I really found this Op Ed illuminating on how society views the implicit "crime" of being poor in America.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/op...html?th&emc=th
The behind the scenes of local governments on how to handle this is particularly disturbing, and speaks to a culture caught up in a cycle of poverty, crime, or alleged crimes, and how it plays into the system of our "prison economy" which is documented here and moreso elsewhere.
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