“Domination delegates the physical violence on which it rests to the dominated.” -Theodor Adorno
As we rise to power within a system, it becomes less and less necessary to be personally violent in order to dominate others. At some point, the system does our dirty work for us. When we become powerful and gain undue influence upon forming the laws, any movement of resistance against our exploitation can be deemed a crime. In olden days, the escaped slave was considered the criminal, the vicious master, the victim. In our day, chains are no longer necessary. Economic conditions have become a prison system of their own. At this point, we do not need to personally rob others at gunpoint. We can hide behind unfair economic conditions, and, if anyone resists us, the police will bring the guns. The poor will be deemed criminal just because we have put them in prison. The violence of the whole system, of course, will be remembered as law and order.
Certainly violent crime must be prosecuted, but the greatest crimes go unpunished so long as the overall system of domination is seen as order.