4 ms·

There was a fair bit of civil rights activity, vigilantism, defund the police initiatives, and riots that coincided with this period that almost certainly was e

There was a fair bit of civil rights activity, vigilantism, defund the police initiatives, and riots that coincided with this period that almost certainly was exacerbated by Covid mandates. We also lack social services other Western nations have and homelessness spiked in big cities coinciding with loss of employment. I hid out in the Denver Lodo area by the main train station in a luxury building doing my cushy remote software gig while right outside my building were bands of homeless teens doing hard drugs in broad daylight. Occasionally assaults happened, sometimes for seemingly no reason. There was a citizen patrol group formed by homeowners to help keep the area safe by working with the police until permanent encampments were set up. Some homeowners were irate about what police would and wouldn’t do. It was a weird time. I hate saying this as I’m firmly on the left and this stuff is a bogeyman of the right, but I imagine it must play a role if we’re trying to ask what was unique about US culture during this period.

silverquiet 3y ago
I had a coworker whose remote job in the suburb didn’t protect him and he became one of the pandemic murder statistics after his wife shot him in the head. I doubt the increase in murders was driven by random street violence; murder had almost always been amongst people known to each other.
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  Not murder, but the divorce rate supposedly boomed in China as people were stuck in apartments with their SOs. China's lockdown was much more harsh than the USA's, however. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-31/divorces-spike-in-china-after-coronavirus-quarantines?embedded-checkout=true https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-31/divorces-...
- brandall10 3y ago
  Intimate partner homicide seems like it would be a major factor, but that apparently wasn't the case. "There was no significant change in intimate partner homicides during shutdown months and victimization survey reports of intimate partner violence were lower". https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343070/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343070/
- brandall10 3y ago
  Also annecdotal, we had a few random murders in Denver in public places at the time in the news shortly after I arrived. I hadn't even been there a week and there was a manhunt with about a dozen police cars outside my building. Someone shot someone point blank at a supermarket just a few blocks away. I can't underscore enough how nice that area I was staying in, it was one of the most expensive places in the whole city... my landlord sold the 1 bedroom condo I lived in for $675k after I left in 2022.

silverquiet 3y ago

I had a coworker whose remote job in the suburb didn’t protect him and he became one of the pandemic murder statistics after his wife shot him in the head. I doubt the increase in murders was driven by random street violence; murder had almost always been amongst people known to each other.

seanmcdirmid 3y ago
Not murder, but the divorce rate supposedly boomed in China as people were stuck in apartments with their SOs. China's lockdown was much more harsh than the USA's, however. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-31/divorces-spike-in-china-after-coronavirus-quarantines?embedded-checkout=true https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-31/divorces-...
brandall10 3y ago
Intimate partner homicide seems like it would be a major factor, but that apparently wasn't the case. "There was no significant change in intimate partner homicides during shutdown months and victimization survey reports of intimate partner violence were lower". https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343070/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9343070/
brandall10 3y ago
Also annecdotal, we had a few random murders in Denver in public places at the time in the news shortly after I arrived. I hadn't even been there a week and there was a manhunt with about a dozen police cars outside my building. Someone shot someone point blank at a supermarket just a few blocks away. I can't underscore enough how nice that area I was staying in, it was one of the most expensive places in the whole city... my landlord sold the 1 bedroom condo I lived in for $675k after I left in 2022.