By Che
Scroll down your timeline these days and you’re guaranteed to see mobs ambushing retail stores taking whatever they can fit in their hands. Thieves are following unsuspecting victims’ home and robbing them when they’re most vulnerable. And these are happening in areas that are more affluent and usually incubated from the crime that plagues inner cities.
One of the hardest hit cities by this new epidemic is Los Angeles. LA is a microcosm of the civil tension in our society right now.
Just recently, Jamie McBride, head of the LA Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD officers, discouraged tourists from visiting the city. He said that law enforcement cannot “guarantee your safety.”
McBride also said about the spike in crime, “It is really, really out of control. I said it to people before, it’s like that movie ‘Purge,’ you know, instead of 24 hours to commit your crime, these people have 365 days to commit whatever they want.”
Much of the focus on the uptick in crime has been on the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. In particular, the newly elected DA George Gascon. Gascon, who replaced Jackie Lacy as top prosecutor, came into office on the heels of the “defund the police” movement following the George Floyd riots. He was elected because he was supposed to bring a progressive approach to combat crime.
The approach, to divest from law enforcement and incarceration, has not been a smooth transition to say the least. Gascon has been the target of criticism from law enforcement and victims’ rights groups.
The main focus of this criticism has been the no-bail policy, where non-violent offenders are released on their own recognizance with a promise to appear in court later. 14 suspects were arrested in connection to a string of “smash and grab” robberies and all 14 were released, 11 of those due to meeting the “no bail” criteria.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva has had his fair share of choice words for Gascon and his policies. One policy, Proposition 47, reduced many crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. This led to a war of words between the two with Gascon even going so far as to refer to Villanueva as a “pig”.
Are these policies to blame for the recent crime wave in places like LA? The answer, in part, is yes. When you don’t prosecute certain crimes, criminals will more likely commit them.
I know that’s not something the progressive left wants to hear. But then again, most of the progressive left learned their political beliefs from prestigious lecture halls named after old rich white men and not on the front lines where regular everyday Americans reside.
I was incarcerated when the three-strike law changed from the 3rd strike needing to be a violent offense in order to receive the mandatory 25-to-life sentence. Now, I don’t agree with how the three-strikes law was practiced.
In theory, it might have had the best intentions. However, locking someone up for the rest of their lives for stealing a candy bar is absurd. But when the law changed, I witnessed convicts become more relaxed about possessing drugs in prison.
Prior to the change, three-strike candidates would be eligible for a 3rd strike while incarcerated if they were found in possession of narcotics. This deterred would-be drug users/dealers. I know this because once the law changed, the same cautious convicts now were laxer since they knew they wouldn’t be doing life over it.
Despite bad policy and woke politics, there’s one other factor no one is talking about: mask mandates.
At the beginning of the “pandemic,” my wife and I went to get tacos from a hole-in-the-wall around the corner from where we lived. At this time, there were no mask mandates in place, yet many people were wearing them on the advice of Dr. Fauci.
We were asked to wait outside for our food when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man approaching. He was wearing a bandana over his mouth and nose and a hat. Instinctively, I felt my heart begin to race as the hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
As he got closer, I realized what was going on. He was just one of many who feared covid and believed a mask would save him. The man proceeded to walk in the restaurant and order his food without anyone giving him a second look. I knew right then and there what would happen.
Progressives love to paint the criminal as a victim of policy and an oppressive system. While there is some truth to that, the problem with this point of view is that progressives have no idea how criminals think. So, while they’re trying to save the world from the evils of capitalism, they’re encouraging measures bolstering crime.
The day at the taco restaurant awakened the criminal that once resided in my mind. My first reaction to watching someone walk past a group of people and into a place of business with their identity fully concealed was, “I wish this was 20 years ago.”
Recently in Los Angeles, two robbers casually walked into a restaurant and robbed two customers at gunpoint while they sat at a table eating.
When you watch the security footage you see two males both wearing masks on their faces and hoodies pulled over their heads. They walked through the dining area without anyone batting an eye until they found a young unsuspecting couple eating dinner. Guns were drawn and without any commotion the couple acquiesced and gave up their valuables.
What do you think the reaction would have been from the patrons and workers of the establishment alike prior to covid? In 2019 do you think two robbers fully masked would have been able to enter anyone’s place of business without raising at least a couple of eyebrows? Of course not.
In fact, prior to covid, most businesses had restrictions on anyone entering with their face concealed in any way. Not anymore. For someone who doesn’t want their identity known, this is the perfect storm.
We’ve been conditioned to stay calm at something that should be an obvious red flag. Anyone at any time could walk right up to you fully masked and you won’t stop them, won’t make a scene, won’t do anything to bring attention to the situation. By the time they’re within range, a pistol is pointed at your face.
The authoritarian left has always had their eye on disarming the population. They’re constantly pushing the gun control narrative to regulate, and eventually outright ban, private citizen gun ownership.
However, these new mandates have demonstrated that disarming the population of personal firearms isn’t necessary. You see, we’ve already been disarmed by allowing our senses to become numb to what should be perceived as threats.
Think about it for a second. Even if you live in an open carry state and have your firearm on your hip, that won’t do much good if you allow the perpetrator to walk up to you. You can’t draw your weapon after the suspect has already drawn down on you.
I watched the restaurant robbery repeatedly thinking about how I would respond, and I couldn’t find anything. We all let masked people approach us when in public so you can’t say you would stop them before they got close enough either.
Masked people approach people all the time for directions or just simply help looking for an item. It is normal. And with that will become the normalization of crime.
Criminals only worry about one thing; getting caught. And the easiest way to get caught is to be identified by a witness or security camera. When you remove that possibility, you embolden criminals. Add to this the fact that if you do get caught, you’ll be released the next day, and you have the perfect recipe for crime.
I refuse to believe that this is just incompetence or unintelligent leadership. No, it’s bigger than that. This is part of the demoralization of society where the people become so helpless that they run to the government to save them.
It’s the Hegelian Dialectic. First, you create a problem. Then, you solve the problem and gain more power.
The only way to change course is to start telling the truth. Not the truth found in the pampered atmosphere of university campuses, but real-life truth. The goal is to make the population completely subserviant to authority. Nothing accomplishes this better than eradicating within the individual the instinct to defend themselves.
That will be left to the state. As for you, you just have to sit back, obey and let Daddy Government not only clothe, shelter and feed you, but defend you, too.
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