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A comment on Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination. Parent comment

Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by PM_me_your_math on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @08:58AM (#34895538)
They have to show they are doing something because they are not doing anything else.
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by yeahbutiguess on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @09:03AM (#34895607)
Seattle is doing tons of stuff. They recently upzoned a huge amount of the city, approved ranked choice voting, approved social housing, expanded rail, fixed a major bridge failure before it failed, and plenty more.

Crime rates are down, the city has grown astronomically, etc.

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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by the_doctah on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @09:25AM (#34895980)
I had a feeling your claim about crime rate was untrue so I googled it. It turned out to be wildly untrue. Crime rates are way up.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/seattl...

It's a "soft on crime" blue city. Crime doesn't go down.

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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by yeahbutiguess on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @09:28AM (#34896049)
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/is-seattle-dy...

Look at these graphs. Crime has consistently fallen.

The article you linked is discussing a recent uptick after a stable period of low crime. They've cherry picked the statistics to not show the huge drop in crime over the past 40 years.

Yes, crime is down in Seattle.

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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by the_doctah on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @09:30AM (#34896086)
Read this report please.

https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/Police/Reports...

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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by yeahbutiguess on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @09:46AM (#34896364)
I have. I've lived here for nearly 40 years. I've been active in politics here and I've experience with both the data and the anecdotes.

Seattle has less crime then it did 40, 30, and 20 years ago. The past three years were exceptional and the report does indicate increased rates of violent crime.

But we had a global pandemic, a contentious election, a spotlight on police brutality, etc.

I guess you can make the call, whether you think that's a trend or an anomaly, but when I look at the data I see us having a crime rate half of what it used to be, with an uptick in the most unusual years in a generation.

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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by the_doctah on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @09:57AM (#34896527)
What do you think that Seattle is doing right to combat crime?
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by zardo on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @12:50PM (#34899641)
They still have cops, courts, and jails in Seattle.
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by edgyquant on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @10:01AM (#34896594)
So when faced with proof you lied your defense is to say that your anecdotal evidence is better than state? Give me a break.
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by 206lol on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @10:12AM (#34896781)
They supplied data from the state showing the longer trend line. Scroll up a few comments.

Both posters are correct, and supplied data.

Crime rates are half what they used to be, that's true. Crime rates have also gone up very recently, that's also true.

No need to be so hostile.

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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by giraffe_lady on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @10:20AM (#34896933)
Read this report by a group strongly incentivized to and rewarded by a creation of the perception that crime is high, about how high you should perceive crime to be.
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by the_doctah on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @10:25AM (#34897012)
Where I'm from we call it a "primary source".
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by giraffe_lady on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @11:52AM (#34898469)
When you learned how to use primary sources did they teach you to take them at face value without any consideration of the purpose, goals, constraints, and motivations of the people who created them?
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by the_doctah on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @12:01PM (#34898617)
I'm curious what other source you would even reference in this situation? Also do you really think the police intentionally misreport numbers that make themselves look bad?
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by giraffe_lady on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @12:15PM (#34898921)
I doubt there's a single trustworthy authoritative source that presents a complete picture. I'm not saying completely ignore or dismiss what the police say, but consider it in its context as one piece of information, published by an organization with its own needs and biases, rather than the single defining instance.

Police definitely lie a lot, and invest significant resources in outreach and PR, which we would straightforwardly call propaganda if someone else was doing it. The motivations are probably more complex than just what makes them look bad. And the mechanisms are probably more sophisticated than simply publishing completely false data in a report.

> Also do you really think the police intentionally misreport numbers that make themselves look bad?

But basically yes I do.

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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by edgyquant on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @10:00AM (#34896580)
Social housing is a horrible idea and it only passed because voter turnout is so low. Seattle is doing a lot of nothing and anyone living here can tell you that.
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Re:Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination by phillipcarter on Wednesday February 22, 2023 @10:53AM (#34897500)
Metro resident since 2015 here, aside from rising home prices just about everything has gotten better for me. Expanded transit, light rail will be within walking distance of my house in 2 years, better food and restaurants, incredible schools for the future with kids, etc. That doesn't happen because people sit around with their thumbs up their butts.
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