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A
RECE T
survey of 1.600 ran–
domly elected Ncw Yorkers
revea led that only one percent
of them were innoccnt of a major
felony tha t could la nd them in jail
for a year or more. The average re–
spondent was guilty of fifteen o r
mo re such crimes.
New York, of coursc. is noted for
it crime rate. but th e same type of
survey was a lso takcn in America's
" Bible Belt. " Res pectable college
students from middlc class Texan
families were found, in this survey.
to be only sli ghtly less guilty of seri–
ous fclonie than were the ii less for–
tunate contemporaries who were
servi ng time in the loca l reforma–
LOries o r sta te penitentiaries.
The main ditfe rencc be tween the
"good" people and th e "bad" cr imi–
na ls in each survey seemed to be
that the eollege student in T exas
a nd the man on the street in New
York C ity had beco clever enough
to escape detect ion and punishment.
Do Bad Guys Wear
Black Hats?
In the old Weste rns, it was easy to
spot the bad guy. He had a black
hat. if no l a black ho rse a nd black
shirt too . T he hero, of course. had
the white ha t.
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The clues aren't as obviou in
mode rn society . but most of us still
expect the world to be neatly di–
v ided into good and bad people: the
Communists vs. the Ame rica ns. the
crimina ls vs. lhe good people, or just
"our" team vs. your team.
Most of us have been e rroneously
led to believe in such a black-vs.–
white- hat dichotomy. One reason
for this unfortunate division is the
glaring and obvious evil o f ome
kinds o f crime. The Roma n Em–
pire's g leeful ma rty rdom of the
Chris tia ns aod the Third Re ich'
met hodical e limina tion of the Jews
are two vivid example .
These highly vi ib lc crimes have
only served to r e inforce the public's
misconception that they, as "good"
people, musl rush to protect them–
selves from the in idious ma levolen t
c rimina l e le me nl lurkin g some–
where in the dark shadows out
there, just waiting to "get" them.
Bad Guys W ear Wh ite
Hat s Too!
"Good" people a re keeping a bil–
lion dollar securities industry in
business designing eve r more so–
phisticated method for keeping
" bad ' ' peopl e off the ir property. Yet
those same worried cit izens who pa-
t ronize the pa ranoia market are
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quite often robbing the boss blind in
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broad daylight!
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The boss. in turn , may be cheat-
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a:
ing the government ou t or corporale
and persona l income laxes. while 1
g
the government itself - not to be
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outdonc- may be subsidizing ma s
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:::
murder in sorne distant countr) un-
der the guise of patriou m. capJta l–
i s m. and/or rel ig ious and
idcological cau.es.
Each link in thi,) chain of crime is
no t o much concerned wuh his own
sins as he i in catch111g thosc who
a re sinning against him. fhe con–
cero o f most anti-crime specches
1s
the "crime explosion" rcnected 111
F.B. l. stati tics. This. of course, rc–
nects only the most obvious vJolcnt
behavior. The seven F.B. I. index
crimes cover murder. rape. assau lt.
robbery. auto theft. larcen) and
burglar). othmg elsc.
Most of these scven deadly sms.
howevcr, go unreported or unde–
tected. In the sanctily of the Ameri–
can home. aggravated assault oftcn
goes under the name "child bcat–
ing": forci ble rape can occur be–
tween husband and wife; larcen)
takes place on the income tax form:
a nd misdemeanors such as drunken
behavior. disturbance of the peace.
PLAIN TRUTH
January
1975