Tough-on-Crime for You, Serve-and-Protect for Me

Abstract

This chapter discusses the United States' support for the highly aggressive enforcement of extremely broad criminal laws in the country. It seeks to understand the primary mechanism that has been used to turn the often-violent suppression and caging of human beings into a wealth-building opportunity, and focuses on the impact that the criminalization trap has had on US citizens. The chapter also explores how media and “public education” efforts shift and distort people's perception of crime in significant ways. It analyses the process of criminalization and how the media tend to direct the public gaze toward Black and Brown communities. It then highlights the United States' attention on criminal justice efforts within Back and Brown communities, and how the police's militant boots-on-the-ground strategy, enforcement discretion, and hyperaggressive policing tactics impacted communities of color. Ultimately, the chapter presents some examples of the many ways in which the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in the United States benefit from the mass criminalization and incarceration system.