Turnstile Jumping for Fun and Profit
Give an inch, criminals will take a mile. We know this to be true and ignore it at our own peril.
Random shootings are not the function of any firearm and banning or confiscating certain types of them, as we well know, is nothing but political grandstanding designed to fool weak minded, fearful people that the political class is "doing something".
The real root of any random shooting - whether it be at a school, a party, a public gathering, is the lack of respect for human life. Many of the shooters have bought into an idea of collective guilt, that whites, Christians, Jews, the bourgeois, etc., are responsible for whatever real or perceived offense the shooters have decided should cost members of that group their lives.
Taking away the tool does nothing to blunt the intent and Democrats have worked for years inventing collective guilt by setting one group against another in their quest for power.
The purpose of law is to set rules of behavior within areas of sovereignty, whether that be a grocery store, a public venue or even just the street in front of your home, and allowing that slightest deviation from those rules leads to more brazen illegal behavior with each deviation from those rules.
Rudy Giuliani and Bill Bratton began New York City's turnaround when they began the policy of "Broken Window Policing" based on the idea that no crime was too small to prosecute and that getting away with small crimes leads to larger crimes.
You get what you allow is the idea, and you don't need to be a behavioral scientist or evolutionary biologist to understand that - you just need to have kids.
Guns, knives, baseball bats, and fists are all weapons if the person behind them choose them to be.
I just saw an article about kids beating young mothers with baseball bats and stealing their phones in an affluent area of San Francisco called "Stroller Alley" (named after the number of young families residing the area). A San Fran city council member blamed "the pandemic", but in reality the blame is on the city government for not stopping that behavior.
Same with these stores that fire workers for trying to stop the organized theft that goes on today. Idiotic DA's announcing they will not prosecute anyone who steals less than a certain dollar amount has resulted in a meteoric rise in petty theft, putting the onus on stores to protect their own inventory, which they are doing by locking everything in the store behind plexiglass, essentially punishing their own customers for the crimes of others.
Isn't it ironic that cities choose to employ less policing to these areas instead of flooding them with police and then they are surprised that doesn't work?
I know this is beating a dead horse, but laws only have value because we treat them that way, and if we don't, they don't.
From the dawn of time, as men sought to organize into groups and then into governing structures, a basic aspect of any communal or governmental aggregation of people has been accorded the right to create and maintain a state of sovereignty – or as defined philosophically: having supreme authority within a territory.
Within a sovereign area, there are two types of sovereignty, “de jure”, or legal, sovereignty that concerns the expressed and institutionally recognized right to exercise control over a territory. This can be defined as the laws, regulations and rights accorded the citizens by the controlling legal authority – this is the framework.
Then there is “de facto” sovereignty.
De facto, or sovereignty in fact, is in distinctly different from de jure sovereignty. This concept is concerned with whether control in fact exists. There are many corresponding pieces to “de facto” sovereignty – cooperation and respect of the populace; control of resources in, or moved into, an area; means of enforcement and security; and ability to carry out various functions of state all represent measures of de facto sovereignty.
We now have de jure without de facto.
And it ain't the guns that are doing it, it is the moronic belief that allowing crime is somehow good for "oppressed" groups because, well, American society is bad and the American people deserve a little taste of how the downtrodden live. Some politicians and elected officials have actually called this theft "reparations" and have threatened store chains like CVS and Walgreens not to close these stores even though they are being robbed blind. Some have even suggested the stores bear the responsibility for their own security, not the local police or government.
I mentioned having kids earlier.
Society as a whole has developmental phases just as humans do, and like children, if discipline, boundaries, and rules are not learned early on, that child is headed for issues later in life. Some children accept and learn without issue, but some require stronger messages. I have three children, the first learned easily, the second not so much, our baby learned from the other two - but each learned in their own way and that way required us to take a different approach - my middle child taking the most direct engagement. Just taking a toy away didn't really phase Josh, he just found another way to try to make his point.
The point being, blaming anything other than the loss of respect for law, the rights of others, even human life, is just avoiding applying the discipline required to generate enough respect for law, rights and life.
The current fad within the progressive city governments of “decriminalization” doesn’t change the nature of the crime, just the nature of the prosecution.
That this is happening around our nation is because we, through our elected officials, are allowing it to happen and because it is allowed to happen, it is a choice. People are not helpless to change it, it just means making a choice not to accept having your local grocery store robbed in broad daylight or some drug or hormone addled person shoot up your local school.
It just takes the will to do the things necessary to stop the person (or people) behind it.
Dear Michael: For a short while I was considering moving to Costa Rica after being regaled by the tales of expats living there of the wonderful quality of life they were experiencing. But I did a lot of research before taking any irrevocable step. The country has a largely temperate climate year round, breathtaking scenery, largely friendly natives and had a lower cost of living. However the negative was that the country is very deficient in the rule of law. Not only are petty theft, home invasions, fraud by realtors and lawyers widespread but also there is evidentcollusion between poorly paid police and customs agents and organized criminals, including kickbacks and protection extortion. If a nation lacks the means and will to maintain an effective rule of law this negates whatever other positive attributes that nation may have. What is the point of building a lovely home with beautiful views in a gentle climate if squatters armed with machetes can take it over and the police do nothing to evict them? The United States still has some states and cities that take the rule of law seriously. And that more than compensates for our bone-freezing winters.
Excellent article!