Quote Originally Posted by Schmedlap View Post
I'd be curious to hear some views on that specific point - particularly from the folks in law enforcement. I'm thinking about lower class, black teens who grow up in the ghetto, who seem to identify themselves as members of a class that is oppressed by the government - particularly the law enforcement personnel. Because their identity is in large part based upon opposition to law enforcement, going to jail is a badge of honor. It is respectable to earn a living in a manner that is illegal or otherwise flaunts society's norms. Any law directed at their anti-social behavior is immediately viewed as a government reprisal against their way of life (for example, laws against possession of crack were argued to be biased against blacks rather than against crack possessors). Am I way off base with this?
I don't think you're off base at all. And to add to jmm99's above comments, I think one of the "root causes" that has to be addressed, especially in an insurgency that has ties to differeing ethic/cultural groups, is "is the structure of law/honor codes sufficiently consistent with the insurgent group's codes to have legitimacy.