Noe neighbor says don't call thieves 'criminals'

[lostinblue 1,989]

Noe neighbor says don't call thieves 'criminals'

In a lively discussion on NextDoor, San Francisco residents debate whether referring to someone who commits petty theft (such as ripping parts off a bicycle) as a criminal is offensive.

Is it wrong to call someone who steals a "criminal"?

In a recent thread on NextDoor, a group of neighbors living in the Noe Valley-Glen Park area debated whether labeling a person who commits petty theft as a "criminal" is offensive.

In the site's Crime and Safety area, where residents share strategies for fighting crime, Malkia Cyril asked her Noe Valley neighbors to stop using the label because it shows lack of empathy and understanding.

Cyril suggested that instead of calling the thief who took the bicycle from your garage a criminal, you should be more respectful and call him or her "the person who stole my bicycle."

"I [suggest] that people who commit property crimes are human and deserved to be referred to in terms that acknowledge that," Cyril, who's the executive director of the Center for Media Justice in Oakland, writes in the thread.

"I think we should think twice before speaking in disparaging terms about 'those criminals,'" she adds later in the thread.

Cyril started the thread because she wanted to shift the NextDoor conversations about security cameras, alarms and the police to more thoughtful discussions about strategies for addressing the cause of crime. In her posts, she blames our societal problems — gentrification, economic inequality, lack of affordable housing, the defunding of public schools — for pushing people into lives of crime. And because these criminals are trapped in a troubled society, she seems to feel it's unfair to give them a demeaning label.

"Police can't stop what desperation will drive folk to," Cyril wrote. "Imagine risking your freedom to steal a few thousand dollars worth of goods. A cell phone. Most folk here don't know that life.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Political-correctness-San-Francisco-criminal-6598509.php

Edited October 31, 2015 by lostinblue

[The Nature Boy 7,659]

Noe neighbor says don't call thieves 'criminals'

In a lively discussion on NextDoor, San Francisco residents debate whether referring to someone who commits petty theft (such as ripping parts off a bicycle) as a criminal is offensive.

Is it wrong to call someone who steals a "criminal"?

In a recent thread on NextDoor, a group of neighbors living in the Noe Valley-Glen Park area debated whether labeling a person who commits petty theft as a "criminal" is offensive.

In the site's Crime and Safety area, where residents share strategies for fighting crime, Malkia Cyril asked her Noe Valley neighbors to stop using the label because it shows lack of empathy and understanding.

Cyril suggested that instead of calling the thief who took the bicycle from your garage a criminal, you should be more respectful and call him or her "the person who stole my bicycle."

"I [suggest] that people who commit property crimes are human and deserved to be referred to in terms that acknowledge that," Cyril, who's the executive director of the Center for Media Justice in Oakland, writes in the thread.

"I think we should think twice before speaking in disparaging terms about 'those criminals,'" she adds later in the thread.

Cyril started the thread because she wanted to shift the NextDoor conversations about security cameras, alarms and the police to more thoughtful discussions about strategies for addressing the cause of crime. In her posts, she blames our societal problems gentrification, economic inequality, lack of affordable housing, the defunding of public schools for pushing people into lives of crime. And because these criminals are trapped in a troubled society, she seems to feel it's unfair to give them a demeaning label.

"Police can't stop what desperation will drive folk to," Cyril wrote. "Imagine risking your freedom to steal a few thousand dollars worth of goods. A cell phone. Most folk here don't know that life.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Political-correctness-San-Francisco-criminal-6598509.php

More liberal PC madness. People stealing my stuff offends me

[GandD 5,966]

They're the legally-impaired.

[Torete 121]

Well, it is San Francisco after all, sanctuaries included..

It must have just been poor judgment on their part instead.