The Wasp — 1879 — page 180: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical comic from *The Wasp* uses a descending narrative structure to critique crime and social inequality in San Francisco. The top panel shows shackled prisoners confronted by well-dressed officials—"The Daily Per Centage of Crime." Subsequent panels depict ordinary citizens (street vendors, workers, women) engaged in everyday activities, with labels suggesting these "common people" are portrayed as criminals alongside the formally prosecuted prisoners above. The satire appears to argue that San Francisco's justice system disproportionately criminalizes poor and working-class people for survival activities, while ignoring crimes of the wealthy. By equating street vendors and laborers with imprisoned criminals, the cartoon critiques class-based law enforcement and the arbitrary designation of what constitutes "crime."