The real criminals in society may not be who you think they are
By Lethbridge Herald on August 24, 2022.
Editor:
I do not know all the facts, nor do I claim any expertise, however I am grateful for those who might find a “thought experiment” of interest, and share any kind thoughts.
My brother and I follow the homeless problem with the interest of a couple of old men with too much time on their hands, and much desire to leave our community in better shape than when we found it. We think we should leave behind something as good, or better than what we were given freely.
As we observe the homeless and the helpless in our community, our talks lately keep touching on a taboo topic that we think we are qualified to discuss since we have both witnessed a good deal of addiction, homelessness, and crime. After all, we both worked inside the financial industry at one time.
Our conversations kept coming back to the question of, “who are the addicts, and who are the criminals?”and we decided that perhaps each and every one of us is addicted to something in one way or another. And what if the truly great criminals in society may not be street addicts and bicycle thieves, but what if they are some of our most trusted members of society? What if they are merely addicts in suites, and the addicts in the streets are victims of a much bigger issue, bigger crimes? What if police do not kick the doors down on the addicts in the suites?
Here are a few thoughts on some of the greatest crimes in society. Victims and victimizers – what if we have it backwards?
First, “who are the addicted?” After an hour of discussion we agreed (rightly or wrongly) that perhaps every member of society is addicted to something. If you included all things like food, shopping, medicine, gambling, sex, drugs, rock and roll, pawn stars, porn stars, iPhones, computers, hope, Netflix, Tic Tok, Facebook, doom porn, news porn, Bitcoin, kindness, helping people, being right, being listened to, hurting other people, overthinking, hurting oneself, and so on10ten minutes in your garage, your house, your computer, or your iPhone, they might spot your particular addictions better than you are able to spot them yourself.
So if you will permit the agnotologist conclusion that almost any human can be an addict, addicted to one thing or another – and perhaps most humans are addicted to one thing or another – hopefully we can stop looking down at another man’s addiction, and start talking about it in a real way. Nearly everyone struggles with something which has caused suffering, and everyone deals with their struggles in a different way. Who am I to judge? Who are you?
So my brother and I kept asking each other “who are the serious criminals in society, and who are more likely the victims?”
Here is what we talked about:
What if the biggest crimes and top criminals are people we do not even think of as criminals? (We now know this from our own experiences)
What if there are more than one category of humans in our society, and what if one category can get away with various forms of financial murder in society, while others cannot. Who are the criminals who can get away with crime, compared to those who cannot. It may change who we define as dangerous, lazy, or “no-good”.
What if there are two kinds of people in society, those who must make money by working, and those who can literally “make money” without work as in the financial alchemy that is money printing, money lending, fractional reserve banking and central bank money creation? The financial chemists who can literally create money out of nothing but thin air and a bookkeeping entry.
Who is the lazier part of society, those who must work to make money, and those who captured the public right to “make money, without working?
What if there are practically zero police or public prosecutors who today are working to catch anyone who does crimes in the tens, or hundreds of millions, the billions, or the trillions? Did I mention we both worked inside the financial industry? Chasing million-, billion- or trillion-dollar crimes is a career-killer since those crimes often touch upon the most rich and powerful people in the country…or the world. It is hands-off, for that reason, and far safer to chase drug addicts around
How much easier would your life be if you had the power to literally create money? Think of the power and wealth imbalance advantage for the few millions of special people, the people who are involved in billion- and trillion-dollar games of money and power worldwide and then think of the power and wealth disadvantage placed upon the other billions of ordinary working people worldwide. Plus those who cannot fit in either category for one physical, mental, financial or social reason or another.
To those who would simplify it by saying something like: “I have a job, they can get one, too,” is about as fair as expecting a fish to be able to ride a bicycle simply because you can.
It is not about you – it is about wondering if you even understand who victims are, and who are the victimizers. That is, in my opinion the trillion-dollar question, and it is the very question that is forbidden to ask in a sting operation or rigged game.
I wonder if it is time to have some discussion about those things no one can talk about – the victimizers of society – instead of focusing all the blame upon the weakest, many of whom are victims. Much like you and I.
Larry Elford
Lethbridge
22-21
It is an interesting take on the situation, but it does show that you really are missing the points of the impact to our community and to the homeless and addicts themselves.
Who are the criminals? Well I learned decades ago you cannot tell who they are by looking at them. They could be an executive in a suit ( which at one point I found was a patch member of the Hell’s Angels ), or the little old lady that just asked for directions, or the government employee, the doctor, the furnace cleaner, the banker, the person doing your home renovation. You cannot tell!
I wonder if Les is the brother you speak of? Doesn’t matter.
I have worked closely with the homeless and addicts for several years and I will state that I have never called them ‘lazy’ or ‘no good’ but I have had vehicles broken into, damages to my home and witnessed countless crimes committed by the people you stand up for. You also miss the point that living this kind of lifestyle will be a short term lifespan for many, which for some ended within 6 months of being on the streets. They are dying needlessly because of the coddlers who enable them to continue in their addictions, pushing a slow and painful death on them, which often is a constant life of rape, assault, overdosing to kill the pain and living on the streets.
That young 18 year old indigenous girl that the old white guys love often it beaten for not working for their ‘husbands’ to pay for the drugs and within months being on the streets have already contracted many of the dangerous STD’s such as Aids/HIV/Hepititis/Herpes , etc., yet the well educated retired professionals, such as a doctor and lawyer I am aware of, pay for their services. Do you really believe she wants to have sex with a dirty old man that often treats then like a piece of garbage? Sorry to be blunt, but I have witnessed abuse against these girls, who live with their ‘husbands’ in these encampments.
Many drive by, park and look for awhile and move on thinking, what is the big deal! They big deal is they are dying from living this type of lifestyle and getting them away from it is much easier when they are not being fed, clothed and even given tents to live in. It only prolongs the problem while bleeding society dry, when those funds would be better spent on effective treatment programs.
You may know your way around finance, but you fail to see what the real devastation is here: human life! How many times have you administered Naloxone or Narcan to an overdose patient? Have you seen what goes on when the sun goes down? How any assaults have you witnessed?
There is a lot more going on here! I do agree with one thing I learned decades ago: you cannot tell who is a criminal by how they look or where they work or live! The encampments have cost the city taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars this year alone. The addiction crisis had cost us tens of millions!
and you and too many others blindly continue to support inhumane drug laws that have artificially inflated drug prices and made drugs unsafe due making them illegal, and unsafe due to lack of quality control. so, while you believe you care about people, you are continuing to support a failed – yes, failed – process that is the war on drugs, which forces drug addicts to sell their body and steal in order to pay for a habit that would be affordable were it not for the inhumane drug laws in place. repeat: coffee is a most expensive and labour intensive drug to bring to market…and yet no one steals or sells their body for numerous coffees. get it? no, probably not, because the real issue for you and ilk is judgement about the life choices of others. however, know this: drug addicts would just be addicts and nothing worse were drugs as affordable as they should naturally be – govt’s criminalising drugs are the issue; they have created laws that are far more a crimes against humanity than they are a public service.
thanks for a most thoughtful and accurate take on what truly affects the real state of affairs in the world today. i sure would like to be able to lend you a 100k with just the 10k sitting in my chequing account; and then, i could soon lend a million with a 100k on my books. imagine if we each could do as much for each other, as we ponzi our way to the real riches.
While I agree that white collar crimes are not prosecuted enough. Whatever happened with the Panama Papers, right? One crime does not excuse the other, does it? How many of us have had our homes, vehicles, garages broken into and have property stolen? In the last 5 years I’ve been victim to this more than the previous 50. I don’t care if they wear a suit or not, crime is crime.
I would say that is a strongly debatable point: The Sackler Family alone has caused Society more of a problem than all the homeless combined.
They should have their entire fortune divested and put into health care in both the States and here.
And that is only one player in the Pharma Industry…
It boggles the mind that anyone can point at an addicted or homeless individual and say, “It’s all your fault!”, when it is so obviously not. In most cases.
There’s other large players in so many areas.
One crime doesn’t justify another. That’s true. But what of the case of one crime CAUSING another? – And this is where I feel the topic of big-player crimes needs to be. Every action by a person or organisation with a large amount of money (Or product) causes a ripple through the whole of the present financial (And Social) systems we operate under.
quite right. how is that the sacklers did not have their assets all seized under proceeds of crime laws? same can be said of the hsbc, kpmg, and likely most if not all large financial institutions that oversaw illegal offshoring of wealth and laundering. for that matter, ditto to most if not all casinos…much of the real estate game that affected toronto and vancouver….again, we return to who is/are the real criminals, and the lack of prosecution and action further implicates govts.
again, drug addicts are stealing only because of inhumane drug laws which have artificially inflated drug prices by many fold.