Grace O'Malley wrote:
So what's the TRUTH?
.....What are the FACTS?
.......What do the most recent crime stats say?
It seems a simple question.
Perhaps there are no simple answers. Perhaps the issue is so complicated that only those who work for the City really understand its complexity.
What is truth? When is crime a crime? Whose facts? Whose numbers? How do you count? What do you count? And if you count aren't you just reducing human contact into a series of impersonal numbers?
Perhaps we are asking too much.
If a car is stolen is it really stolen? Is it graffiti or is it art? Is is disrupting a classroom or is it acting out cultural norms? Who's to say?
As America becomes one vast multicultural mosaic we must realize that one man's, women's, GLBSGDFRQT, crime, is anothers equally valid lifestyle choice.
When New York City was on it's death bed and its public buildings covered with graffiti there were many who defended the decline as "an expansion of lifestyle choices" and the graffiti as "popular art". Were they wrong? Who's to say?
One mans, woman's, GLBSGDFRQT, crime zone is anothers art district. Who are we to judge?
Perhaps the entire City is on its way to becoming one vast arts district. Where some see decline others see transmortification. The mind spins at all the complexity.