We’ve often discussed the psychology of criminals, especially violent criminals, and the determination of many progressives to superimpose motivations entirely different from those that are actually in play. See, for instance, these rather vivid examples, in which carjackers are more than happy to reveal what makes them indulge in carjacking.

Needless to say, it ain’t desperation.

I mention this because some fashionable and quite wrong-headed assertions are being aired, with an all too familiar imperviousness:

You reduce crime by eliminating poverty. The reason so called nice neighborhoods have lower crime rates is because people’s basic needs are being met. It is not because of police, alarm systems, or neighborhood associations. Poverty creates crime.

— ‏ً (@justjargons) October 18, 2026

Efforts at correction ensue, including items that are brief but not irrelevant, and objections to the assumptions of such go-to pieties:

@justjargons That is an insult to the millions of poor people who don’t commit crimes. Shame on you.

— Thomas Dolislager🇺🇸✝️🪖 (@HonestWorldview) October 19, 2026

This chap helpfully remarks,

Before steering the author of the original post to a study showing how sudden windfalls – say, lottery wins – have no effect on criminal tendencies, beyond a slightly increased risk of speeding tickets.

Ditto guaranteed basic incomes, as shown by this study.

Or put another way,

@justjargons You have causality backwards.

Crime creates poverty.

Nice neighborhoods are nice because they are populated by people who don’t destroy.

Neighborhoods populated by people who destroy are destroyed physically, economically, etc.

— Zachary Werrell, Esq. (@zkwerrell) October 19, 2026

And I rather like this one:

The “poverty causes crime” people think they’re being empathetic when they’re not. They’re removing agency from the equation. https://t.co/kAtPcv6nZ3

— Possum Reviews (@ReviewsPossum) October 19, 2026

At which point, readers may wish to revisit the carjackers mentioned above and their delight in seeing their victims soiling themselves in terror. Because, to quote a carjacker named Tall, “It’s a rush thing… I feel good.” Or as a female carjacker named PoPo put it, “It’s funny just to see them shaking and pissing all over theyself.”

The latter being a charming creature who assaults and terrorises random people, at gunpoint, robbing them of their cars and wedding rings, before getting her hair done.

The struggles of many progressives to understand what empathy actually is have been noted before, at some length and with relevant illustrations.

As I said at the time:

Or not doing it at all.