Okay so here it is. My thoughts on the murder and then the stand off that occurred the other day.
First lets start by making it clear regardless what people have said neither of these men or were good people. Both had criminal records a mile long.
The murder most likely took place because of money and or drugs. It happened in a part of town that is well known for drugs sales.
One thing I think that needs to happen is a some kind of program/law that makes it mandatory that landlords do criminal background checks on all people interested in renting from them. Depending on the check they get it or don’t. If the background check has one case of drugs, abuse, murder, assault, ect.. They don’t get the place.
Please don’t try to tell me this is discrimination it is not. It is watching out for your self and the community in which you live in. This would stop a lot of the unwanted people come here and all towns.
Also promote Duluth in a positive light. One that is uplifting but not over welcoming to those that will cause major pain to our people and our town. I have had more people tell me horror stories about how Duluth is presented as a place to go when you get out of jail.
I am okay with hand up’s but not hand out’s. Hand up’s help people out of poverty and crime well hand out’s just in crease poverty an crime.
5 comments:
Your link of facebook to your blog needs to be fixed. I tend to agree with your comment, however there should be some exception like requiring 2 convictions before rent is denied.
Interesting thought's John, but your ideas need further expanding. You say you agree with hand-up's but not hand-out's, but then say landlords should not rent to those with spent convictions. What is the alternative plan? where do these people go?
Step one in solving political and social ill's, is to identify the problem, but then we need to look at the root cause, and investigate the possible solutions. If the law you suggest were implemented, with no further measures, the problem wouldn't even be addressed. At best it would just be pushed on to another town or state.
I at one time had a next door neighbor who had spent time in prison for murder (a crime of passion). He was actually a good guy and a good neighbor.
John, I certainly think a landlord has a right to refuse to rent to someone based on their criminal record, but I am not sure if I would support a law that required landlords to refuse to rent to people with criminal records. You are talking about people who have supposedly served their time, or they would not be free to be looking for a place to rent. John, where would you have these people live?
John, I don't know what you mean exactly with the handouts versus hand ups comment. It sounds good, but how do you translate it to policy? I think it is very likely that programs that help people move up cost more than programs that just distribute food and money to the poor. There is a strong correlation between poverty and crime. There are not very many people who grew up in upper-middle class neighborhoods in prison. Are they better people by birth or is there something else going on? I guess I would like to see a massive investment in education, especially for children who live in poverty.
Regarding your thoughts about background checks for renters...do you feel a misdemeanor possession of pot should prevent a perhaps otherwise outstanding community member from having a place to live? How about a DUI?. Even persons convicted of sexual assault need a place to live, unless we should just kill them because we fear them. One time offenders need to be dealt with on a case by case basis. I agree with garry fabb that the problems are not addressed at the source. Many of the "people coming from Chicago and Detroit" have been raised in environments totally different from our more traditional lifestyles, and this is where I think the conservatives' mindset falls down. There does not seem to be an understanding of learned behavior. Please forgive the stereotypes...If a child is raised in a home where the big sister is a crack ho and so is mama in spite of working two jobs, daddy's not around, big brother is doing time for jacking a Camry or gangbanging, the entire neighborhood is like that, and there seems to be no way out but get in on the action, what values can a reasonable person expect from such despair? And this is from one generation to the next. Yes I am a liberal who recognizes that we are products of our environments to a large degree, that does not excuse anyone's behavior...ultimately we are responsible for our actions and attitudes. The neocon attitude of Fuck 'em is easy to get caught up in...it erases society's responsibility, placing everything on the individual's shoulders, not acknowledging that those shoulders may simply not be capable of carrying the load because of learned behavior. Those of us lucky enough to be raised in a loving family setting may have a hard time understanding what less fortunate people have faced growing up to adulthood. The welfare system has an unofficial word for certain types of cases..."throw-away kids"...they're doomed before adulthood, jerked around by their parents, nature, the system, maybe all three. Minorities are especially susceptible to being throw-away. Sorry for getting longwinded, some good comments of this thread.
Thank you everyone for your comments so far. This is what I wanted with this post. Let's talk about what may or may not work. Keep it up.
Let me calify a couple of things. I sure don's believe that one there should be more then one voilation of the law. I however think that the limit should be low, 2 or 3. Second I am talking about muders, rap, sexual assult, these types of crime.
As far as were these people should live, prision. Now I am talking your repetes. I have seen and heard it to many times that the sytem programs don't work. If these people want to do it they will contunie. I have also heard and seen success stories. I am glad that some people want to change. Being involved in boy scouts ( now many year ago.) I got a chance to see programs work on some and not others. You want to have to want to change. That starts with you. Well programs try to make you feel better about your self you need to make it happen. It is sad but many don't.
Yes I understand that for some people it may take time, have a closed house where people live then that are working on programs.
As far as a law yes I understand that there would have to work down on the idea. I was tossing out for discussion and I hope it brings more talk about the issue and what can be done about it.
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