The nation is experiencing a dramatic rise in mass robberies, often organized through social media.
I’m just a few miles west of that Nordstrom that got hit in Walnut Creek this week. It was a big deal in our community. 10+ cars pulled up in front of the Nordstrom during business hours and a mob of 80+ people ran in and looted the store.
It’s a fascinating issue with a lot of complex factors involved. A mix of social media, online sites to clear stolen goods (modern flea markets basically), defund police issues, changing views on what should be considered serious crime, etc.
Chalk another one up for Amazon being mostly proof against this (though I assume they have some amount of warehouse worker theft). I wonder if anyone has smashed into an Amazon warehouse.
I’m not sure where I come out on all this in terms of what should be done to address this type of issue, beyond stronger enforcement (which can mean needing to put more cops on the street and hiring/training more tech-savvy detectives).
The latter is the issue. My understanding is that they got a fair amount of CCTV for the grab near us, but many had masks on, though I assume they can still get some investigating done based on license plates (assuming not all the cars we’re stolen or de-plated). The article I linked said that property crime is on the lower end of urgency for police department these days, though I assume these high profile ones will get some serious pressure from the relevant city halls. I know our local one is getting that.
I would imagine that if you concentrate law enforcement on catching 1 or 2 people, you’re going to be able to start making a dent. Particularly if local DAs start adding conspiracy charges to the other robbery-related charges.
I read in one story that they did make a couple arrests. But these anarchists are also hitting mall jewelry stores and destroying store interiors. And people have been hurt.
They are masked and carrying crow bars.
Amazon centers are in warehouses without show rooms. Kinda hard to hit something like that.
People work in those stores, people shop in those stores, none of this is happening without endangering them during the robbery, and impacting the community afterward. They’re not just “harmlessly” affecting the bottom line of some big bad distant corporation in a vacuum.
Not always. Rooting for organized smashers- no. But if these folks were Robin Holds, or folks trying to get by- different story.
Lawful and moral are two different things. Generally, I think laws should be obeyed, unless there’s an existential reason not to, but existential reasons exist.
Slavery was lawful once in this country. Abolitionists were breaking the law but were moral.
The desire to lash out at a system that fucks them at every turn? That actively works against them? That doesn’t care about them? I’m not saying what they’re doing is right but I totally get the impulse.
The people of California voted to decriminalize a whole mess of petty crime. Not by a few votes either…it won by like 60/40. It’s pretty silly to cry about it now.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t relevant to most of these crimes. The thefts are over $950. You don’t divide the crime by the number of people involved to get the final amount. If 100 conspire and work together to steal $1000, they are all potentially guilty of felony theft, it doesn’t become ten $100 misdemeanors.
