From: turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: On violence in America today.
Date: 5 Jan 1993 02:46:16 GMT
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Summary: We do not even address the cause,
	 so we cannot cure the problem.
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

[Moderator's note: make sure to keep followups relevant to feminism.
Other posts will be redirected to the appropriate talk.politics group.
 - MB]

-*----
In a previous post, I referred to the fact that most American
citizens have fantasy notions about the causes and possible cures
of current violence in our society.  Let me tell some true
history.  Once upon a time in America, the cities were a
dangerous place where rival gangs continually warred over
territory.  Young men were inculcated into an ethos of violence,
resulting in a criminal class many of whom for the rest of their
lives raped, robbed, and killed.  At the time, innocent
bystanders were often killed by stray machine gun bullets and
poorly laid bombs with which these gangs fought.  In a very real
sense, America was embroiled in an internal war.  1992?  No,
1929.  The homicide rate was higher than at any time in our
history except for a couple of years in the 1980s that were just
a *small* bit higher.

Two years later, the murder rate was *halved* and other crimes of
violence had similarly plunged.  While many of the career
criminals born from that war continued to wreak violence, America
began several decades where *internal* violence was *much* less
than what prevailed in 1929 and much less than what prevails now.
What happened?  Very simply, we ended the war.  Prohibition was
repealed and it was once again safe to walk the streets in
American cities.

Any discussion of the causes of current violence that does not
directly address the current drug war is much like a discussion
of the causes of malarial fever that does not mention mosquitos and 
parasitic microorganisms; in short, stupid in the extreme.

To some extent, this is true even when discussing violence
seemingly unrelated to the drug wars, such as rape.  There are
two reasons for this.  First, there are some direct causal links
are rarely noted.  As with all wars, rape becomes another kind of
weapon.  Today we see rapes committed as initiation into the
gangs, and as acts of gang vengeance.  (Austin's most recent
rape, of a sixteen year-old girl, was of this sort.)  Second,
there is an important indirect connection.  Rape is more
prevalent when there are more men inculcated into violence and
for whom violence has become a natural means of action.  If one
responds to economic competition or business treachery by
casually murdering one's rival, then raping a woman who has
angered one is not a large leap.  The drug war is not a war
fought on battle fields with rules of engagement, but a messy
civil war fought on the streets where most rules have been thrown
out the window.  In such wars, rapes are one side effect.  (I do
not mean to suggest that *most* rapes can be laid at the feet of
the drug war.  For this crime, the war is probably just a large
secondary factor.  But the war is the primary cause of the
general violence in our society and a significant secondary cause
of rape.)

The current situation is quite sad.  Most discussion of violence
in this society ignores its primary cause.  It is a war that is
popular, but that cannot be won.  Until we end the war, the
violence will continue, yet ending the war is impossible in the
current political environment.  Ignorant and cowardly politicians
cause the violence to continue.  These politicians are followed by
a majority of citizens who are ignorant and jingoistic in their
support of the war.  The war is prosecuted by police who are
either corrupt and dishonest or who are blind in their zealotry,
and who, in either case, directly profit from the war.

There has been a lot of discussion of current violence in this
newsgroup, but no one has yet said "let's do the *one* thing that
will have the most effect in bringing peace to our streets; let's
end the drug war."  Until one does this, one resembles a person
who complains about being too wet, but who refuses to leave the
swimming pool.  Unless you oppose the drug war, you are helping
to create the violence in which you now live.  Unless you oppose
the drug war, you are ignoring the problem, and have little room
for complaint.  

(If you *support* the drug war, then you help put the bullet in
your daughter's head, the gang on your street, and the rapist in
your bedroom.  I am sick of this violence that you help create,
and I will not pity you when the blood on your hands makes its
way into your life.)

Russell



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