39 points

War on crime is usually just a war against poor people.

Maybe try making them less poor and see how crime falls. Its only (checks notes) backed up by science.

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8 points

Good luck with that. The biggest criminals are the incompetent politicians, there’s more and worse poverty in SA now than ever before.

Somehow they can completely drain the country of money but at the same time can’t find their way out of a paper bag.

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3 points

South Africa is, from what I hear from south African immigrants, a hell hole of crime and corruption. It’s not necessarily poor people committing all the crime. But yet these private security forces aren’t going to be targeting the richer corrupt people committing the worst crimes.

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2 points

It’s not just economic crimes this is wanton rape, murder, and wholesale take overs of state infrastructure by organised crime outfits. This isn’t normal crime like you may encounter in other countries, we are frequently topping the list in the most violent categories of crime.

Right now theres an epidemic of gender based violence, that is men raping and murdering women or male partners/spouses just outright murdering their partners. Doubt this is linked to a war against poor people.

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7 points

Are you trying to tell me rich people are comminuting these crimes at parallel rates to poor people?

Im gonna press X to doubt

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1 point

Also if you’re telling me that the only thing stopping people from raping people, and committing senseless murders is money then that’s a pretty sad indictment on humankind.

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-1 points

Frankly could not care for your opinion unless you live here, or a country with similar rates of crime.

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-2 points

How would that be possible when like 75% are poor? Should the rich be doing it at 3x the rate to keep up?

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This is what happens as the disparity in wealth grows.

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14 points

This is what happens as the state gets hollowed out by decades of ANC corruption and misrule.

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10 points

Sure, let’s replace the bastards with worse bastards that are only there for profit and would make less profit if crime were to go down! That’ll fix it! 🤦

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13 points

The thing is, individual citizens can’t reform the police, or ambulance services, fire brigade, or power utilities, all of which have been gutted by the ANC. All they can do is to pay, out of pocket, for private sector replacements. No one is arguing that this is better than having working public sector versions in the first place, but that’s not achievable until the national government gets totally overhauled (if it ever happens).

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3 points

Even public sector versions that ARENT working would be a much better situation. The only thing worse than a secretly corrupt cop is an openly for-profit private “security force” paid for by and therefore OFFICIALLY beholden to the rich and their interests above all.

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3 points

I think you’re trying to frame this in a Western or American context - it really doesn’t apply here.

You’re thinking only the rich have security, you can drive to some of the poorest areas in SA and you’ll see local residents utilising private security.

It’s not that these institutions are not working - they are NON EXISTENT. Imagine if the police simply stopped working, not barely functioning, I mean literally completely non-functional.

And it’s not just the police force, it’s electricity, water, sanitation, education, healthcare, almost every sector is either borderline non-functioning or completely non-functioning.

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10 points

Oh dude let me inform you about the state of crime in South Africa - we’ve had instances where police stations have been firebombed by criminals raiding the weapons store, any property not being guarded being stolen from lawn chairs to vehicles, the unusually high rate crime: 21000+ murders per year, 42000+ rapes per year and that’s officially reported stats from the SAPS.

I’ve seen people being kidnapped, I have even had family and friends who have been kidnapped, women raped and murdered in my locality, countless hijacking and aggravated robberies. I am part of the local CPF so I am on constant communication with police and security companies.

Often the police are completely reliant or heavily rely on security companies. These security companies are often the only people standing in the face of lawlessness. Not necessarily in the wealthiest areas either.

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3 points

Not necessarily in the wealthiest areas

That you need to point this out illustrates my point: the private security armies are there to protect the people who pay them and their interests. If the boss has interests in a less wealthy area, that might be protected too. Maybe.

That’s not law enforcement, that’s an anarcho-capitalist nightmare!

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2 points

the private security armies are there to protect the people who pay them and their interests

Is that not how publicly funded security services work, too?

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1 point

Pretty much saying that poor people have an interest in hiring private security so there’s security companies in poorer areas too this is not a rich thing this is a crime is rampant issue. But I guess you live here so you understand the situation on the ground.

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6 points

Isreal trained a lot if SA private security forces. This feels like propaganda against SA by isreal considering the timing and SA’s efforts to stop the genocide of Palestinians.

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1 point

Israel. The name is Israel.

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1 point
*
Deleted by creator
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0 points

Dyslexia is a bitch. I was so close.

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-2 points

Thank god for the Isrealis then because god damn this country would be more fucked somehow.

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3 points

This is the best summary I could come up with:


It’s an all-too-common story in South Africa, a country that in the past year has seen an average of 75 killings and 400 robberies with aggravating circumstances every day, according to official statistics.

Experts have warned that the South African police are losing the battle against crime — and that has led those citizens who can afford it to turn to a booming private security industry.

“It’s not getting better, it is getting worse,” said Anton Koen, a former police officer who now runs a private security firm that specializes in tracking and recovering hijacked and stolen vehicles.

Associated Press journalists accompanied private security officers on patrols around suburbs in east Johannesburg, where it was evident they were performing the role of the police in many circumstances.

During one of the patrols, Koen sped to where two suspects had been apprehended by other private security personnel after a vehicle they were traveling in was linked to burglaries and armed robberies.

In an indication that police are overwhelmed, local government authorities in the Gauteng province that includes Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, have recently introduced their own crime wardens to help with law enforcement.


The original article contains 1,002 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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