Comments by "Ida Larsen" (@idalarsen2540) on "NYPD Big Brother Is Watching You" video.
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Hell, I'm Norwegian (part of the three Scandinavian countries - we're all independent and have been for ages upon ages, but we're lumped together as one on the world stage.. oh well, Sweden and Denmark are cool, so I don't mind! But.. Norway's the best, tho. We just are).
What Ana's saying is absolutely correct.
I personally have been unfortunate enough in my still very young life (still just 23 y/o) to have been homeless for some years, beginning at the age of just 16 y/o. So, surely more than enough childhood trauma from both before and after that. By that point, you bet I was already addicted to drugs. I grew up in one of the poorest areas, and my family surely didn't have any resources. There weren't too much in our community generally either, so nothing really to lean in if in need. Hence the situation I found myself in.
I ended up in worse and worse crowds, experiencing worse and worse trauma, becoming more and more drug addicted. People around me practically just waited to get "the call", if you know what I mean. So it was absolutely terrible.
You know what eased the burden on not just myself personally, but on our community's resources and crime rates? The fact that our government cares for every single person enough to allow them some shreds of dignity, in other words money. It wasn't much, but it made sure, along with other programs, that I could eat at all, and not have to steal and such (aka.. become a worse criminal than being a drug addict stupidly is considered), in order to feed my habits. I also had the possibility of getting any kind of health care, both mental and physical. I could also spend days and nights at shelters for safety and hygiene.
These things not only ensured my own personal health and wellbeing despite the terrible situation I found myself in, it also highly eased the burden the rest of the community would face by myself, along with the rest of people in similar situations just trying to survive, by doing criminal activities affecting others. It ensures literally everyone. It's not that people never get robbed or such, it's rather that the chances of that happening being decreased as much as possible. We, the poor people, weren't made desperate enough to have to rob innocent people, just going about their day. Ensuring our safety immidiatly ensured the rest's safety. Basically, we logically decided to do the math and follow simple logic. We'd all much more preferr our tax dollars going into investing in the most poor and unfortunate among us, instead of investing in beefing up the police and other "after the fact"-measures. We understand that investing in people's dignity despite their background would be of much greater benefit to literally everyone, than investing in stupid and unnessecary police and law enforcement tactics and equipment. We would much rather prevent that need for beefed up security in the first place. We know that investing in prevention takes everyone so much further, and ensures everyone's safety so much more.. not to mention, it's just way more humane and dignified. It's not exactly motivating for anyone to try to re-enter regular society when society's been nothing but cruel and ruthless to you.
Because of these ideals and this humane logic, we barely have that much crime at all. Sure, getting rid of crime 100% will always be literally impossible, but we've incentivised being a law-obiding citizen much more over being a criminal. This kind of crime policy has made sure that we're all, regardless of social status, a safe and welcoming society, not ridden with crime (especially regarding violent, gang, and street-associated crimes).
It just works way better for everyone, and it's good economics as well.
I grew up in what was for a very long time considered part of Norway's worst places (in terms of poverty, crime etc.). We surely had our right wing politicians bring up similar talking points to the US' right wing, but thankfully the overruling political opinion over how to deal with this specific area landed on left wing ideals, which was to continue our high standards in terms of treating the population. We ended up with this massive investment involving a decade long plan to invest from the bottom up in that area. We helped people by literally increasing wellfare, massive infrastructure investments including massive human infrastructure, all of this and much more. We decided that a helping hand would be of greater benefit and interest to the entire country, instead of continue punishing people for being poor and having unfortunate and unprivileged conditions. That absolutely massive investment ended up turning this area (where I still live!) into the place in our city, Oslo (which is the capitol of Norway, yes) into becoming the place with the least crime rates. Funny how that worked, huhh. It both made this area one of the most attractive places to live, pushing up property values massively, without forcing those of us who already lived here in it's poor times out, due to our government ensuring that not only the values of the properties going up, but people wages and wellfare as well to match the increase in property values, so us "OG's" weren't pushed out of our community and homes due to the inflation.
Now THIS is how you do politics. This is how you treat people. This is just what's right and humane. Our government and our society at large seeing literally every single person's individual value is what makes us incredible. We don't see helping people and investing in people as a burden at all, we see it as an obligation we all have towards each other, and joyfully so. We're happy to know that we spend our tax dollars to even out inequality, to better the lives of our neighbours, children, elders and community at large, in health and education etc. - not in cruel and unnessecary wars, unnessecary police enforcement and all those kinds of wasteful "investments", which we know don't work. No. We're much more focused on what actually matters, and fixing the root problems, instead of constantly wasting money and time just treating the "symptoms". We got it right. There's a reason we're one of the wealthiest AND happiest nations on earth, which we have been for the longest time. Take notes, people. Actually learn something.. and stay kind, care abour your neighbour and community. We'll all be doomed if we let personal greed be the ruling force.
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