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05-17-2019, 07:20 AM
(This post was last modified: 05-17-2019, 02:02 PM by pbrower2a.)
(05-16-2019, 06:16 PM)rde7 Wrote: Americans don't see tyranny as a loss, Americans see tyranny as a gain.
Nope. Almost everyone sees evil in Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, VD Amin, Satan Hussein, and the Kim dynasty.
Quote:Americans don't view losing their right to free speech, guns, religion, property, privacy, silence, trials, freedom from torture, and life as a loss because they will gain safety.
We are obviously safest when government must respect core freedoms. One has privacy rights unless one uses those for criminal purposes. Having threatened to commit suicide, I SHOULD NOT HAVE A FIREARM unless I can prove that it is for hunting. For defense against crime, a dog is a powerful deterrent against the usual criminal.
Quote:Americans think tyranny only punishes others and freedom never benefits them.
How wrong you are! Just think of the non-black people who supported the struggle for civil rights of Southern blacks. Sure, that was over fifty years ago, but that is in the same league as resisting George III or operating the Underground Railroad. I assure you that our history books for K-12 education have some wholesome models of resistance to even the mildest forms of tyranny.
Quote:Americans scream that they are resisting tyranny, but do you see any protests?
I have participated in anti-Trump rallies --including the first protest rally in which I had been in my life.
Quote:If Americans knew even a little history then they would realize that tyranny does not stop until everyone ends up in the concentration camps.
Or if tyranny is thwarted. People need to start with moderate forms of resistance such as interference in governmental misconduct.
Quote:Americans deserve everything coming to them.
Does "German Jews deserve everything coming to them", if uttered in 1934 you-know-where, make a strong moral argument today?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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libertarian ideologues don't listen to any truth or fact.
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The elites love socialism because they want the 99% weakened and dead.
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-billion...ton-2015-9
The police state doesn’t protect you. Tyranny helps the elites meet their private prison quotas.
The elites want you to lose your free speech rights and gun rights so you can’t resist.
The elites want you to lose your 4th amendment rights so they can wiretap and frisk you and take your property through asset forfeiture.
The elites want you lose your right to a trial so they can torture and kill you.
Taxation is theft. Quit if you don’t like low pay and don’t buy dangerous food if you don’t like it.
You don’t have to buy from anyone. You don’t have to work at any particular job. You don’t have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose.
The big difference between private business and tyranny is that you can boycott the free market, but the government forces you at gunpoint to do something or not do something.
The USSR failed.
http://www.businessinsider.com/a-chillin...lag-2015-3
The elites control Hollywood, the media, Wall Street, and the government.
Almost nothing major happens in the US without the approval of the elites.
Debt benefits the elites.
Nanny state laws help our overlords meet their private private quotas.
There are wars because the 1% owns the defense companies and they want more refugees to reduce wages.
There are food stamps because the 1% owns the food corporations and makes money from the bank fees.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/1...78457.html
The ruling class supports Obamacare and mandatory liability insurance laws because they make money from insurance premiums.
The elites support illegal immigration because they want to divide the population.
The 1% supports homosexuality because immorality weakens the US.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1748122/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_7
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0467406/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0879870/
https://us.benetton.com
When was the last time you saw a movie about the Bill of Rights, freedom, or family values?
Why are immorality, blacks, and illegal immigrants praised, but morality and white men are ridiculed?
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2015/07/15/emo...-at-espys/
http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/17/cnn-an...mmigrants/
http://dailycaller.com/2018/05/02/chris-...-catholic/
https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index...poste.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/gary-john...-is-2016-9
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-sup...tt-2016-12
What if the reason the 99% are not in concentration camps now is because the US Ponzi economy has not collapsed yet and Americans still have guns?
http://markanderson.bangordailynews.com/...zi-scheme/
Why is anyone who supports immorality, war, debt, welfare, tyranny, and illegal immigrants is labeled normal, but anyone who supports morals, peace, a balanced budget, personal responsibility, freedom, and reduced immigration is called a spammer, troll, shill, bot, racist, junkie, retard, or nutjob and is censored, banned, gets an IRS audit, is arrested, or killed?
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/marylan...story.html
http://www.nj.com/jjournal-news/index.ss...or_ha.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national...-1.3226668
The elites don’t care if the US collapses because they live in gated compounds with security guards on private islands, go to private schools, and have private jets to fly them to private airports.
Freedom is not your enemy. Tyranny is the enemy.
Wake up.
Think.
Pass the word.
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The USA is an immoral bankrupt warmongering police state now.
The situation in the US seems to be that the elites give politicians campaign donations and cushy job promises to make decrees, the Gestapo enforces the laws, and the 99% obeys the laws. The only reason the system works now is because everyone still thinks it is legit. If no one obeyed, the whole rigged game would crumble.
Americans don't know that the US is collapsing or don't care.
The USA might collapse, but giving up is insane.
Do you think the collapse only affects others? Do you think that you are immune? Do you feel any responsibility at all?
Do you think Nazis were not responsible for killing people? Are the Gestapo not responsible for arresting people or were they just following orders? TSA agents are not responsible for groping people? Americans who pay taxes that fund wars, debt, and tyranny are blameless?
Do you think Russians just walked around the USSR thinking tyranny didn't apply to them and that gulags didn't exist?
Will you just be able to pretend that your online bank account has not been zeroed out and cash is not worthless when the stock market crashes?
Do you you think that you will just be able to ignore the roving mobs who break windows looking for food when the economy collapses?
Do you think that you will be able to opt-out when a black van pulls up to your house, the DHS knocks down you door, and loads you on to a train headed to the concentration camps?
Do you think that you will be able to ignore the nuclear bombs that explode when China and Russia retaliate against American attacks?
Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Gandhi, MLK, Snowden, Manning, and Assange threw their lives away to speak out against injustice. Why can't you?
Americans who stay silent today and do nothing while the US collapses are no better than the elites who are driving the USA into the ground.
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01-16-2020, 04:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-16-2020, 04:49 PM by Eric the Green.)
We need to move America toward a ban of all semi-automatic weapons for civilian use (these weapons are all weapons of war, not civilian arms), a voluntary buyback program, strict regulations on who can own guns with strong background checks, and whatever other gun controls we can legally get! Right now, the morally-bankrupt Republicans own congress and so it can take no action. So citizens groups are asking businesses to act, as some have already done.
From my email box:
GUN SAFETY SCORECARD
Are your favorite businesses keeping you safe from gun violence?
COMPANY GRADE
7-Eleven F
Ace Hardware F
Amazon B
Applebee's F
Barnes & Noble F
Buffalo Wild Wings D
Chick-fil-A F
Costco B
Dollar Tree F
Dunkin' F
Home Depot F
Hot Topic F
JoS. A. Bank F
Kohl's F
Kroger A
Lowe's F
McDonald's F
Nike F
Nordstrom B
Old Chicago Pizza F
Old Navy A
Rainbow Shops F
Starbucks B
TJ Maxx D
Target B
Trader Joe's B
Waffle House C
Walmart A
Whole Foods B
About This Campaign:
As the federal government refuses to pass reforms that will build safer communities for us all, large American employers have a responsibility to their workers, customers, and communities to do everything they can to keep us safe from the estimated 393 million firearms in civilian hands.
Companies like TOMS, Levi's, and Dick's have leaned into gun safety. Now, we're calling on all large American employers to do three things:
No Guns. Ask customers not to bring firearms into your stores.
Community investment. Invest in the communities you serve by supporting community-driven gun violence intervention programs.
No NRA. End all political donations to lawmakers who accept donations from the NRA.
Gun Safety Certified
Businesses with a B or higher are awarded the Gun Safety Certified mark. The mark, developed by Manuel Oliver (father of Joaquin Oliver, one of the 17 victims from the Parkland shooting) of Change The Ref and Stop Handgun Violence, is a symbol for brands and business to use to show their support for gun safety and push other corporations to do better.
Our Methodology
In September, October, and November 2019, we reviewed media archives, industry research, trade publications, and other publicly available information to develop the Gun Safety Scorecard. We identified the top 26 retailers from the YouGov Specialty Retail, Department Stores, and Grocery Store Popularity Lists; the top four retailers from the FourSquare Loyalty Rankings for Casual Dining, Fashion, and Quick Service Restaurants; and the top four retailers with the highest gross sales for 2018 as ranked by the National Retail Federation. This also includes the three largest clothing retailers per Business Insider’s analysis of the Forbes Global #200 list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Most of these businesses don't sell guns. So why are they a part of this campaign?
A: During a period of federal inaction on gun reform, American businesses (particularly consumer-facing retailers that interact with customers on a daily basis) have a civic responsibility to keep their customers and employees safe from gun violence. While most of the companies on the Gun Safety Scorecard (GSS) do not directly sell firearms or ammunition, their stores are not immune from the impact of gun violence. Our research indicates that 25 of the 29 stores on the GSS experienced a gun violence incident on their premises.
Q. Why did you choose to grade these 29 companies?
A. In an effort to avoid cherry picking companies and provide a more honest snapshot of how American businesses are responding to the gun crisis, we looked at industry surveys (described in the methodology above) and studied a cross-section of American businesses.
Q. What are these grades based on?
The retailers identified were reviewed for activity in the following areas: 1) Actions to reduce gun violence in their stores, including banning the open carry of firearms; 2) Donations to the top 25 NRA-backed lawmakers and/or politicians; and 3) Publicly calling for action on gun reform. Businesses were rewarded a maximum of 60 points for a strong “In-store policy,” a maximum of 20 points if they avoided “political giving” to the top NRA-backed lawmakers and a maximum of 20 points for “demanding public action” on gun reform. Another 20 bonus points are available to reward companies that have taken additional steps to help move our country in the right direction.
Q. What role can corporations play in helping us build a future with fewer guns?
A. By banning firearms in their stores, investing in communities plagued by gun violence, and ending political donations to NRA-backed lawmakers, American businesses can add their voices to the overwhelming number of Americans who support gun reform, reach more moderate and conservative audiences, and help advance the political and cultural change we'll need to build safer communities with fewer guns. Corporate America was instrumental in fighting for LGBTQ equality and it can play a critical role in this issue as well.
Q. Are you asking people to avoid shopping at businesses with low grades?
A. We believe that consumers have unique leverage to push the businesses they patronize to live up to their stated corporate values and give back to the communities they serve. Therefore, we encourage Americans who visit low-rated businesses to visit our Take Action page and push those businesses to do better. They must hear from their customers.
The Business Must Act Coalition:
Million Hoodies.
American Federation of Teachers.
ARTEC.
Brady.
Community Justice Action Fund.
Color of Change.
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
Change the Ref.
Equality Illinois.
Gays Against Guns.
Guns Down America.
Latino Victory Project.
March for Our Lives.
Alliance for Gun Responsibility.
Moms Rising.
MoveOn.
Not My Generation.
Orange Ribbons for Jaime.
This Is Our Lane.
People for the American Way.
Progress Texas.
Stop Handgun Violence.
Survivors Empowered.
Team Enough.
Transgender Education Network of Texas.
Women's March.
TAKE ACTIONShare on FacebookShare on Twitter
Business Must Act
Paid for by the Business Must Act Coalition.
Your email address may be shared with the members of the Business Must Act Coalition listed on this website and with their allied organizations.
https://businessmustact.org/?ms=bma-emai...id=3208028
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Looks like I should make the effort to buy my books from Barnes & Noble and not from Amazon.
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Let's hope someday soon that the civilized people will prevail in our society over the barbarians.
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(01-17-2020, 02:03 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Let's hope someday soon that the civilized people will prevail in our society over the barbarians.
Correct. This legislate from the bench, ignore the constitution and change culture using force without the necessary super majority is reprehensible.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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(01-16-2020, 10:03 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Looks like I should make the effort to buy my books from Barnes & Noble and not from Amazon.
In your opinion, why would a potential gunfight in a book store be a good thing?
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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(01-17-2020, 08:20 AM)David Horn Wrote: (01-16-2020, 10:03 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Looks like I should make the effort to buy my books from Barnes & Noble and not from Amazon.
In your opinion, why would a potential gunfight in a book store be a good thing?
A bookstore or a library is one place in which I would least expect gunshots to happen.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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This looks like a possible victory for civilization over the random violence gun culture from my email today:
"Supreme Court will allow Sandy Hook families to SUE Gun Manufacturers"
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(01-17-2020, 11:23 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: (01-17-2020, 08:20 AM)David Horn Wrote: (01-16-2020, 10:03 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Looks like I should make the effort to buy my books from Barnes & Noble and not from Amazon.
In your opinion, why would a potential gunfight in a book store be a good thing?
A bookstore or a library is one place in which I would least expect gunshots to happen.
Right, but we can't count on that any longer.
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(01-17-2020, 02:16 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: (01-17-2020, 02:03 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Let's hope someday soon that the civilized people will prevail in our society over the barbarians.
Correct. This legislate from the bench, ignore the constitution and change culture using force without the necessary super majority is reprehensible.
Let's hope that civilization prevails, and we can someday get the legislation banning semi-automatics and controlling who can buy guns which the Scalia supreme court has already ruled is legal under the constitution.
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(01-17-2020, 08:20 AM)David Horn Wrote: (01-16-2020, 10:03 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Looks like I should make the effort to buy my books from Barnes & Noble and not from Amazon.
In your opinion, why would a potential gunfight in a book store be a good thing?
I'm not sure what this has to do with my post, but the answer to your question is that in an online gunfight - the only kind you can have in an online bookstore - everyone has fun and no one gets hurt.
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01-17-2020, 04:12 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2020, 04:14 PM by David Horn.)
(01-17-2020, 12:53 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: (01-17-2020, 08:20 AM)David Horn Wrote: (01-16-2020, 10:03 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Looks like I should make the effort to buy my books from Barnes & Noble and not from Amazon.
In your opinion, why would a potential gunfight in a book store be a good thing?
I'm not sure what this has to do with my post, but the answer to your question is that in an online gunfight - the only kind you can have in an online bookstore - everyone has fun and no one gets hurt.
Maybe I missed your point, but it seemed that your comment was a response to post 1179 in this thread.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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01-17-2020, 05:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2020, 05:14 PM by Eric the Green.)
(01-17-2020, 12:53 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: (01-17-2020, 08:20 AM)David Horn Wrote: (01-16-2020, 10:03 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: Looks like I should make the effort to buy my books from Barnes & Noble and not from Amazon.
In your opinion, why would a potential gunfight in a book store be a good thing?
I'm not sure what this has to do with my post, but the answer to your question is that in an online gunfight - the only kind you can have in an online bookstore - everyone has fun and no one gets hurt.
Who says a loonie with a gun can't shoot up a retail, brick-and-mortar bookstore like Barnes & Noble just as easily as (s)he can a restaurant, theater, school, church, shopping mall, concert hall, etc.?
The difference between amazon and Barnes & Noble is not that amazon is on-line, it's that amazon is willing to help curb gun violence and the gun lobby, and Barnes & Noble is not, and that's why you said you would shop at Barnes & Noble, Warren.
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You're very confused, Eric. I just bought six books from Barnes & Noble and I didn't go to any brick and mortar store to do it, as should have been obvious from my response to David Horn.
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01-17-2020, 11:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2020, 11:49 PM by Eric the Green.)
(01-17-2020, 06:33 PM)Warren Dew Wrote: You're very confused, Eric. I just bought six books from Barnes & Noble and I didn't go to any brick and mortar store to do it, as should have been obvious from my response to David Horn.
You mentioned you would go to B&N instead of amazon because of their grades on that list in post 1179.
And B&N does have brick and mortar stores in which people could get shot up.
For that matter, although amazon does not, it does have its enormous distribution factories, and it owns Whole Foods stores and the Washington Post. Gun violence also happens at workplaces and stores these days.
It's not about where you yourself might get shot or not.
Still confused, or have I straightened you out? 
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Maybe crime is at an all time high because everything is illegal.
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(01-18-2020, 09:20 PM)Lori Wrote: Maybe crime is at an all time high because everything is illegal.
Except at the upper levels of government because our President has the moral compass of a mobster...
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)] 5 facts about crime in the U.S.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)] BY JOHN GRAMLICH[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)] Donald Trump made fighting crime a central focus of his campaign for president, and he cited it again during his January 2017 inaugural address. His administration has since taken steps intended to address crime in American communities, such as instructing federal prosecutors to pursue the strongest possible charges against criminal suspects. Here are five facts about crime in the United States.
1Violent crime in the U.S. has fallen sharply over the past quarter century. The two most commonly cited sources of crime statistics in the U.S. both show a substantial decline in the violent crime rate since it peaked in the early 1990s. One is an annual report by the FBI of serious crimes reported to police in more than 18,500 jurisdictions around the country. The other is a nationally representative annual survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which asks approximately 160,000 Americans ages 12 and older whether they were victims of crime, regardless of whether they reported those crimes to the police.
Using the FBI numbers, the violent crime rate fell 51% between 1993 and 2018. Using the BJS data, the rate fell 71% during that span. The long-term decline in violent crime hasn’t been uninterrupted, though. The FBI, for instance, reported increases in the violent crime rate between 2004 and 2006 and again between 2014 and 2016. Violent crime includes offenses such as rape, robbery and assault.
![[Image: FT_19.10.14_CrimeTrends_1.png]](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/FT_19.10.14_CrimeTrends_1.png)
2Property crime has declined significantly over the long term. Like the violent crime rate, the U.S. property crime rate today is far below its peak level. FBI data shows that the rate fell by 54% between 1993 and 2018, while BJS reports a decline of 69% during that span. Property crime includes offenses such as burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft, and it is generally far more common than violent crime.
3![[Image: FT_19.10.14_CrimeTrends_2.png]](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/FT_19.10.14_CrimeTrends_2.png) Public perceptions about crime in the U.S. often don’t align with the data. Opinion surveys regularly find that Americans believe crime is up nationally, even when the data shows it is down. In 18 of 22 Gallup surveys conducted between 1993 and 2018, at least six-in-ten Americans said there was more crime in the U.S. compared with the year before, despite the generally downward trend in national violent and property crime rates during most of that period.
Pew Research Center surveys have found a similar pattern. In a survey in late 2016, for instance, 57% of registered voters said crime in the U.S. had gotten worse since 2008, even though FBI and BJS data shows that violent and property crime rates declined by double-digit percentages during that span.
While perceptions of rising crime at the national level are common, fewer Americans tend to say crime is up when asked about the local level. In all 21 Gallup surveys that have included the question since 1996, no more than about half of Americans have said crime is up in their area compared with the year before.
4There are large geographic variations in crime rates. The BJS statistics don’t allow for specific geographic comparisons, but the FBI data shows big differences from state to state and city to city. In 2018, there were more than 800 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in Alaska and New Mexico. By contrast, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont had rates below 200 violent crimes per 100,000 residents. And while Chicago has drawn widespread attention for its soaring murder total in recent years, its murder rate in 2018 – about 21 murders and non-negligent manslaughters per 100,000 residents – was less than half of the rates in St. Louis (about 61 per 100,000) and Baltimore (about 51 per 100,000). The FBI notes that various factors might influence a particular area’s crime rate, including its population density and economic conditions.
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5Most crimes are not reported to police, and most reported crimes are not solved. In its annual survey, BJS asks victims of crime whether they reported that crime to police. In 2018, only 43% of violent crimes tracked by BJS were reported to police. And in the much more common category of property crime, only about a third (34%) were reported. There are a variety of reasons crime might not be reported, including a feeling that police “would not or could not do anything to help” or that the crime is “a personal issue or too trivial to report,” according to BJS.
Most of the crimes that are reported to police, meanwhile, are not solved, at least based on an FBI measure known as the “clearance rate.” That’s the share of cases each year that are closed, or “cleared,” through the arrest, charging and referral of a suspect for prosecution (or through “exceptional means,” such as the death of a suspect or a victim’s refusal to cooperate with a prosecution). In 2018, police nationwide cleared 46% of violent crimes that were reported to them. For property crimes, the national clearance rate was 18%.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published Feb. 21, 2017.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87)] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/20...n-the-u-s/[/color]
My comment:
Homosexuality is now legal in all 50 states, and laws against marijuana have become much more permissive. The peak time for violent crime was when leaded gasoline was still readily available and was messing up the minds of children, with consequences in adulthood due to the bad effects of lead in learning disabilities and impulse control (criminals are generally stupid people with poor impulse control. The effects of lead were most severe where vehicle emissions were highest, which as a pattern meant in the urban areas closest to the final destinations of most commuters. The effect has abated greatly as we have seen lead disappear from vehicle fuels.
Furthermore, Americans have completely given up on the idea that poverty creates criminality. We have learned that most crime is connected to a small number offenders who are one-man or one-gang crime waves. DNA profiling is making it harder to get away with crime. As an example, burglars are often rapists, and DNA tests of burglars has often brought solutions to rape cases. The legal system might still be lenient on first-time offenders, but serial offenders face "lock-'em-up-and-lose the key" sentencing. Taking offenders off the street is one way to reduce crime in bedeviled neighborhoods. (There are plenty of good people even in the nastiest slums, and blaming poor people for crime is ultimately racist).
Because the police have better techniques for identifying criminals, crooks are being busted earlier. Someone like Ted Bundy could get away with 20+ murders (usually involving rape). Someone like he would not get away with so many now; DNA would get him fast.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
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