Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Knives and Potholes

Beware, as in the following discussion, there are some topics that you may find depressing, but they need to be discussed. Over the last few days two totally unrelated things caught my attention, and form the basis for this discussion.
The first is that over the first three months of 2018, the murder rate in London was more than the murder rate in New York City. This is a surprise because although the populations of the two cities are each about 8.5 million, England has strict gun control laws.
(A lot of the following is taken from The Guardian, one of London’s premiere newspapers.)
At this point criminologists have expressed caution about drawing conclusions from only a few months’ figures, but if the uptick continues, it will amount to London’s highest level of violence in more than a decade. Most of the killings in London so far have been stabbings, most apparently carried out by young people. Knife crime in Britain rose by 21 percent last year, and stabbings in London were at their highest level in six years, according to figures released in September by the Office for National Statistics. The head of the Metropolitan Police Force, Cressida Dick, partly blamed social media for the rise in knife crime in London, which accounts for the majority of killings in the city. In December, she appealed for increased funding for police forces despite overall cuts to public services in order to fight the rise in knife crimes.

My question here is: “Does this imply that those with a penchant for violence in London have found different ways to fulfill their violent tendencies after you have taken away their guns?”

The second totally unrelated issue is potholes.
The other day as we were driving down a major street, my wife commented how bad the potholes were as my right front tire went over a pothole that could have been used to plant a tree! In a city that has arguably the best weather in the U.S., why are there so many unfilled potholes? Apparently the answer, as usual, relates to money, as in . . . there is only so much money to go around. On that same day there was a major spread in our newspaper about funding for suicide prevention measures for the Coronado Bridge. Projected costs for various different models range from $5 million to $137 million with only about 40% of this coming from the state, and the rest coming from local funding and donations. With limited funding in California available for mental health, officials have started looking at “transportation funding” to provide the funds for this project.

Now here comes the tough part. Some uncomfortable questions:
Is “transportation funding” the same local funding that fixes potholes?
Suicide prevention seems like a mental health issue. I am saddened each time someone commits suicide, but shouldn’t the funding for some sort of barrier to prevent people from jumping off the Coronado Bridge come from mental health funding?
And finally, if someone is depressed enough to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge will they just find another means to accomplish their goal if jumping off of the bridge is no longer a feasible option?
In other words, if the bridge is no longer a suicide option will these depressed individuals just find another option, similar to those with a penchant for violence in London have now resorted to knives to accomplish the end results of intimidation, violence, and murder?

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