• Arrakis@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Aw come on now, we can’t be holding our public servants to account for their actions now can we? You silly billy

        • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Well unless by public you mean the public sector of the economy and their property, then yes they’re specifically intended to protect that (alongside private infrastructure owned by their lobbyists and benefactors) at the cost of everyone else.

    • SuperDuper@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Police should have to carry professional insurance just like doctors carry malpractice insurance.

      Change my mind.

      • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think it will work at all. I think it would make the problem much worse, not better.

        Think about that for a second: Police are never convicted, and rarely officially sanctioned. They always get away with it. Insurance will never pay out, so the cost of insuring officers will be next to nothing.

        But, now we have an insurer with a vested interest in clearing the officer of wrongdoing, lest they be forced to pay a claim.

        • Stern@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          We have a insurer with a vested interest in ensuring the officer doesn’t fuck up in the first place. Insurers don’t want claims at all, because whether they win or lose thats still money being spent, albeit more in the latter case.

          Rates would go up due to the numerous claims against Officer McShooty (even if defended) and he wouldn’t be able to afford it. He goes to another department? If they have insurance he’s still in the system so…

          • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
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            1 year ago

            I think what would actually happen is the the insurer would demand Officer McShooty sue these claimants for harassment, defamation of character, and receive the bulk of any awarded damages.

            The overwhelming majority of absurd lawsuits, (like where an aunt sues her nephew for hugging her too hard) aren’t brought by the named plaintiff, but by the plaintiff’s insurer. The aunt isn’t actually suing the nephew. The aunt’s medical insurance sues the nephew’s homeowner’s or liability insurance.

            I saw a video awhile back that presented a related argument. If everyone had life insurance, and those life insurance companies were all prepared to sue on our behalf, we would never have another wrongful death at the hands of a cop. Our insurers would sue the everyloving fuck out of the department to avoid being stuck with that bill. Facing formidable legal repercussions, police departments would finally have an incentive to clean house.

  • giantofthenorth@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Love that most of the world’s governments came together and said “collective punishment is bad, we should make it illegal during times of war” and shit like this can still fly within any first world country.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This sort of collective treatment seems awful “communist” for a system that claims to hate it so much.

      Almost like they’re okay with it when it means forcing their will and their hardship onto a group that is powerless to resist…

  • pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Or they could just find the vandal with the security cameras they no doubt installed in every single hallway to protect themselves against their own customers should they have to go to court 🤷

    Oh wait, I forgot, we’re trapped in tyranny.

      • skyspydude1@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Hell, my school basically only had cameras in a few very specific areas inside any of the buildings on campus. The only ones I was aware of in our departmental building were, understandably, keeping an eye on the doorway into the explosives labs.

    • PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      But that would require actual work and investigation! Why would they bother when they can just add on another $100 to everybody’s rent bill for “repairs”

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      They generally try to find a responsible party and bill them, file an insurance claim, use the general maintenance budget, and special assessments as a last resort.

      • harmonea@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        This. They should be going through insurance for this.

        Of course, the insurance rates would rise, and they’d still be passing on that increase to the residents, but residents would be slightly less bitchy about it since the extra layers of opacity would make it seem like “just more of the usual greed and inflation.”

        • DontTakeMySky@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s also part of the reason why maintenance budgets exist. The condo board/government/etc should be responsible for factoring in the risk of vandalism repairs into their budget and spreading that cost over time. That’s why they exist.

          At the end of the day it’s my dues/taxes that pay it either way, but I shouldn’t get stuck with a surprise assessment unless it’s a major unexpected repair.

        • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Insurance is only needed if things get really bad. What should happen is just having like 2 weeks of janitor time dedicated to powewashing graffiti in their annual budget.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Or in the wider world with public infrastructure and taxpayers

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s… how public infrastructure works?

        You try to find the responsible party. If yes, they have to pay for repairs/damages.
        If not, the tax money has to pay for it, as the infrastructure is needed.

        • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
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          1 year ago

          🥲 sadly not when the public infrastructure is maintained by a private company that goes bankrupt

          R.I.P. my city’s previous bike share scheme, ruined by vandals wrecking the charging docks and stealing the bikes. Our tax money could not save it due to corruption laws AFAIK

          • dan@upvote.au
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            1 year ago

            R.I.P. my city’s previous bike share scheme, ruined by vandals wrecking the charging docks and stealing the bikes

            Where do you live where people were vandalizing bike shares??

  • Name is Optional@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This happened to me in college. The dorms were “locked” over the holidays and student residents were not allowed to even access the dorm building, when we returned back to school after new year’s, the hallway and apartment doors had been vandalized. The university passed the bill on to each of the residents of the building, even without any way we could have stopped it, since campus police would’ve arrested anyone found attempting to get into our dorms.

    • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Happened to me, too. Some unknown people caused damage to a common room and they billed everyone in the building. I tried to email about it, but they didn’t budge. I felt I had to pay it because the university threatens to withhold transcripts and stuff if you have outstanding fines.

      • Name is Optional@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Exactly what they did to me. I fought them on it. It was basically a shakedown racket and to get my diploma I decided it was better to pay and hold a grudge and have it written on my tombstone for posterity.

  • Arrakis@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This seems…unlawful…

    Edit - for anyone who actually knows stuff about things, is it?

    • Tar_alcaran@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      A lot can be legal if you agree to it. But they absolutely can’t unilaterally declare this rule into effect.

      Just don’t pay, what are they gonna do? Sue you for damages that they admit themselves can’t prove?

      • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        In a general sense, you are completely right, but this seems to be a college. By being a student, you’ve agreed to ALL the terms they hand you. If you decline, then you aren’t a student anymore. Even if you pay EVERYTHING you owe except the unfair vandalism fee, you’re not getting a diploma.

        • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          Fairly certain you could take something like this to court. You didn’t agree to this when you first signed the paperwork to live there, to turn around and say “okay, now you also have to pay us a surprise $10k or you don’t get the diploma you paid for” sounds hella illegal.

          • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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            I’m not disagreeing that it’s shitty as hell, but they could easily implement the rule in between semesters. You’d be agreeing to all the terms when you registered for the next set of classes.

            Again, it’s a super slimy thing to do, and it should be illegal, but you’d spend more fighting a University in court then you would just paying the fees, and you’d be at a MAJOR disadvantage when they show up with your signed agreement to abide by ALL campus policies.

  • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    My solution would be this:

    Have a running total for damages caused by vandals and call it a “Vandalism Lottery”. When someone is caught vandalizing in the community, they win the lottery, but instead of getting money, they pay whatever that lottery amount is up to. $700,000? To bad! Work the rest of your life to pay it off.

    And to keep it fair, the starting amount should be no less than $20,000.

    On top of that, they should be required to clean up any identified vandalism for at least the next year.

    It should NEVER be at the loss of residents, students, or taxpayers to recoup damage caused by idiots.

    And yes, I’m salty because vandals caused over $50,000 to a brand-new waterfront park we had open this past year, and the Vandalism Lottery would have been a wonderful prize to the jackasses who got caught!

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Even this I disagree with. It sounds like a good idea until the total cost is substantial, and they don’t want to foot the bill. So they watch for someone who does anything that can be misconstrued as vandalism and force them to foot the bill.

      Not to mention, fining someone for $100 in damage nearly a million is honestly more unethical than the vandalism.

      There’s a reason we don’t do this type of thing in the legal world, it’s easily taken advantage of, and unethical as fuck.

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        So they watch for someone who does anything that can be misconstrued as vandalism

        Vandalism serious enough to be brought to court would be enough to win the lottery. If it’s something petty, like doodling on a park bench with a pencil, then they don’t win, but they should still do XX months of community cleanup.

        As an alternative to the lottery, how about we charge the scumbags 2x the actual cost to repair the damage they caused. And 1 year community cleanup as a sign of goodwill.

        Either way, the cost to society far outweighs the current cost of committing these crimes. Flip it around and see what happens.

        • cozycosmic@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Are you proposing that doodling on a bench with pencil should warrant months of community service?

          • Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Yes, a month of community cleanup sounds fair.

            We’re not talking 24/7 enslavement, btw… “months of community service” could mean “20 hours of community service over four months.”

  • jayrhacker@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Approximately 30 days before students are charged, a notice will be sent to community members in an effort to identify the responsible individual(s) for additional investigation.

    Ah, so if you don’t rat out the vandals, you have to pay

  • wieson@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Mask out the vandalised area and put up a posting "free space available for graffiti art, email your sketch to blabla to get it approved "

    • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      The problem with this is it takes a while to normalize and self regulate. It demonstrably works, but it takes a long time for the dickheads and edgelords to stop making poorly drawn swastikas every day. Longer than any institution is willing to commit to anything.