I know that reducing violence is a big, complicated problem. Not increasing violence is also hard. I&#x27;m just annoyed by this <i>particular</i> conversational gambit: I suspect that, when you say things like &quot;the police are going to kill you&quot;, a lot of people read that as &quot;kill them first&quot;, and the result is increased violence in both directions for no real purpose.<p>I would be much, much happier if this conversation moved more in the direction of fixing the war on drugs, the prison complex, and in particular the political attraction to being &quot;hard on crime&quot;.