Someone is truly in here going The hundreds of people gunned down daily is really a small percentage of the population so it's all just scaremongering. Several dozen people are upvoting it. I think I'm done with hexbear for a bit. Thanks for the fun posts, everyone
Being a child is criminalized. And the children are suffering. The point of childhood anymore doesn't seem to enjoy some innocence and learn life lessons and make mistakes in a loving or caring environment where you're shielded from most of the consequences. The purpose of childhood is to mold you into an ideal member of the proletariat. And to never ever misbehave, because the Eye in the Sky (whether that's your parents or the police state) is always watching and you'd better get used to it.
I've talked about the atrocious state of childrens' rights in this country, and had some really good discussion here about it. It's only getting worse. Don't walk or bike home from school, wait for your parent to come get you in an SUV. Don't go skateboarding, you hooligan. Don't hang out with friends or other kids in the neighborhood with only the admonition of being back before dark. Don't drink a beer, even as an adult- you'll go to jail. Don't host a party, you'll go to jail. Don't have awkward teenage sex. Don't go hang out downtown or explore the woods, you'll be raped and abducted and sold into slavery! Just stay home, on your phone where it's safe.
I fucking hate this. This shit honestly makes me despair more than climate change. I'm not sure why that is, obviously what we're doing to the climate could well spell the end of human civilization. I think I'm just really upset at this very clear, yet less dramatic impact of living in a fascist society. Being a child is criminalized.
For the last ten years my local supermarkets force kids to leave their schoolbags at the door. No one guarding them. Out in the open where they can be stolen from.
The message is clear. Your property doesn't matter. You are a criminal until proven otherwise. We are god. You are scum. We get all the consideration and protection, you get none.
And the result? Youth crime has only increased! Big surprise, the people you treated like shit are lashing out. And instead of getting the hint? "WE MUST PUNISH THEM HARDER!"
The problem is there is no good solution for an individual store. "You can't walk around with your bag" is the only thing that won't cost them money.
Really addressing this would take a government effort to provide for kids and get them to buy in to society, and of course we have no interest in doing that.
Most people think you shouldn't take things that aren't yours. There's broad support for being lenient with shoplifting, but we're departing from the masses if we go to "just take whatever you like."
For the foreseeable future (shops have existed in every AES state so far) the goal should be to address the issue through reducing poverty and social alienation.
Shoplifting is born primarily from necessity, silly! If capitalism weren't systematically starving millions, if people had their basic living needs met, people would not need to steal their bread.
The western/capitalist grocery store is a vicious establishment, which gouges the masses for money on necessary items, and has the gall to handwave in the vague direction of "inflation". Losing stock only costs them a few dollars of their multimillion-dollar coroporation profits.
Victimless crime. If you see someone shoplifting, no you didn't.
I've seen it become generalized here the signs at the door as say all people gotta check their bags at the cash, but they can only bully kids into doing it. Like, a grocery store clerk half my age isn't going to tell me to give them my backpack. I wouldn't comply and if they said they had to insist I'd leave and say I'm complaining to management about the policy but absolutely not blaming them and will say they did their duty well as insulting as that duty was to both of us, this did happen once at a corner store.
Also shoplifting is soooo fucking easy after 30. No one one suspects you at all as long as yknow, you don't loom homeless or like someone thst may need what they're stealing really badly. And the people hired to stop you are young enough that they can still be told off by any adult who behaves authoritatively or just isn't worth the hassle.
A roommate and friend I had, died of lung cancer two-year back, who did 17 years in prison for robbing banks said thst prison is literally the same as junior high school.