Crime | Punishment | Policing

Crime and policing in America has been a well known subject of conflict for a long time.
While crime is an extremely complex topic, we should still try to dissect the reasons for its existence.

The streets of some major cities are clean and while others remain crime-ridden.

The question is, why?

Questions to ponder:

• Do you feel that our society is more protecting of criminals than law-abiding citizens?
• Are liberal cities more crime-ridden than conservative ones? (What stats & how do we measure?)
• Why do blacks in the United States have the highest crime rate per capita of all the races?
• Do police actually treat blacks unfairly?
• Do illegal immigrants tend to commit more crime?
• Why some cities release repeat offenders?
• What causes uptick in crime?
• What causes reduction in crime?
• Do you believe that all races of criminals are viewed equally among the police?
• What can crime reveal about the problems of society?
• Why do some states and cites seem to have catch and release?
• Why do some states have a more strict punishment for crimes?
• Are we being too soft or too tough on crime? (Explain your arguments)
• Do you support the police?
• Should we defund the police? Why or why not?
• Does the police require more training? (If so, what and how?)
• Is the police being expected to do way too much?
• How does legalizing gun ownership change crime stats?
• How can narratives manipulate crime stats?
• How should protests be dealt with?
• How should riots be dealt with?
• When does a protest become a riot?
• Which race of people were mainly responsible for anti-Asian hate during covid?
• Do you support BLM? (Why or why not?)
• Why did George Floyd get so much attention but not other similar cases?
• Do you support the death penalty?
• Do you have personal encounters with law enforcement and how did it go?
• What are somethings that you like about our police system?
• What are things that pisses you off about our police system?
• How can technology help or discriminate in the process of law enforcement and trials?
• Would we be safer in a high surveillance society like China?
• What are your thoughts on the Social Credit System?
• Let's explore why some places get more violent crimes and why some places get more petty crimes.
• Is a crimeless society ever possible? (Modern examples and or possible solutions?)

Guidelines:

• If your name on Zoom does not match your Zoom name, you will be removed or not admitted.
• Hand raises are required. There are no limits on how many times you can raise your hand.
• There will be a 2-3 minute timer for every person depending the size of attendees. However, in this group, I do allow a brief back and fourth interjection from others if it's something that's related to the person who was just speaking. This is a way to prevent the group from feeling too "robotic" in style and get your pressing question asked to the speaker and get the answer right away without waiting all the way back to your turn again.
• Be authentic & civil!
• Please refrain from using Ad Hominem (personal) attacks. This includes in voice, in meeting chat, and in the comments section below. Instead, please attack the points from others. Severe Ad Hominem such as racist behavior will result in being removed from the meeting.
• Zoom link is posted well before the day of the meeting but you will not be able to join until 10 minutes before the meeting start time.