Sacramento to Pay Thugs $1K Per Month Not to Commit Gun-Related Crimes

Last December we reported that a groundbreaking new program had reduced firearm-related homicides in Richmond, Ca., by 76 percent since 2007, all without restricting Second Amendment rights. Other cities have noticed the program’s effectiveness, and this month the Sacramento City Council approved a $1.5 million investment in the same strategy.

The program will be directed by an organization known as Advance Peace, whose founder, DeVone Boggan, spearheaded the model that saw so much success in Richmond.

The program targets the small percentage of city residents that commit the majority of gun-related crimes and offers them the chance to turn their lives around.

“We’re trying to get them to dream, to hope, to go from a place of ‘I don’t give a fuck’ to a place where ‘Maybe I do,’” DeVone Boggan told FastCoexist.com last year. “Because the moment you start to give a damn, you start to make decisions that are healthier about how you handle the conflicts you’re negotiating every day.”

SEE ALSO: A Real Solution to Gun-Related Violence? Programs Targeting ‘Key Offenders’ Show Promise

In Sacramento, only about 50 young men commit the majority of shootings, according to Khaalid Muttaqi, director of the city’s Gang Prevention and Intervention Task Force.

Advance Peace will reach out to these individuals and offer them help with education, career development, anger management, parenting, medical health, and spirituality.

There’s also a monetary incentive: if participants stay in the system and complete the required tasks, they will receive $1,000 per month for 9 months of the 18-month program. This strategy is sometimes described as “paying people not to commit crimes,” and Sacramento residents have wondered why 1.5 million taxpayer dollars will be handed out to these individuals.

But the program has proven to be effective, and according to Muttaqi, the estimated government cost of every homicide is more than $1 million, which includes the cost of investigation, prosecution and years of incarceration.

Sacramento has also seen a rise in gun-related violence over the last several years, and its leadership is looking for a solution.

“The need is there, the program has shown results and our community can’t wait.  The time is now for action to address gun violence,” said Vice Mayor Rick Jennings who also chairs the task force.

The problem is “bigger than we would like it to be and it’s going in the wrong direction,” added Muttaqi. “We’ve had an uptick of about 38 percent in the last couple of years in gun-related violence.”

Other cities including Washington, D.C., San Jose, Oakland, and Toledo, Ohio, have adopted Advance Peace’s model. Baltimore and Gary, Indiana, have plans to do the same.

  • Walter Morris June 19, 2020, 9:32 am

    200 people a year killed in automobile/animal collisions? We need a law making deer use crossings that are well marked with signs. Problem solved.

  • Alan June 16, 2020, 11:58 am

    Politicians again on record as pandering to criminals. Disgusting.

    Simply strengthen THEN enforce the law.. DUHHHHHHH Use a gun go to prison seemed to work.

    Jail the miscreants and not for a week. ten years a minimum.

    It’s obvious the voters that install these people must be of the criminal class.

  • Dr Don April 6, 2018, 10:20 am

    9 months crime free, then I predict…

  • Cryh April 6, 2018, 3:14 am

    Hahahahahahahaha. Good luck with that!

  • C April 6, 2018, 3:13 am

    Hahahahahahahaha. Good luck with that!

  • MASTERMECH48 November 5, 2017, 12:43 am

    Long term investment to assist in arming the local interested/qualified citizens would be much more positive and less capitol investment.

  • RustyLugNut October 13, 2017, 5:49 pm

    The stupidity of the majority of the article commenters does not reflect well on the gun community.

    There seems to be very little ability to actually understand written English. The program is not a simple payout. It is a required program that results in a stipend so that an individual can develop missing life skills to become a productive member of society. The draconian gun laws in California are just the other flip side of the problem. They attempt to fix the device and not the people. It costs California millions to run their gun control gauntlet. It costs multi-millions to deal with a single crime of murder. This program attacks the problem at its root for pennies on the dollar. The return on investment (ROI) is excellent. It will not work in every case, of course. But it will reduce the problem, and has, to the point tax money won’t have to be wasted dealing with the ever increasing and recurring problems of the most derelict members of our society.

    • Erick April 6, 2018, 3:52 pm

      I don’t have a problem with a city trying this program (especially if it’s not my city), but you have to realize the type of person this program is supposedly targeting (pun intended?): the very violent, known criminal, whom is ALREADY receiving help (food stamps, free housing, free education [programs even for college], free healthcare, free “subsidies” aka income, private organizations and churches dedicated to helping them too, and plenty more.)

      There is already help there…the vast majority of hard criminals do not want the help b/c the ‘life of crime’ is more appealing. It’s all about living fast, getting fast money any way you can, and the enjoyment of it. Entire books are written on the psychology side of this.

      Why would giving these types of people MORE of what they already receive or have at their disposal change their behavior? Maybe a small percentage will benefit and truly change, but most will not. They may temporarily slow down – to get that money at the end of 9 months – but will resort back to the behavior b/c they LIKE that lifestyle. The culture, music, art [tattoos, graffiti, etc], and so forth, glorifies crime. They don’t behave according to social norms b/c they reject social norms, willingly and voluntarily.

      At the end of the day, people make choices to obey the laws or not; to be productive citizens or scum bags; to do right or wrong – this proposed solution doesn’t address that, but only bribes someone in exchange to HOPE they will do better…but if all the other entitlement programs failed at abolishing poverty and crime, why would another program be any different?

      Maybe it will be different but I have reservations. Regardless, I hope I’m wrong and it actually works, but human behavior is predictable and the tract record of government is awful.

      • Robert January 24, 2020, 7:03 am

        Absolutely. Whoever says this program may help has OBVIOUSLY never been born & raised in a really bad neighborhood like myself. TRUST ME this type of sociopathic behavior is not only genetic, but taught as well. There’s NO amount of money that can EVER bribe someone to not do the thing they LOVE. How about this; try this program with a repeat sex offender, see how far you get. I know MANY cops/jailers/bailiffs and every single one of them says the exact same thing; “they’ll be back”… why? because they ALWAYS are. Every single time. Pay a repeat sex offender 5000 a month not to do it, what do yo think will happen. Right… How about this. I’ll pay YOU 5000 a month to stop smoking cold turkey… Any bets how long you’ll last? If you try the whole “a physical addiction cannot be compared to criminal behavior” argument then that just proves you have never even stepped foot into a genuinely bad city, or know not ONE single law enforcement officer.
        ALSO, what 99% of people reading this will not understand is that 99% of this program & it’s money is derived by the white man, so when those “50 young men” in Sacremento (and we alllll know whot those “young men” really are…) get their money, it’s money they 100% feel they’re 100% entitled to, because they’re “owed”. You will never, ever change that either. You OWE them that. That little chump change will never convert them from “giving a darn.”-it was theirs to begin with. You guys are also not taking into account their culture. You don’t comprehend it because you’ve never lived among it. If those guys get into that program and take the white man’s money, their cohorts will razz them hard & relentlessly because of it. That little chump change is nothing compared to the bullying they will receive by their peers. They can make that in a fun weekend of drug sales & robbery/larceny. You’re kidding yourselves. Even if this DID work, most of these “50 fine young gentlemen” aren’t capable of completing the entire program to begin with so, you’re still kidding yourselves. And you say that it cost a boatload to investigate and imprison these guys? Well who’s freaking fault is THAT?! Quit imprisoning these guys-put them in the chair man!! Or how about making the jails like Arapaio or Russia-nice and cheap, with no 1st world amenities lining all four walls… And Erick is right, they’re already RECEIVING tons of benefits. Again, people aren’t seeing this because they’ve never grown up in a really bad city. A few of my friends know the system inside and out, and even I was surprised growing up how many programs there are for job training, resume writing, free cars, free car repairs, cell phones, food stamps, welfare, etc etc. There’s also churches that hand out free stuff as well. I used to volunteer at a local church that used to house people at night for a place to sleep. These people abuse the system in a way it was never supposed to be. There WERE restrictions originally emplaced on these programs to prevent abuse, but the liberal dems all be made sure those were removed because they were all of a sudden out of nowhere “racist”… Yep, you guessed it, “rules” were now “racist”… And this is one of the VERY many reasons cities that run these apparently “non racist” social programs are up to their necks in debt. Every single one of them. This life of crime is not only genetic but cultural, and you’re silly little thousand a month for nine months will NEVER change that. Don’t believe me? How about this-show me in writing the rule/stopgap/restriction whatever that’s written into the program talking about the monetary or time threshold that if passed shows that the program was ineffective and will be terminated if passed. Something like “If by 2022, those core group of 50 fine young gentlemen doesn’t decrease to 25, the program will be terminated.” or “If by 4 million dollars spent, the violent crime in this city doesn’t decrease by at least 20%, the program will be terminated.” Because that would be “racist” huh… I also bet someone’s getting a tiny kickback from this program’s coffer’s too.

        50″young men”

  • Mike H. September 11, 2017, 4:35 pm

    I’ve always heard that there’s nothing but Fruits and Nuts in California. Guess this proves it! Getting paid to not be a criminal! Where do I sign up? A box of .22 hollow points would be a lot less expensive!

  • max hoyle September 10, 2017, 2:59 pm

    I like it! Can I get paid to not commit crimes?

  • GaryO September 10, 2017, 10:11 am

    If they know who the fifty people are who commits these crimes, then lock their ass up and keep them locked up. Bribery will get them into more trouble than they are already in. If they think this will stop a criminal they are only fooling themselves the criminals will only demand more and more money. They are libtard idots.

    • WHOGIVES A. KUCF April 27, 2018, 4:58 pm

      It seems “MORE” profitable to be ” DESPECABLE !

      PLEASE SEND MY CHECK!

  • Mattitude September 9, 2017, 8:41 pm

    I guess crime does pay…

  • Jim zhilbun September 8, 2017, 10:13 pm

    That’s blackmail of a public of official , which is a crime itself.

    • GaryO September 10, 2017, 10:17 am

      The criminals are not blackmailing anyone, the public official is the one offering the bribe,

  • Charles Smith September 8, 2017, 9:37 pm

    Interestingly, although these are liberals who have told us all along that guns cause crime and violence, there doesn’t seem to be any indication that they have tried to disarm any of the recipients of this public largesse. Is this a tacit admission on their part that they know the guns themselves are not the problem? IMHO this is exactly the case. They know that guns do not cause crimes, and are only trying to disarm the non-criminal public for their own political purposes.

    • Robert January 24, 2020, 7:08 am

      Dam, good point man! lol. 100% correct; they’re going after the PERSON this time. Wait, guns commit crimes… Shouldn’t we be paying the GUN not to commit the crime? That’s what I would do. CNN told me so.

  • elgavilansegoviano September 8, 2017, 7:40 pm

    ….Reminds me of OBozo paying Iran 150 BILLION Dollars in CASH so they behave good!!,…….It is called a BRIBE!!,…..Lefty Liberal DemocRats are very well verse in those endeavors!!,….

  • just1spark September 8, 2017, 4:44 pm

    While I dont necessarily oppose my tax dollars going towards someones ‘rehabilitation’, this reads much much differently. And a 1st grader could tell you it wouldnt work.

    Ive looked pretty deep to try to verify this story, and have found alot of places reporting this same thing, or close variations of it. But could not verify further, by finding a story that went more indepth with codes or laws sited in relation to said programs.

  • Davud September 8, 2017, 4:20 pm

    these are the criminals for whom prison is probably the only structure and organization they have in their lives. prison is not a deterrent for these people, it’s actually an incentive. there are not many thugs who are this far gone; 50 or so in sacramento, for example, out of thousands of gangbangers in a metro population of over 2.5 million.

    the idea is to entice these extra hard cases into programs that show them another kind of life, that incentivize life on the outside. it’s not guaranteed to work on any one individual, but the decrease of murders in richmond shows it works. the cost per person is $6,000 a year. prison costs about $75,000 per inmate per year in california, not including legal costs. it’s an 18-month program, not a permanent stipend, so nobody is making a career out of holding taxpayers hostage here.

    california has the fifth-highest incarceration rate in the nation, so it’s not like the fruits and nuts are just singing ‘kumbaya’ here and giving gangbangers the keys to the city. it’s a way of dealing with the worst of the worst when our capital punishment process is so screwed up that we can’t just purge these roaches.

    • Robert January 24, 2020, 7:19 am

      Negative Davud. These “extra hard” cases are “extra hard” because they’re hard wired man. You must have never met a career criminal before… Your little 9000 dollars spread out over nine months is NOTHING to make them want to stay out of their real homes, which is prison. And “job training”? Really? You’re going to “let” them work for some chump boss in some low wage job? Really? How long do you think that’s going to last man? You think a lifelong murderer is going to show up to work every day to work underneath some entitled person that “doesn’t know my story dog.”? Really lol. Not sure how people here don’t understand how insulting it is to a real thug to offer them true chump change over a nine month period, to LET them work in a menial job lol. Do you realize how bad the massive PTSD from prison screws with a guy after release? And now they’re supposed to just start showing up to work like a normal hum drum citizen? It doesnt work that way guys. And your little 9000 dollars surely won’t change that. I used to travel to Richmond quite often, and I don’t see any changes personally lol. Frankly, I doubt those decreased numbers to be honest.

  • Mauser6863 September 8, 2017, 3:54 pm

    So if we know who the “50 Kids” (How cute) that do the majority of the shootings, why have they not been arrested, their homes, cars and other places searched, etc.

    The program is going to give these 50 thugs $450,000 over 9 months.

    Well let’s do the math; 9mm costs around .14 cents a round,times 50, equals out to only $7.00. Tell you what, I will fix this problem for only $400k. I will also guarantee a recidivism rate 0%.

    Sign me up.

    • JohnL September 8, 2017, 7:08 pm

      Your facts are off 9mm costs more than 14 cents

      • GaryO September 10, 2017, 10:25 am

        you can still buy cheap FMJ 9mm ammo for around 14 cents a copy. The cheap Russian ammo is around 12 cents a copy. And it will still kill people.

        • Bill Brubek September 12, 2017, 9:20 am

          I suggest we could save even more by using the 7.62×25 Tokarov or Makarov and by using the surplus military ammo with the steel core penetrator…..which is quite cheap and Im willing to donate the required ammo fo the first 50 candidates in the program.By carefully lining said individual proffessional thugs up back to back ,we can achieve a successful kill rate of at least 5 per shot.Thats only 10 rnds!(russians achieved a success rate of 7/1 in WW2. Using this method)..they were ahead of the curve.SAVINGS! SAVINGS! SAVINGS! …
          We can dub it. T.A.M.P. (thug ammo maximization program).

    • KuddlyKudzu September 8, 2017, 8:06 pm

      A proven solution over thousands of years, all over the world. I second this idea.

  • Gene Piellusch September 8, 2017, 3:42 pm

    This is typical actions of the mental disordered demo-commies that infest Sacramento kalifornicate!

  • buddy September 8, 2017, 3:35 pm

    How about rounding up the thug perps and just kill them! No more probleemo!

  • Alan September 8, 2017, 3:13 pm

    This tops the cake for California wackos running that state into the ground!

  • Johnny September 8, 2017, 2:18 pm

    Wow… Free Money for being a Gangster!

  • Johnny September 8, 2017, 2:12 pm

    I’m sorry in advance and PLEASE excuse the bluntness and/of language (don’t read on if you get offended) but, that’s just down right absolutely ricockulous (and no, I didn’t spell ridiculous wrong)! I say that because I actually made a similar JOKE about 4yrs back. I’ll pay you not to commit a violent crime? Why is it when I was younger and got in trouble I had to pay fines AFTER putting in community service hours or whatever else was asked. Now, making convicts pick up trash on the CA freeways is “degrading,” and paying $1000/mo is the answer. And I’m no one will find a way to use the hell outta that program either right.

    This is one step up from another California law I learned of about 4yrs ago. I’m a property manager/owner, called the police non emergency number one day after tenants called saying a group of transients were outside the building loitering, drinking alcohol in public and aggressively panhandling. When the officers arrived they said they “can’t do anything to help because you don’t have signs up at EVERY driveway saying a person can not drink, loiter, gamble, etc. on the property along with the municipal and/or penal code numbers written next to each.” Looking baffled the officers rolled their eyes as well and apologized up and down. Somewhat jokingly I said, “So, if it’s illegal to do so in any case and I have to have a sign up for you guys to enforce the laws, in a couple years am I going to have to add ‘No armed robberies, rape murder and car jacking as well?” Here we are 4yrs later and even better…we’re gonna pay the worst of the worst not to shoot people???

    I’m ALL for programs to help with education, drug and alcohol dependency assistance, job training and placement programs. I think many have known for decades that the key to ending violence especially with the younger generations coming up was to, as the author wrote, turn the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude in to ‘I do care’ and give them a light at the end of the tunnel to reach for but, “I’ll pay you not to keep commuting crimes…it’s cheaper to do so,” that’s a little much. They say the program has been proven to work but, did they ever get a percentage breakdown of which aspects were working? I’m sure the sound of money is an incentive to get some people interested and then once they start getting educated, getting the job training they’ve always wanted that’s what actually makes the real change.

    Lastly, tell a 16-20yr old who’s already making $500-2000 a DAY in a violent environent they’ve seen all their lives, that they’ll make $1000 a month to give it all up and tell me how well that works. Personally, if I had to guess, the program is working for those that wanted the services to begin with and that $1000/mo may be a help to get them going but, I don’t see anyone hanging up the dope and/or gun overnight simply for $1000. And if they do, most of the time it’s gonna be because they needed $1000-2000 more to re-up their stash to keep selling dope or something than the long term help the good aspects provided.

    • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 2:52 pm

      Very good point. If you could just go to the Health and Beauty aisle at Dollar General and get meth or crack for $12 a bottle, the wise addicts would peacefully zone out after work, while the less wise ones would soon not be around. Yes, people would die. Innocent people are dying now, and this lame-brained scheme hasn’t a prayer of working. If you make addiction a criminal lifestyle, expect the criminals to graduate to being robbers, thieves and murderers to pay the pusher, and innocent people will die in the War on Drugs.

      $1000 a month, free health care and spirituality classes won’t keep an addict in meth or crack, unless the “health care” in question is inpatient addiction treatment with powerful drugs to replace powerful drugs. We aren’t helping people who don’t want to be helped.

      Canada’s gun laws suck very hard. The idea they have that you can furlough convicted killers back out on the streets is evidence of legislative insanity. All the same, their “harm reduction initiatives” bear looking at. They provide safe places for people to use drugs, so no one’s out driving while their brain’s disengaged, and no one’s going to have their throats cut in an alley for the cash and drugs on them. And while they still have a hard drug problem (their customs agents intercepted a kilogram of carfentanil shipped in from China in toner cartridges – enough very strong opiate to kill everyone in Canada), the Canadians are closer to solving their drug problem than we in the US are to solving ours.

      Self-destruction shouldn’t be illegal. We gave up on Prohibition of alcohol because Americans demanded the right to drink things that might kill them – and alcohol still kills Americans who are careless in how they use it. We sigh, bury our friends and relatives who kill themselves with alcohol (or die because someone else drove a car or performed surgery under its influence), and we move on.

      It’s time to do the same thing with all the other dangerous drugs – sensibly, make abuse by parents of young children, drivers, and professionals who can hurt others while impaired by drugs punishable according to the severity of the situation – but let people destroy themselves if they want to badly enough. Once we do that, the insane amounts of money now available for dealing in illegal drugs will go away, and gang-related killings will largely go away, too. Not entirely so, because lunatics are everywhere.

      It’s a parallel to gun rights – we also insist on owning things that kill when misused, because we have no intention to misuse them. We demand to be treated as free, responsible adults and have all our civil rights respected. We ought to give drug abusers the same courtesy, and tell them not to expect to be picked up off the floor when they fall. It’s their decision.

  • Ron Wright September 8, 2017, 2:05 pm

    So, they KNOW who the 50 are committing the crimes!! If they KNOW they committed a gun crime, put them in FEDERAL PRISON using Federal Laws to prosecute them and get them off the streets, NOW.. There are MANDATORY SENTENCES for repeat offenders.. Put some TEETH into prosecuting these CRIMINALS!! Paying them to NOT do CRIMINAL things is a joke!! If they don’t have job, which apparently they don’t and are collecting WELFARE, but them OFF.. Paying them is not a solution to the bigger problem..

  • Captain Obvious September 8, 2017, 1:59 pm

    Let me get this straight. it was \”successful\” in Richmond…Virginia…where Terry McAuliffe is governor? Gave felons the right to vote. Running for President in 2020. Got it.

    • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 2:08 pm

      Richmond, California. Where the state of California had an oil refinery put methyl tert-butyl ether in gasoline to save the planet, and made the ground water undrinkable all around the county. THAT Richmond, monument to incompetence in environmental stewardship and administration of criminal justice.

    • GaryO September 10, 2017, 10:45 am

      I think you might want to read that again that was Richmond, California not Virginia.

  • OFBG September 8, 2017, 1:44 pm

    Reminds me of a line from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,”. After leaning that Union Pacific Railroad chairman E. H. Harriman was paying Pinkerton agents $10,000 a day to chase them down, Butch declares:
    “If he’d just pay me what he’s spending to make me stop robbing him, I’d stop robbing him!”

  • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 1:26 pm

    After decades of providing cash for bearing children, cash for indoctrinating our children in socialism and revisionist history, for bridges to nowhere and worthless research (yes, social “scientists”, I mean you) , for incompetent weapons manufacturers (Boeing just effectively admitted they can’t design a fighter aircraft themselves, and brought SAAB in to do it for them – at least, unlike Lockheed Martin, they’re no longer in denial) now we’re paying thugs to still be thugs…. but defer their thuggery.

    The defects in the reasoning here ought to be obvious – these are crooks we’re talking about here. And we’re paying them to live the thug lifestyle, and pinky-swear they won’t actually shoot anyone while we pay them. These people broke our social contract with each other not to rob, hurt or kill one another, and we’re supposed to pay them $9,000 a year to swear they won’t do that, PLUS the costs of all the other social and health services they’ll be getting. Plus the healthy salary DeVone Buggan gets for inventing, promoting and administering this boondoggle.

    I think we ought to insist on equal protection under the law – everyone else in the country gets a $9,000 tax credit not to go over to Sacramento and Richmond and solve their gang problem for them. Or, alternatively, a $9,000 bounty for ending the problem/

  • Steve September 8, 2017, 1:13 pm

    So what happens when you stop paying them after 9 months? Do they go back to crime and shootings?

    • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 2:15 pm

      There’s no incentive for them not to revert to their old habits. And it’s a sucker bet those “spirituality” classes will have plenty of instruction in “it’s not really your fault you’re here”, so the taxpayers of Sacramento may just be motivating their criminal class to be more lethal and merciless to their victims.

  • Frank September 8, 2017, 12:45 pm

    Crime pays, in so many ways.

  • Larry September 8, 2017, 12:43 pm

    Sacramento is definitely the moron state capitol of the country.

  • Chris Baker September 8, 2017, 12:24 pm

    Wow! If I promise not to commit any gun related crimes can I get $1,000 a month? Please please please?
    Ok, sarcasm off now.
    Are you people crazy? Oh yeah, it’s California, so yeah, you are crazy. This seems to come under the heading of maybe “paying Protection money” to a mafia style group of people. It also might come under the heading of extortion. Bribes? Stupid? Regardless of it fitting any of the legal definitions it is surely stupid.
    California you need to know that as soon as the money runs out those guys are going right back to their evil ways.
    Oh my gosh, I’m so freaking glad I moved out of California when I did. The collective IQ has to be down around 20.
    We should all pray that they come to their senses.

    • Bud September 8, 2017, 12:59 pm

      Yeah I agree, what is wrong with these sheeple ? Are they on new drugs that the rest of us don’t know about?
      This is sort of self extortion, some one is making a buck or two out of it and I don’t mean the gangs.
      like you say when the so called program is over gun related crime will be worse than ever… maybe that’s what the polititions want, a better reason to confiscate all guns!!!

    • Archangel September 8, 2017, 1:37 pm

      I once worked with a guy who was the son of the company owner, and if he collected his salary and just stayed home, he would have saved the company money in out of court settlements, they could have hired a guy to replace him and still saved a ton of money!
      With what they cost to jail, feed and house, they could live well on 1/2 of the yearly costs.
      It would be cheaper to pay them not to do crime!
      STUPID but the math works out!

  • Mike Watkins September 8, 2017, 12:18 pm

    There must be drugs in the drinking water in CA.

    • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 1:34 pm

      And everywhere else. General Jack D. Ripper was right about fluoridation.

      • Alan September 8, 2017, 5:29 pm

        My Precious Bodily Fluids have not been sapped nor impurified, and are still as pure as the wind driven snow.
        But I only drink rainwater.

  • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 11:28 am

    You are here: Home » British/American Poets » Rudyard Kipling » Dane-Geld

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    Rudyard Kipling
    Rudyard Kipling

    Dane-Geld

    A.D. 980-1016
    It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
    To call upon a neighbour and to say: —
    “We invaded you last night–we are quite prepared to fight,
    Unless you pay us cash to go away.”

    And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
    And the people who ask it explain
    That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
    And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

    It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
    To puff and look important and to say: —
    “Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
    We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

    And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
    But we’ve proved it again and again,
    That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
    You never get rid of the Dane.

    It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
    For fear they should succumb and go astray;
    So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
    You will find it better policy to say: —

    “We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
    No matter how trifling the cost;
    For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
    And the nation that pays it is lost!”

    • Luke September 8, 2017, 1:07 pm

      THAT is really interesting! And, appropriate! Those tonnes of silver payments to the Danes and Vikings and others only placated them for a short period of time but never addressed the root of the problem – weakness and fear. It has certainly rung true on a demographic political scale in America whereby large groups of Americans, who were once called minorities, now demand their very own country after having received benefits for; 1) not working, 2) free education, 3) having more kids and, 3) voting democratic. We’ll “never get rid of the Dane”.

      • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 2:21 pm

        It’s not a racial issue. My son, a roofing and siding contractor in Colorado, tells me he can’t find anyone, white, brown or black who’s not either on meth or crack. He fires anyone he finds doing it, or suspects is, but that tells you the problem isn’t #BLM, but paying guys to fuck up (the Denver metro area is one of those touchy-feely jurisdictions which buys up hotels for the drug-addled to live in, from which they issue out to pay for their habits – and that includes “by committing crime” – one of my son’s former meth-head employees helped himself to a full set of tools, ladders, etc. as a severance package.).

  • MikeB September 8, 2017, 11:18 am

    Just another form of “income redistribution.”

  • Bob Dobis September 8, 2017, 11:16 am

    If it’s only 50 committing the shootings, put a bullet in the head of every fucking one of them! Problem solved

    • fred dietz September 8, 2017, 11:37 am

      Cranial lead injection seems like most cost effective solution to me but the socialists would rather redistribute OPM (other people’s money) than deliver justice.

    • Luke September 8, 2017, 1:23 pm

      That’s typical California/New England thinking though. Focus on a minority faction of some kind, amplify their voice, their cause or the damage they inflict and then say that ‘the program has shown results’. What are the results? Over what period of time? I wish everyone the best who is accepts this pay-to-not-play program. I hope they all come out of with a Nobel Peace Prize. But, it’s ass-backwards to believe that career criminals can be brought to a rational social order by paying them money.

    • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 1:40 pm

      Once word gets around that you don’t have to work to be paid – just join a gang and sign on the dotted line, there’ll “only” be 5,000 problem children. Once we provide even more cash prizes for being a violent fuck-up, it’ll get popular.
      Why not bring the producers of “Dog the Bounty Hunter” and “Duck Dynasty” in to make a new reality TV show – “Gang Banging for Dollars”! That way at least advertising revenues would pay for this farce, and not the taxpayers.

  • Ray September 8, 2017, 10:59 am

    Only in California! If a city council tried to pass a law that stupid in Texas, “they would all be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.”

  • Tay September 8, 2017, 10:59 am

    Only in California! If a city council tried to pass a law that stupid in Texas, “they would all be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.”

  • mcFoo September 8, 2017, 10:58 am

    wow what a huge pussy ass program- what about doing the more rational thing, such as make gun crime punishment so severe there would never be a repeat offender and far less first timers. Like back in the “Sane” days, e.g. hang em. – case closed.
    Presently, a stint in prison is a step up in living conditions for a lot of these criminals. and they are locked up with friends / associates, eating well, getting medical care, etc… waiting to get out and just do it all over again. there is no real “punishment”

    …………………Effing paying them to not be a criminal? insane. plain insane. ………….. major wtf………..

    • Luke September 8, 2017, 1:16 pm

      Oh c’mon, mcFoo. We pay farmers for crops they don’t plant and for hogs they don’t raise. It’s the same thing, right? (sarcasmmmmm)

  • Susan Daniels September 8, 2017, 10:58 am

    $1 million per murder? Where does he get his information and how big is Muttaqi’s cut of the program money?

    • fred dietz September 8, 2017, 11:48 am

      Million per murder is cost to hire public defenders $500/hr. plus expenses. We rely on the lawyers to police themselves and the story unfolding around our ex FBI chief and his minions letting people at highest levels of Obama administration walk on thousands of felonies and all baseless actions filed to stop Trump agenda underscores just how out of control out legal system is. We must restore integrity to legal system and put a buttload of crooked lawyers in pen.

      • Al Capone September 8, 2017, 8:27 pm

        Yeah, a million dollars per murder does seem high as compared to paying thugs $12,000/yr to put their guns away. However, I don’t see how this program will be successful long-term because it is relying upon the “honesty” of people who have been in trouble with the law for most of their lives. For every crime these people have been caught and charged with, how many other crimes did they get away with?

        This sounds akin to paying the Mafia money for “protection.” What gang of thugs wouldn’t want to be paid for not committing gun-related crimes with nothing to stop them from committing them anyway? Gangs need revenue like any other organization to operate, right? Next thing you know, the gangs are going to organize, unionize, and hire attorneys to negotiate for more money. After all, $12,000/yr per gang member is peanuts. $12,000 is a measly 1.2 percent of a million. A more realistic figure should be at least $50,000/yr. That’s 5 percent of a million, right? That’s still a bargain. A good negotiating point for the gangs would be to contract for more protection money else innocent people are going to die as a result. Clearly, this would be the fault of the “cash-for-criminals” program because it didn’t pay enough.

        Realistically and financially, $12,000/yr isn’t going to support anybody anywhere in the USA. Housing and food is high, and how are these thugs going to afford their booze, drugs, gambling, ho’s and other things they dearly love and enjoy?

        And, consider this… the supporters of this “cash-for-criminals” program will do anything for it to succeed. If numbers are a measure for success, numbers can be manipulated. If one of their “bad boys” in the program gets arrested, pressure on the prosecuting attorney to let them go would ensure good numbers are maintained.

        However… If I had my way, anybody convicted of shooting a gun while committing a crime would have both arms cut off at the shoulder and sent to prison. Just like one-legged people don’t win any ass-kicking contests, people with no arms can’t hold and fire a gun.

    • Chris Baker September 8, 2017, 12:28 pm

      The bad guys get $1,000 a month for 9 months. Total $9,000 per official bad guy. No idea how much the government bad guys get from the program.

    • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 1:59 pm

      That’s California’s issue – no death penalty. Push murder cases to the front of the court calendar and expedite appeals (a “British rules” system to penalize attorneys for frivolous stalling tactics, so that THEY pay for Junior’s stay in the Graybar Hotel during appeals), then tie Junior to a gurney and give him 1 mg carfentanil IV push (it only costs $5,000 for a million doses, from China over the Internet, so it’s a half a cent’s worth of drug to kill someone) – and Junior’s drain on the public treasury drops to a hundred thousand, two hundred thou, tops.

      And this way, Junior can’t change his mind and kill someone AFTER he gets his $9,000. He’ll be singing acapella blues with his friends in Hell.

      “Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute!”

    • Rocky September 11, 2017, 8:41 am

      He gets 103,000 a year or just over 8500.00 a month for his efforts!$$

  • Ronnie September 8, 2017, 10:23 am

    UNBELIEVABLE

    • Mike September 8, 2017, 10:50 am

      I don’t understand why you would pay a criminal to not commit crime, that’s what we have prisons for. Let them keep killing one another and maybe they were a Raticate each other

  • Al Capone September 8, 2017, 10:21 am

    I guess the old saying, “Crime does not pay” isn’t true anymore. I own guns, but I never used them for criminal activities. This program isn’t fair to me. I’m a taxpayer. I should be getting $1,000/month not to use my weapons for crime also. I have rights, but I suppose I don’t “qualify” for the program because I’m not a thug who gets cut loose by the criminal justice system.

    If 50 people are known by authorities to commit the majority of crimes in the Sacramento area, this clearly indicates a total failure by the criminal justice system in Sacramento.

    • Alex September 8, 2017, 10:48 am

      Although you may have a good case for a lawsuit!

    • fred dietz September 8, 2017, 11:51 am

      You can bet a good number of the 50 are illegals and Sac. is a sanctuary city that protects MS13 and their ilk. Need I say more?

  • Frank Romo September 8, 2017, 10:15 am

    This whole concept is lunacy, it reminds me of a sign posted on a wall in Vietnam, “Fighting for Peace is like F@#king for Virginity”. It just won’t work, these thugs will lay complacently, collect their money, wait until it runs out then continue with their mayhem. Not only that, doing the math, it shows it would only pay out approximately $45K to those gang members, where’s the rest of the money going to? Yup, the one running the scam, he’ll be getting rich off the program, after all he’s an ex-con, where did he concoct this scheme? Yup, in prison, you think he’s doing this from the goodness of his heart, ha!

    • Timothy Craven September 8, 2017, 11:51 am

      they will receive $1,000 per month for 9 months of the 18-month program. that;s still only 50,000 x 9 …. so we’re talking 450k.
      Just demonstrates the vast waste since this means it costs 1 million to administer the program. One must wonder why it would cost 1 million to teach 45 people the things they should already know. Things taught in their prior 18 years on earth.

      • loupgarous September 8, 2017, 3:35 pm

        $450,000 is just the cash payouts for the 50 problem children. Health care’s probably another $500,000 (I bet that’s a low-ball estimate, too). Most of those guys are probably wired to smack, crack or meth, maybe all three. Addiction treatment’s expensive, because the addiction treatment du jour is still on patent, expensive and aggressively being marketed to state legislatures across the country, who effectively make it THE legal treatment for opiate addiction (and that just takes care of the heroin and fentanyl addicts).

        Addiction’s so hard to cure because the drugs which reduce cravings for hard drugs don’t make you high. Hard drugs make you high, and if you have someone who can only experience pleasure by getting high – whose cultural and intellectual horizons just don’t exist – that person won’t read, go to the movies, engage in a hobby, or help others to feel good. That person will go right back to hard drugs, rob, steal, murder and sell hard drugs to get hard drugs.

        The cure is to make hard drugs legal and cheap. Colorado only got half of that when they legalized marijuana for fun. They made it legal and taxed it so it’s about as expensive as street dope, so there is still a market for smuggled, illegal marijuana in Colorado, and still a crime problem connected to marijuana. Oh, you can get a card to grow your own, but it’s still an expensive proposition. All La Familia needs to do is set a price point where they can still make insane money illegally growing and selling.

        Pumping money into temporarily solving the problem (IF that even happens) is a waste of money. Permanently remove the incentive for gun battles over territory to sell drugs, and the need to raise huge amounts of money to support drug habits. Call the War on Drugs off, teach kids that hard drugs can kill…. and bankrupt the pushers. The War on Drugs is their rice bowl. If hard drugs were legal and cheap, smugglers, drug gangs, pushers would all have to find something else to do.

  • Dr Motown September 8, 2017, 10:11 am

    While you’re giving them my tax money to behave themselves, can you ask them to sweep the streets and paint over their graffiti too? Otherwise, we might get a better protection deal out of Uncle Vito and the boys…

  • Ron Stidham September 8, 2017, 10:11 am

    When we bow down to the enemy, and pay them not to hurt us what are we-the people worth? Insanity, stop the BS at its root cause. Pay them? Who comes up with this shit?

  • Ron Stidham September 8, 2017, 9:56 am

    Ok so they are going to pay criminals not to commit (gun related) crimes. Do the idiots resume with pipes, bats, knifes?
    They say $1,000 a month will stop, or weaken their criminal activities. I call BS, when you pay these individuals to not commit crimes the outcome is far more worse than the reply that is coming. After 9 months it stops and the violence resumes.
    Strange that the state dept. knows who the gang bangers are, and don’t incarcerate these people. This is a country at WAR, round them up give them a rifle and send their asses to the front line where they can use their skills in a manner that they have improved on. We (this country) need to bring back the DEATH PENILTY, if found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt- execute in the most cost effective way.

  • Sebastian Rooks September 8, 2017, 9:36 am

    With every other sane thought flipped on its ass because of SJW’s, the comment “Crime Doesn’t pay” has been added to that list. Some people can’t behave rationally unless there is a financial incentive. I believe the legal term for this is BRIBE, something the politicians know a lot about.

  • DJ BURNS September 8, 2017, 8:50 am

    Only in kalifornia a democrat state would you have politicians taken hard earned tax dollars to give to criminals. How about not taxing the hell out of me and let me keep what I’ve earned. They reward the people they should be condemning.

  • Michael C. September 8, 2017, 8:16 am

    I swear. The older I get, the more I see this world becoming like A clockwork orange. So now we’re gonna pay thugs not to commit crime? Sounds like extortion. Wonder how many of the 50 aren’t even U S citizens? What a freak show out there.

  • doug September 8, 2017, 8:11 am

    I know something else that works even better!! DEATH PENALTY….Get rid of the murderers and be done with it…God will reward them their due’s

  • Lew September 8, 2017, 8:09 am

    Sounds like self inflicted extorsion to me something Maxine Waters, Nancy (Miss Lube Rack) pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and all those other idiots from California would do.

  • flintman50 September 8, 2017, 7:46 am

    Pathetic…..truly the land of “fruits and nut-less”…….

    • rooker6 September 8, 2017, 9:01 am

      JUST,
      lOOK AT THE DIRECTORS NAME . Khaalid Muttaqi, director of the city’s Gang Prevention and Intervention Task Force. ENOUGHT SAID

  • Infidel762x51 September 8, 2017, 7:40 am

    And just how are they going to prove they didn’t commit any crimes this month? If there is a stupid idea you can be pretty sure there is a liberal behind it.

  • Dang Logic September 8, 2017, 7:19 am

    Like all Leftist ideas, this is a dangerous one, as you are effectively paying protection money. Furthermore you’re teaching people that if you are really shitty and violent human being you’ll eventually get paid for it instead of fried in the Old Sparky. So crank up the violence until you too can qualify for tax payer money!

  • JGinNJ September 8, 2017, 6:42 am

    Why only $1000 a month? Why not $5000 a month? In fact, for $10,000 a month I bet you could hire these 50 gang members to kill the 50 gang members who are terrorizing another city nearby. The money would not have to come from taxpayers, all the city businesses could make the payments. Enforcement would be easy, no payment gets you firebombed or robbed. What is not to like in such a system?

    • Dr Motown September 8, 2017, 10:07 am

      Just pay protection to the MAFIA! They did a pretty good job of keeping other gangs out of their ‘hoods!

  • Kris Colt September 8, 2017, 6:09 am

    Kalfornia, great place not to live.

    • BigC September 8, 2017, 7:15 am

      Yep; largest asylum in the world!!!

  • MaxEffectUSA September 8, 2017, 5:38 am

    I think I’ll have to move to Sacramento and start demanding my $1000 a month for being a “peaceful citizen”. What a great way to attract new citizens. :D:D:D

    • Infidel762x51 September 8, 2017, 7:59 am

      I would not live in commiefornia for 10k a month.

    • Dr Motown September 8, 2017, 10:08 am

      Amen to that! I’ll even agree to organize a neighborhood militia patrol to keep the criminals out

    • Bjensen September 8, 2017, 10:56 am

      For 1K a month, I’ll promise to NOT move to CA and shoot people….

  • Richard Park September 8, 2017, 3:56 am

    Only in California…..what is wrong with those people? Are they all on drugs out there? What a bunch of idiots!!!!!

    • peter kuck September 8, 2017, 7:41 am

      They are buying votes and lining their own pockets.

  • Dustin Eward September 8, 2017, 3:11 am

    “In Sacramento, only about 50 young men commit the majority of shootings, according to Khaalid Muttaqi, director of the city’s Gang Prevention and Intervention Task Force.”

    So, if you know exactly who they are; LOCK THEM UP OR EXECUTE THEM!

    • The Captain September 8, 2017, 5:32 am

      A rope is far cheaper. These people are the biggest idiots I have ever seen. Someone has fed psychotropic drugs into the water. Give ME $1000.00 per month and I won’t come to Sacramento and routinely commit violent felonies.

      Riiiiiiiiiiiiigght!

      • Jd September 8, 2017, 11:00 am

        Exactly the thought that came to my mind. One rope can get rid of all 50. Hell, go all out and buy a new rope for each of them!

    • Dr Motown September 8, 2017, 10:09 am

      Come on now! That’s too much common sense! The city has to actually go through a “diversity committee” to hire a Muslim “crime expert” with some “advanced degree in sociology” to come up with “innovative” solutions!

      • Rocky September 11, 2017, 3:10 am

        Yup and they are paying muttaqi $103,000 a year for this bs!

  • Dave September 6, 2017, 11:10 pm

    I’ve attended several gang prevention meetings and conferences in San Jose and am unaware of any that employ the Advance Peace model as the article claims. A Google search didn’t reveal any either. Please provide supporting details.

    AP’s founder, DeVone Boggan, behaves suspiciously like a snake oil salesman. Richmond’s program effectiveness has only been reported over a 12 month period. Too short to determine if the improvement is sustainable. This http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/03/12/gang-violence-shifts-from-richmond-streets-to-interstate-80/ suggests overall gang violence hasn’t been reduced – it’s just shifted from Richmond’s streets to surrounding areas.

    While I wish it will work, decades of work by various inner city groups indicates otherwise. Likewise, research into ‘pay for results’ programs indicate only short-term improvement.

    • Ernie A September 8, 2017, 5:58 am

      Now that’s how you comment. From an informed position with supporting evidence….. Bravo Sir sounds like you are an informed person. To me it seems like fake news to get the gun community fired up…??? (Maybe) who cares….!!!

    • Mike September 8, 2017, 8:07 am

      Great comment! And better journalism than most writers.

    • Gary September 8, 2017, 9:58 am

      Very well stated sir, and I agree 100%.
      It’s simply protection money is all it is. When did doing That become Legal?

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