{"id":7524,"date":"2014-12-11T03:51:29","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T03:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/12\/11\/eric-garner-cigarettes-and-overcriminalization\/"},"modified":"2014-12-11T03:51:29","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T03:51:29","slug":"eric-garner-cigarettes-and-overcriminalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/12\/11\/eric-garner-cigarettes-and-overcriminalization\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Garner, Cigarettes, and Overcriminalization"},"content":{"rendered":"

This<\/a> beautifully written, erudite piece by George F. Will is the best thing I've read so far about the Eric Garner case.  Excerpts:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Garner died at the dangerous intersection of something wise, known as \u201cbroken windows<\/a>\u201d policing, and something worse than foolish: decades of overcriminalization<\/a>. The policing applies the wisdom that where signs of disorder, such as broken windows, proliferate and persist, a general diminution of restraint and good comportment takes hold. So, because minor infractions are, cumulatively, not minor, police should not be lackadaisical about offenses such as jumping over subway turnstiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overcriminalization has become a national plague. And when more and more behaviors are criminalized, there are more and more occasions for police, who embody the state\u2019s monopoly on legitimate violence, and who fully participate in humanity\u2019s flaws, to make mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/span><\/p>\n

Garner lived in part by illegally selling single cigarettes untaxed by New York jurisdictions. He lived in a progressive state and city that, being ravenous for revenue and determined to save smokers from themselves, have raised to $5.85 the combined taxes on a pack of cigarettes<\/a>. To the surprise of no sentient being, this has created a black market in cigarettes<\/a> that are bought in states that tax them much less. Garner died in a state that has a Cigarette Strike Force<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[. . .]<\/span><\/p>\n

The scandal of mass incarceration is partly produced by the frivolity of the political class, which uses the multiplication of criminal offenses as a form of moral exhibitionism. This, like Eric Garner\u2019s death, is a pebble in the mountain of evidence that American government is increasingly characterized by an ugly and sometimes lethal irresponsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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This beautifully written, erudite piece by George F. Will is the best thing I've read so far about the Eric Garner case.  Excerpts: Garner died at the dangerous intersection of something wise, known as \u201cbroken windows\u201d policing, and something worse than foolish: decades of overcriminalization. The policing applies the wisdom that where signs of disorder, … Continue reading “Eric Garner, Cigarettes, and Overcriminalization”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol-tobacco-and-firearms","category-crime-and-punishment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}