Is Out-Of-Control Street Crime Now Prevalent In Brazil?

[SS-18 ICBM]

Pwnt, I'd say.

Yes, because I certainly was aware of current events as a toddler. Settle down.

 

[CaptainF]

The colombians could crush their drug lords (and partly did so), so could the mexicans, and so can the brazilians, etc. What happens is that states are often unwilling to do it, for various local reasons. But when some of these groups makes the mistake of "declaring war" on the state, it does get crushed. Btw, I expect a similar outcome in Mexico, once the government there decides that things have gone too far and gets its act together.

As we have seen, the Colombians and Mexicans have been unsuccessful in stopping the drug trade.

 

[Bugfatty300]

States always win against petty internal troublemakers, and these criminals, despite their megalomania, are never anything more that than. Their resources are pathetic compared to what any state can mobilize, and their capacity to attract support is limited by their predatory nature. To have even a faint chance of challenging a state they'd have to at least develop some kind of ideology and move beyond simple crime.

The colombians could crush their drug lords (and partly did so), so could the mexicans, and so can the brazilians, etc. What happens is that states are often unwilling to do it, for various local reasons. But when some of these groups makes the mistake of "declaring war" on the state, it does get crushed. Btw, I expect a similar outcome in Mexico, once the government there decides that things have gone too far and gets its act together.

You're assuming criminals want to challenge or take on the government to begin with. That's not their goal and thus they don't need an ideology or political strategy or even popular support.

They're just out to make money.

And you can't really crush crime with a police surge or a military attack.

 

[innonimatu]

You're assuming criminals want to challenge or take on the government to begin with. That's not their goal and thus they don't need an ideology or political strategy or even popular support.

They're just out to make money.

And you can't really crush crime with a police surge or a military attack.

Oh, but I wasn't saying that states will crush crime. I was saying that states will crush the criminals who make a point of challenging state power. Which is something the fools typically do not so much out of a desire to take over the state but just due to vanity.
Common crime isn't a threat to a state. But some criminal group openly challenging the state - it will get destroyed. For example, in Italy after the mafia blew up Falcone that idiot Riina was finally hunted down and imprisioned, along with many other "bosses" - the remnants fell back to their old strategy of laying low. In Colombia when Pablo Escobar became too much of an embarrassment we was hunted down and killed. As for Colombia's and Mexico's attitude towards the drug trade in general, I'm not sure its governments really want to end it - it brings in a lot of money...

You can't crush crime by force, but you can crush particular groups - and get the message across.