You seem hateful.

> terrorize large cities

Oh I wonder what kind of terror he's talking about

> Illegal blocking of sidewalk selling fake handbags

Jesus Christ. If this is what brings you to a surveillance state with open arms maybe you should talk to people outside of your bubble.

It doesn't have to be like this. Why do you accept it? Serious question. You don't need a surveillance state. How many indignities do you stomach for what exactly? Some false sense of freedom? Freedom to buy illegal unlicensed untaxed weed? Freedom to get run over by a delivery ebike?

> How many indignities do you stomach for what exactly?

People selling handbags neither threatens my dignity nor makes me indignant.

When I think of "terrorize", I think of things like.. y'know, people strapped with explosives, blowing up buses full of civilians. Or something like the Rape of Nanking, where Japanese army killed and raped their way across the city. The Japanese terrorized the city, literally instilling a nightmarish-level of fear.

I can't place "they're terrorizing me by selling handbags" anywhere in the same universe. If you're genuinely frightened by this, I would like to gently suggest you talk this through with a therapist.

> Why do you accept it?

I don't. I work every day to help my community and I hope you do the same.

> You don't need a surveillance state

Then don't call for one. If you'd like to change your community, again, I'd recommend you to stop being scared and just start talking to more people around you.

You seem to think everyone should conform to one homogenous way of life. This was tried in Europe a little under a century ago and it did not turn out well.

Brother, you want mass surveillance because of bikes, handbags, and weed.

I guarantee there is _some_ group that finds some aspect of you, your life, or that of some of your loved ones at least as annoying as you find those things.

What group is that? Im part of the 95% that doesn't want filth and crime on our streets. Stop pretending like you don't understand. Like oh however can we decide whether homeless drug addicts w their pitbulls blocking the sidewalk is not optimal.

> "filth and crime"

checks, it's "people selling untaxed marijuana"

Yeahhhh, we have radically different ideas about what constitutes "they're terrorizing my city".

Casual use of heavy-handed law enforcement makes things much, much worse, not better.

Heavy handed? How about light handed. You're not allowed to sell illegal drugs on the street? Why do we allow this? Do you just not believe that there should be no laws that prevent people from posting up convenience stores on street corners? Or that police should look the other way bc it's too heavy handed to just detain the few dozen ppl that do this until they stop.

This wasn't a thing 10 years ago and we weren't in a police state

> This wasn't a thing 10 years ago and we weren't in a police state

Curious then that you are arguing in favor of a police state with mass surveillance to solve these issues...

> You're not allowed to sell illegal drugs on the street? ... Or that police should look the other way bc it's too heavy handed to just detain the few dozen ppl that do this until they stop.

I don't think you need to arrest someone because they're selling an untaxed legal substance, no. (And: weed should be legal, if we're talking about a place where it's not).

You can manage this situation better by getting their info and issuing a ticket. On its face, it doesn't warrant an escalation of force, the extra paperwork, or choking up the jails -- all of which represent very real costs to us, the taxpayers.

> This wasn't a thing 10 years ago and we weren't in a police state

Buddy, I have some news for you about the history of the US. Ten years ago, which country/countries had the highest incarceration rate in the world?

Selling untaxed Marijuana in a legal state is not selling 'illegal drugs', just saying.

Lots of people are scared of those who are different or unfamiliar. They live in their own bubble - prefering homogenous suburbs, non-poor office workers, algorithmic feeds for their cognitive biases, etc.

And fear, whether real or induced by manipulation, has precipitated a -lot- of atrocities in the world.

The issues you are complaining about are not issues due to a lack of mass surveillance. You're arguing in favor of mass surveillance with a diatribe of complaints over petty crimes that you describe as terrorism, while ignoring any of the potential downsides of what you are arguing for. Consider that you also break laws yourself, even if you think you don't, and what you are arguing for can and will be used against you too (not that one needs to break any laws for mass surveillance to be utilized against them).

Wow I never knew the 90 year old racist grandpa with the barely functioning pickup truck who lives on my block had a HN account.

This comment is satire, correct?

take a quick scroll through their substack, there's even funnier stuff than fake handbag outrage

Not even close. Welcome to the mind of the average right wing boomer

Why is this a reality? Tokyo is not like this. There was a lot less of this petty criminality 10 years ago.

If you read about the Japanese legal & policing system, you'll understand why - and the trade-offs that are made.

I love Japan. I love Tokyo.

But go look at the conviction rate in Japan - it's not because their police are just so much better than ours that they just never get the wrong person. I would never argue for the Japanese legal and police system in America.

Go move to Tokyo then. I'm sure their safe and open society will welcome you.

>There was a lot less of this petty criminality 10 years ago.

No there wasn't. Or are you saying that because material reality is now encroaching on your bubble?

That's cute, the whole "if you don't like it leave" argument.

But I am not Japanese. I have no ties in Tokyo and they have a sensible immigration policy that doesn't allow just anyone to come.

I'm American and want to make America a safer and better place for the 95% of people that want to live in an orderly society.

Of course there was less crime in NYC 10 years ago. Don't gas light me. Bootleg handbag sales were Chinatown only, there wasn't weed sales on every corner in midtown. Fentanyl zombies weren't a thing. Things weren't perfect, we still had subway dancers and pushy CD scammers, but it wasn't nearly as bad

> to live in an orderly society.

See Demolition Man (1993) for an example of this.

Ah yes, the sheer terror of someone selling handbags.

If you consider that terrorizing, you need help.

In Kherson the fiber controlled drones that drop explosives on civilians are terrorizing the cities, but that's nothing in comparison to illegal handbags!