[FoRK] Open Arms

[J. Andrew Rogers]

On Jan 14, 2008, at 10:29 PM, Stephen D. Williams wrote:
> Which leads to the point that these guys know they have safe havens  
> that they can slip off to where they aren't going to be successfully  
> chased by either cops or bystanders.  Which leads to the conclusion  
> that the cops are ineffective.  The problems don't spill over to the  
> nicer neighborhoods so much, probably, exactly because they'd be  
> stranded in a sea of people who would chase their ass, calling in  
> their location the whole way.


Way back when I lived in Mountain View, the Mountain View police spent  
all their time around East Palo Alto; there was some kind of agreement  
between the cities as I understood it.  Apparently most of the trouble  
that cropped up in Mountain View did not originate there but was  
presumed to originate in East Palo Alto, and so there was a concerted  
effort to contain the underlying cause.

It is intentionally a bit like Maxwell's demon, as a matter of law  
enforcement policy.  There are a few spots in the Bay Area that are  
*really bad*, among the worst in the nation.  But as a consequence  
most of the Bay Area is extremely safe.  They do not try to stop all  
violent crime so much as contain it in very tightly bounded regions  
that creates extremes of both safety and crime.  I've spent a lot of  
time in a lot of cities, but I have always had the personal impression  
that Silicon Valley is sufficiently safe that one does not have to  
concern themselves with it in most cases and far better than many  
other "safe" locales.

Of course, there is no "there" there, being one giant office park and  
suburb...

J. Andrew Rogers