’t think police are the answer. My fear is that “we need many more police and everywhere” populism is going to do more harm than good. Sure, adding police will (hopefully) satisfy citizen fear. And increased fear coupled with the additional police will increase police bargaining power. But adding more police comes at expense of more speed traps (just think—they want to use radar), frequent stops (currently happening to Southside residents) and unreasonable hassle—This is especially going to hurt those of us one or two nodes outside the network who are not fortunate enough to own the “stay out of jail” free cards awarded by the FOP. But overall, adding more police is only going to UNCOVER more crime, not prevent it. (And if you think a juiced up police force are a deterrent then Sao Paulo, Brazil ought to be the safest city on earth.).
Personally, my hunch is that the crime issue is a moral panic started by moral entrepreneurs who are benefiting from a very volatile moment. Think of the actors that benefit from crime, and the fear of crime. I also think the black people that moved out of their controlled, Scranton public housing, as well as the influx of black out-of-towners, who must have read the ‘come to Scranton’ and ‘Lackawanna Wonderful’ promotional ads, are making white residents VERY uneasy as they penetrate into predominantly white-working class neighborhoods.
3. Communities fight crime, and solidarity prevents it in many ways. As for “JRB” and other local gangs, J.B. Davis is correct. Increasing police surveillance, a short-term solution, isn’t going to solve the long-term problem. Sure, more police and a zealous juvenile D.A. may add to the carceral Keynesianism and create more work for guards at the state and local prisons. But police are not going to CURE the gang problem. Community solidarity, as J.B. Davis suggested, is important because it gives youth IDENTITY. Youth gangs as we know them have proliferated since the early 1970’s. Interestingly enough, they began to proliferate at a time when the U.S. began to descend from economic-political hegemony (finance, production) signified with the struggle in Vietnam, the collapse of Bretton Woods and “de-industrialization”. Furthermore, neoliberal polity, signified with the ideals of Reagan and Thatcher, and neoliberal globalization, a thrust against nation-state autonomy, began in the early 1970’s. This project has demanded a roll back of the welfare state, liberalization of the economy, and the dismantling of the protectionist structures of the 1929-1972 era.
In much simpler terms, Scranton, the U.S. and the world have radically changed since the 1970’s. We are no longer the industrial power, and the identity of the ‘American’ is in crisis. Schools and parents reared children with the assumption that industrial work of some sort would be available when it was time for their children to enter the workforce. The Fordist-Keynsian social compact has crumbled; and this phenomena we often call globalization is creating a feeling among everyone, youth especially, that they don’t have any control over their destiny. In other words, this new era has created a sense of powerlessness. The factory is not there; and the future is increasingly uncertain. As it stands, the prison is the institution of the future.
Furthermore, the uncertainty in the world is creating an identity crisis all over the globe. We see fundamentalism of different sorts ( in the middle east as much as in the Industrial North—U.S. included) as a response to this identity crisis. Many dispossessed children are finding identity in gangs. The invading drug culture and the ‘code of the streets’ are giving children a sense of identity and some empowerment over their own destiny. Youth are finding solidarity in gangs because civil-society (neighborhoods, schools and various public recreations) doesn’t offer it. And yet we search for short-term causes (the Mayor and a decrease in the police force) and offer only short-term (increased police), after the fact solutions (the prison).
