Youths and parolees deemed at risk of becoming involved in shootouts are paid up to $1,000 a month to keep them from killing people
BarkGrowlBite | July 6, 2016
The California city of Richmond, which is a predominantly black city in the San Francisco Bay area, has a well-deserved reputation for being a cesspool of crime and murder.
The other day I was watching an NBC news program which raved about a program in Richmond which pays thugs up to $1,000 a month not to kill people. Young adults and recent parolees deemed at risk of becoming involved in shootouts are selected to participate in this program. In other words, thugs are being bribed in order to reduce the city’s homicide rate.
According to the Washington Post, those participating in the program are mentored by ex-cons that have been hired by the city. The ex-cons are allowed to overlook some crimes which come to their attention that are committed by the participants while they are in the program.
The mentors are instructed not to report those crimes to the police. According to the Post, “When the elaborate efforts at engagement fail, the mentors still pay those who pledge to improve, even when they are suspected of murder.” At least twice, that may have allowed suspected killers in the program to avoid arrest, thereby getting away with murder.
The mentors meet frequently with the participants and according to the Post, “Those in the program begin by drafting a “life map” and setting goals — such as applying for a job, going back to school or communicating better with family. They meet with facilitators who, unbeknown to the young men, are psychologists or sociologists. Together, they talk through issues in what amounts to stealth therapy.”
Some of the thugs have been paired with rival gang members and provided with all-expense paid trips to places like South Africa, London and Mexico City. By providing time away from its mean streets, the city hopes the rival gang thugs will forge new relationships with each other.
According to DeVone Boggan, the director of Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and founder of the program, five years into the multimillion-dollar experiment, 84 of 88 young men who have participated in the program remain alive, and 4 in 5 have not been suspected of another gun crime or suffered a bullet wound. And the program is credited with cutting Richmond’s homicide rate in half since its inception.
Washington, D.C. is preparing to adopt a “Bribe-a-Thug” program similar to Richmond’s. Miami, Toledo, Baltimore and other cities are also considering adopting such a program.
Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Ex-cons are being paid to mentor other ex-cons and gangbangers while hushing up crimes they may be committing, including murder. Those gangbanging thugs and parolees are being paid up to $1,000 a month and provided with all-expense paid trips to far-away places in the hope they will stop shooting each other. Who says crime does not pay?
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