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lilstarbies 's review for:
The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell
I've been meaning to read some of Gladwell's works for a while now and have finally taken the plunge.
The only thing I had a disagreement with was his point on the broken window policy. Well, actually, I don't really disagree - it's just that...I feel what was once a really good thing - cracking down on little crime to slow down bigger more serious crimes, well it worked.
But at some point, it's like the policy changed. Previously, it seems, they would be very passive - they'd let the people get into the subway for free, then get them. They'd let the kids spend three days putting graffiti on the cars, but they'd paint over it before it would be seen. This passive method seemed to work out really well.
The problem I have now, is it doesn't work like this anymore. Now the police are aggressive, they target certain groups, to try and prevent anything bad from happening. This breeds distrusts from the citizens. They used to feel like the police were keeping them safe, making sure those who didn't pay their fare got caught, those that graffiti'd the subway would get caught - y'know, keeping undesirable things from happening around them. But at some point, people didn't feel that way anymore, instead of being happy to see police - they started to get nervous - they no longer felt they were being protected by police, but instead targetted by them. Compounding that with the excessive force by police frequently being used on minorities & the unfair & harsh sentences esp. for minorities has led to some serious issues that need to be addressed.
The broken window policy, sounds like, it used to work.
What we have today is something else entirely. Now, it seems, we give officers the green light to harass the citizens & the police have no true oversight when using excessive force with those they've harassed. You literally have police getting away with killing those they've been harassing with no punishement.
Okay, I seemed to have gotten off on a siderant. My apologies.
It was a really good book, and I will most definitely be picking up more written by Gladwell in the future.
P.S. I lied. There was one more thing that bothered me. It was that I felt Gladwell did not really feel that what Bernhard Goetz did was very wrong. To me it seemed INSANELY WRONG, and it very much came off that Goetz was looking for a fight that day - much like George Zimmerman was the night he killed Travyon Martin. In fact, I was sickened by the parallels I saw between the two men - Goetz and Zimmerman. *shivers*
The only thing I had a disagreement with was his point on the broken window policy. Well, actually, I don't really disagree - it's just that...I feel what was once a really good thing - cracking down on little crime to slow down bigger more serious crimes, well it worked.
But at some point, it's like the policy changed. Previously, it seems, they would be very passive - they'd let the people get into the subway for free, then get them. They'd let the kids spend three days putting graffiti on the cars, but they'd paint over it before it would be seen. This passive method seemed to work out really well.
The problem I have now, is it doesn't work like this anymore. Now the police are aggressive, they target certain groups, to try and prevent anything bad from happening. This breeds distrusts from the citizens. They used to feel like the police were keeping them safe, making sure those who didn't pay their fare got caught, those that graffiti'd the subway would get caught - y'know, keeping undesirable things from happening around them. But at some point, people didn't feel that way anymore, instead of being happy to see police - they started to get nervous - they no longer felt they were being protected by police, but instead targetted by them. Compounding that with the excessive force by police frequently being used on minorities & the unfair & harsh sentences esp. for minorities has led to some serious issues that need to be addressed.
The broken window policy, sounds like, it used to work.
What we have today is something else entirely. Now, it seems, we give officers the green light to harass the citizens & the police have no true oversight when using excessive force with those they've harassed. You literally have police getting away with killing those they've been harassing with no punishement.
Okay, I seemed to have gotten off on a siderant. My apologies.
It was a really good book, and I will most definitely be picking up more written by Gladwell in the future.
P.S. I lied. There was one more thing that bothered me. It was that I felt Gladwell did not really feel that what Bernhard Goetz did was very wrong. To me it seemed INSANELY WRONG, and it very much came off that Goetz was looking for a fight that day - much like George Zimmerman was the night he killed Travyon Martin. In fact, I was sickened by the parallels I saw between the two men - Goetz and Zimmerman. *shivers*