By knocking people down that are already in pretty bad conditions, you’re preventing them from bettering themselves and just naturally moving away from criminal acts, instead they’re pushing them to commit more criminal acts because they become locked out of legitimate activities and have no real prospects for the future.

Seriously. This is the rebuttal to so much of the resistance to social and policy change regarding law enforcement and various social programs.

I could never have said it as succinctly as you did, and I don’t think there is a way to convey it that folks who don’t arrive there on their own will accept.