The tragedy is that the police and inner city communities should be allies. Who suffers most from violent crime in America? Inner city communities. Who has a personal and professional interest in lowering that violence? Cops.
Don WinslowRead
When you criminalize something, only criminals can deal with it. When criminals deal with it, there's no recourse to law, so there's only recourse to violence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Criminalizing an action pushes it into the hands of criminals, leading to violence and lack of legal resolution.
This quote by Don Winslow reflects on the consequences of criminalizing certain activities. It suggests that when behaviors are outlawed, individuals who engage in them are forced to interact with the criminal underworld, which often resorts to violent means for conflict resolution, as there is no legal framework available for justice or resolution. This creates a cycle of crime and violence that undermines the very purpose of the law.
Themes
CriminalizationViolenceLawJusticeRecourse
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on drug policy reform, this quote can highlight the failure of prohibition.
More from Don Winslow
All quotes βWe have contradictory expectations of police: We want to be perfectly safe and perfectly free. We want total security and total privacy. We want the bad guys stopped and the good guys unmolested. That's great for the consumer; try providing it.
Don WinslowRead
Police departments are always a reflection of the society that they serve. Is there such a thing as 'police culture?' Absolutely. Is that culture isolated form the surrounding society? Absolutely not.
Don WinslowRead
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