My new favorite phrase re Baltimore's Crime Problem

"The city has left-winged itself right into its own hell."
A City Paper reader, Maggie Blom, coined the phrase in a letter venting about the lack of police resources in our beloved Baltimore. http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=11386
I love it. It coincides with one of my favorite lines from Batman Begins "Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding." Too often left-wingers are more concerned with criminals and their problems than in providing consequences for their actions and protecting our city from crime. Criminals take advantage of this to further their criminal lifestyle...they thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding.
Baltimore has been ruled by left-wingers for over forty years. Look what has become of the city. It'a mess. There's a lot of good things happening here, but that's despite the left-wingers - not because of it. Competition, investment, and free enterprise are driving extraordinary growth in the areas around the harbor. Things are great in these areas, but many areas of the city are struggling. I believe it's the fault of left-wing policies.
Too often left-wingers are trying to fix other people's problems. They see crime as a result of societal factors and discount punishment. I believe that as a society we have an obligation to provide punishment to those who commit crime. In fact, we do them a disservice when we let them off easy. People need to see the consequences of their actions or they will never learn why their bad behavior is bad. Letting people off easy only encourages that behavior because there has been no serious consequence for their actions.
Now, I will acknowledge that there are many imperfections in how our justice system works and it's evident that there is a racial bias in how our society enforces it's laws. The problem is not that persons of color are punished more severely, however. The problem is that whites are not punished severely enough or targeted enough. Too many people in this town see the solution to countering this bias as letting people of color off easy. That's counter-productive. Much like the welfare system of the 1980s that only provided an incentive for people to stay on welfare and not find work, instead of providing an incentive to get off welfare and find work -- this approach only encourages criminal behavior.
Finally, this is not to say all left-wing positions are bad. What is needed is the push and pull, the balance of a bipartisan system. That has been absent in Baltimore for a long time and its had serious negative affects. A balance between the right and the left is the best. Of course, to achieve this balance in Baltimore, there's going to have to be a LOT of tugging to the right just to get close to the center.

Now for something personal

Alzheimers sucks. My father has it. It's a horrible disease. Slowly, each day, my father loses more of his mind. In the beginning, he knew he was losing his ability to remember. Now, he only acknowledges that "I can't talk anymore." When he speaks, he makes absolutely no sense. It is so sad.
He is literally losing his mind. Not in the sense that he is going "crazy," but in the sense that his ability to express coherent thoughts is slowly slipping away. He still recognizes my voice, but he doesn't really know who I am. Yet, at the end of our conversation, he will tell me that he misses me. He is in a home now and has been for the past five months so I know that he is safe, but it's still hard to watch someone you love die the way my father is dying.
My younger brother has it worse. He lives nearby and tries to visit him 3 or 4 days a week. My younger brother has a marijuana/alcohol addiction. I think seeing my father so often and dealing with the disease directly exacerbates his addiction. He was a pretty functional addict before, but now it's starting to affect others. The care manager has contacted me and said that she has seen him come visit my father drunk and them take him out on an excursion and she is concerned.
My sister lives nearby my father also and now she is on a self-righteous warpath to confront my brother about his addiction and give him consequences. She wants to organize an intervention. She wants to ban him from taking my father out of his "home." My brother just turned 30 and has been smoking/drinking since my mother died when he was 17. We have tried in the past to help my brother realize his problem, but nothing in recent years. He doesn't want to be helped. My sister, who loves tackling other people's problems, but cannot seem to solve her own, is all riled up. I don't know what to do.