The Carrot and the Stick

“The Carrot and the Stick”

This old saying might apply to violent crime also, and their consequences.

Pleasure and benefits (The Carrot), and violent punishment (The Stick), seem to be part of the human condition. Feeble communities need protection against abuse, and some are willing to surrender their liberties to violent force and “vendettas”.

For decades and even centuries the “Maffia”—organized crime, has survived combating establishment police and justice systems. A mainly agricultural and pre industrial human organization, has survived—despite recurrent police blows--- by trafficking in illegal trades: prostitution, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, alcohol ban, drugs and others items, thus  providing some  “protection” to poor immigrant and feeble communities—at a very high cost, certainly. Making violent and crime a way of life, these rings of Mafiosi cliques, have confronted police forces with daunting challenges for decades.

These sorrows, these crimes, seem to be a horrific contradiction of our lives. But humans are not spared from the violence of nature: hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, mud-slides, floods, famines and plagues. Of course, man made sorrows are similar and very unfortunate: war and crime are part of our lives—unfortunately. We can  diminish  all these phenomena. This is a long time human aspiration.