Crime fighters can be paid informers or volunteer heroes or hired employees . But no matter what you choose, you will have to first conquer yourself and become better than most people. Only then will you have the opportunity to personally challenge crime.
Over the past 35 years, New York has used at least three alternative methods of fighting crime. Unlike the police, the participants in these actions are little known and not always encouraged by the authorities. But like the police, these people rely on their civic position to protect the city from crime. And these people are a minority in the overall population of the city. This makes it possible to evaluate the concept of "citizen" differently. It is more than a legal term. It is a state of mind and brain.
Hired employees
The market economy truly reflects and satisfies the needs of New Yorkers. In 1990, the population of the Big Apple was 7,322,564 people.(1) At that time, 33,300 employees whose occupation is officially designated as "Investigation and Security Services" worked for the benefit of these people.(2) Thirty-four years later, the number of New Yorkers increased by almost 15% and reached 8,480,000 people.(3) During the same time, the number of people employed in the field of "Investigation and Security Services" almost doubled to 64,400 employees.
For comparison, the number of people whose occupation is officially designated as "Government" increased by only 4% over 34 years, from 608,200 to 632,800 employees. The number of people providing "Legal Services" increased by less than 1% from 82,100 to 87,500 people. (2) What is happening in the labor market clearly shows the great need of New Yorkers for people who can physically protect citizens from crime. The interest of citizens in officials or legal protection is much less. Demand gave birth to supply. Thus, the development of a separate sphere of the economy became an unexpected way to fight crime.
Volunteer heroes
But economic gain is not always the motive for fighting crime. Incredible! But some people are ready to do it on a voluntary basis and even against the wishes of the authorities. Such non-monetary motivation has a hidden motive. Namely. If you have ever successfully ensured the safety of someone's life, then you know the main secret of success in this matter. This secret is that you need to be a real citizen in order to overcome difficulties and put the safety of someone else's life above the safety of your own life. Life on the streets is filled with disgusting scenes that show us that real citizens are not enough. Have you forgotten the video from a light-rail car in Charlotte, North Carolina?(4) There, a man with a knife attacked a girl. Four men were sitting nearby. But none of them protected the girl or tried to detain the criminal!
It is impossible to eradicate such situations by means of a market economy. Industry does not produce real citizens. Real citizens are made by life on the streets, parents, family, friends, school teachers, sports coaches, the army, public organizations and many other factors. If there are people in the city who are engaged in raising the civic consciousness of citizens, then this is good! This will help reduce crime.
It seems that New York City has a lot of active public work in this area. This is evidenced by the large number of public organizations. In the greater New York City metro area, there are 1,626 public organizations whose activities are aimed at improving public safety. (5) However, almost all of these public organizations focus on protecting citizens from natural disasters, fires or AIDS, help search for missing people or provide medical assistance. There are almost no public organizations that focus on combating crime. Only a few organizations are an exception. These include Atlantic Counter Trafficking, (6) and Guardian Angels. (7) Perhaps studying the history of the activities of one of these organizations will help understand why there are so few public organizations in New York that directly combat crime on the streets.
Guardian Angels, founded in 1979, is one of the few public organizations whose members have patrolled the streets and subways of New York City for decades to prevent crime. In the process of this work, several Guardian Angels members have been killed. Several dozen volunteers have been wounded, including the founder of the organization, Curtis Sliwa.(8)
The reaction of New York authorities to the activities of Guardian Angels has been contradictory. Over the 45-year history of the organization, officials have given negative and positive assessments of the activities(9) of Guardian Angels.
Although we will never know the true motives for such an ambiguous reaction of officials, we can assume that the true motives of the authorities' actions are in the deep essence of the state structure. Only the state has the right to use force! When citizens begin to do the work of the police and detain criminals, this calls into question the state's monopoly on force! With these actions, citizens show that the state is not perfect and requires support in the fight against crime. This means that officials are not perfect and can lose their jobs. Which of the officials could like such a development of events?
Although the activities of the Guardian Angels were not stopped by the efforts of officials, mass public work to directly combat crime was also not initiated.
Paid informers
Let's be fair to the New York authorities. For citizens who want to fight crime, the city authorities have created a special service. This service is safe, profitable, and does not call into question the competence of the authorities. Incredible! This is the authorities' approach to solving the problem of citizens' desire to fight crime. New Yorkers can anonymously report a crime and receive a reward for it. We are talking about the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Program, which has been in operation since 1983.(10) Using this program, citizens have helped the police solve more than 1,500 murders and attempted murders, and more than 2,200 robberies. For this, New Yorkers were paid a reward totaling $2.5 million. Perhaps for some, this method of fighting crime will seem more attractive than the actions of Guardian Angels volunteers or the initiative of brave shoppers at Walmart who detained an armed terrorist. (11)
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