{"id":163582,"date":"2025-09-07T06:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=163582"},"modified":"2025-09-07T08:03:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T16:03:26","slug":"at-the-mercy-of-the-worst-among-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=163582","title":{"rendered":"At The Mercy Of The Worst Among Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some provocative posts on X:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This murderer&#39;s name is Decarlos Brown. He has been arrested 13 times, two of which were for assaulting women.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2025, Judge Teresa Stokes allowed him to be released on no cash bail.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Brown&#39;s public defender questioned his mental capacity. The judge, Roy\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/L1OneXuPTl\">https:\/\/t.co\/L1OneXuPTl<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/z5Nm71Y2Xx\">pic.twitter.com\/z5Nm71Y2Xx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnLeFevre\/status\/1964530342703895027?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<p>The next post says: &#8220;Maybe the most important thing you learn by attending public school is that we are all at the mercy of the bottom quintile. The rules you follow in life will be based on the behavior of the bottom quintile, the taxes you pay are to support the bottom quintile, the greatest risks to your life and property will come from the bottom quintile, the dearth of comfortable public spaces is because you have to allow the bottom quintile to be there, our zoning laws are developed for fear of the bottom quintile.<\/p>\n<p>Probably best to learn and accept this early.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>ChatGPT, the least PC AI bot, says: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The claim in the image is provocative\u2014it says society in America is structured primarily around managing or protecting against the \u201cbottom quintile\u201d (roughly the lowest 20% by income, education, or social status). That\u2019s an exaggeration, but there are kernels of truth in it.<\/p>\n<p>Where It Has Some Truth<\/p>\n<p>Public safety risks: Violent crime, property crime, and homelessness are statistically more concentrated in the lowest socioeconomic groups. Many policing, security, and zoning decisions are explicitly about reducing the risks (real or perceived) from this group. Think of gated communities, exclusionary zoning, and \u201cbroken windows\u201d policing.<\/p>\n<p>Public space quality: Middle-class Americans often avoid public parks, libraries, or mass transit if they perceive them as dominated by unstable or threatening behavior. This produces a feedback loop where public spaces decline in quality precisely because the \u201cbottom quintile\u201d becomes overrepresented in them.<\/p>\n<p>Regulation and law: Zoning laws, loitering laws, even certain welfare restrictions are designed with fear of disorder at the margins in mind. Much of suburban design (cul-de-sacs, malls, mandatory parking, separation of residential from commercial) was about social control as much as convenience.<\/p>\n<p>Schooling: Public schools do socialize middle-class kids into navigating environments with peers from all backgrounds. The claim that you \u201clearn early\u201d that rules are set to constrain the least disciplined resonates with how classroom management works: teachers often slow everything down for the disruptive few.<\/p>\n<p>Where It\u2019s Overstated or False<\/p>\n<p>Taxes: The bulk of government spending isn\u2019t going to the bottom quintile. The biggest line items are Medicare and Social Security (middle-class and elderly), defense, and debt service. Programs targeted to the bottom quintile (SNAP, TANF, housing vouchers) are a small fraction of the budget.<\/p>\n<p>Economic rules: Regulations, finance laws, tax codes, and workplace norms are overwhelmingly written for and by the top quintile, not the bottom. The wealthy shape most of the \u201crules you follow\u201d through lobbying, corporate power, and cultural prestige.<\/p>\n<p>Risk distribution: Yes, crime rates are higher in poorer areas, but most Americans will never be victimized by serious crime. Other major risks to life (car crashes, opioids, chronic disease, financial crises) cut across class lines, often driven by corporate or systemic forces, not just the \u201cbottom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cultural norms: Much of American cultural life is designed for middle-class consumption (streaming, sports, dining, social media), not in reaction to the poor. The fear of downward mobility often motivates people more than fear of the bottom quintile itself.<\/p>\n<p>The Big Picture<\/p>\n<p>What the text captures well is that Americans often feel \u201cruled\u201d by the disruptive minority\u2014the kid who wrecks the classroom, the addict on the bus, the criminal who makes the news. There\u2019s truth in that at the level of day-to-day friction. But at the structural level\u2014politics, economics, culture\u2014the top quintile and corporate\/elite interests have far more influence in shaping laws, zoning, taxes, and the life you actually live.<\/p>\n<p>So: partially true at the level of daily life and urban planning, overstated or false at the level of national power and resource allocation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some provocative posts on X: This murderer&#39;s name is Decarlos Brown. He has been arrested 13 times, two of which were for assaulting women. In January 2025, Judge Teresa Stokes allowed him to be released on no cash &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=163582\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21791],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163592,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163582\/revisions\/163592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}