People "Feel Unsafe" Because Visible Poverty Is Everywhere

Media hysteria around “rising crime” works because it touches on something real: a palpable increase in visible human suffering. What matters is how we alleviate that suffering.

A Washington Post article this week largely echoing Starbucks corporate’s claim that it’s shuttering its D.C. Union Station store due to “safety fears” is par for the course for this genre. As I laid out last week, Starbucks is pursuing closures that disproportionately affect stores that are unionized, or are about to unionize, using “crime” as a pretext. At the same time, the company is using the broader narrative of “Blue City Business Shut Down Due to Weak-on-Crime Libs” to contribute to a heightened political climate of anti-Black Lives Matter backlash. The Washington Post piece, to its…

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