The Walled City
By Greg Evans
I saw in passing a sliver of information that caught my attention. The Cleveland Walls. I immediately interpreted that to mean that Cleveland city officials are tossing around the idea of a wall being built around the city. A serious attempt to build a brick and mortar modification to the enhance the quality of life for law-abiding citizens who go out and work everyday, put food on the table and pay taxes. A giant leap over the weak steps taken in past decades to rid the city of its rampant crime.
In 2024, there were 1,550 recorded incidents of violent crime in Cleveland. That is 1,550 too many. Nearly all committed by someone, we can assume, with a criminal record. I know this is shocking to most people, being that prison “rehabilitated” them and they return to society as straight-laced, productive members of society, but statistics prove that is as wrong as the Polish Boy sandwich without the meat.
The criminal element is like bad recycled air. It is a case of the plague that has mutated to be resistant to gentamicin and fluoroquinolones. Same old boring story. The solution, a wall around the city, with criminals on the outside of the wall. They can go live in Chicago, or Memphis, where they will be given free rent, food stamps, early release, and maybe even a seat in local government.
If you are convicted of even 1 violent crime, or three non-violent crimes, you are immediately granted a lifetime exile from entering the city limits. Lifetime means you can never come back no ands, ifs, or buts.
Of course the law-abiding, hard-working citizens that would support such an ambitious project would have to contend with the trolls who will protest that violent criminals should have rights to and for mercy and clemency.
But the reality is that criminals should have as many rights as chickens in a sleazy poultry factory,
Violent humans can’t be rehabilitated. That’s like trying to teach a vampire bat to not drink blood. Of course there are anomalies, like vampire bats who find themselves more thirsty for a spilled Sixth City Apple Pie Soda than a sleeping sorority girl, but that’s not the norm.
Therefore, once the violent ones and repeat non-violent (habitual) ones are released, they are shuttled outside the wall and left on the side of the road. They have to find somewhere else to live. If they didn’t want that, then they should not have gone out of their way to be a nuisance.
Anyone who sneaks an exiled criminal inside the city walls will be automatically granted a lifetime banishment.
Einstein once said, look at the world with reason. Walled cities have successfully protected communities for thousands of years. They are as reasonable as seatbelts preventing you from smashing your face to smithereens on the windshield.
A friend laughed and told me the Cleveland Walls were about art transforming the MidTown neighborhood through art. I did not share his mirth. I am all for art and beautification within high, thick, castle-like walls with sniper towers.
“Who is going to pay for it?” I was asked.
“The criminals,” I said. Whenever a criminal is convicted their assets are seized. Criminals in jail will work and the money earned goes toward the wall construction and maintenance. Also, half of lottery proceeds. They say it goes toward education, but we see how that is working out.