Originally Posted by Boiler

Not just Chicago but if it was going to happen to anybody this sort of seems fair.

​​​​​​Democratic congresswoman carjacked at gunpoint in Philadelphia https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/22/polit...ked/index.html

Originally Posted by Shard

It's fair to carjack a politician ??

Originally Posted by Boiler

My point was that is someone was to be car jacked then this seems somehow fair.

Prefer nobody to be car jacked.

Originally Posted by Shard

I don't think it's somehow fair. If the victim herself was a car jacker or thief of sorts, that might be a kind of "karma" but otherwise there's no reason to rationalize this crime.

Originally Posted by Boiler

​​​​​​

Originally Posted by Boiler

​​​​​​

Originally Posted by Shard

It's fair to carjack a politician ??

Originally Posted by Boiler

My point was that is someone was to be car jacked then this seems somehow fair.
.

Originally Posted by Hiro11

Setting aside the ever-ascending murder rate in Chicago, the feeling of lawlessness in the city has been palpable in recent months. Smash-and-grab, armed robbery, general violence have all increased dramatically. It was clear something was wrong last August when several hundred people descended on Michigan Avenue and smashed up hundreds of stores and stole carloads of stuff. Watch videos of that incident, it's insane. People had rented box trucks to load up with stuff. Store employees were beaten, stores were smashed up with incredible violence, the police were completely overwhelmed and powerless. This is the premier tourist destination in the city and one of the most famous shopping districts in the world. I've personally never seen mass chaos, violence and thievery on that scale.

At the time, Lightfoot and the police chief talked tough but in subsequent months absolutely nothing happened. A few token arrests were made but it was obvious the police were expending little effort to do anything. Allowing this kind of lawlessness and mayhem just increases the lawlessness and mayhem. We can't have this. It's really sad to see the city falling apart like this.

Originally Posted by Steerpike

We've had very similar issues in California; I'm pretty sure it made national headlines. Major shopping areas of SF were targeted by organized gangs, and it even spread out to the boring suburbs. I don't know if these incidents were more or less severe than the Chicago incidents, but I agree it's a complete mess. People made a big move to online shopping due to the pandemic, and this is one more nail in the coffin of retail shopping. This article gives some info - https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/11/...crime-problem/ ... "... brazen groups of thieves — some tallying as many as 90, riding in caravans with dozens of vehicles, wielding hammers and sometimes guns — have ransacked high-end stores across the Bay Area before racing off with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise.". There's some debate over whether a recent change that classified theft of less than $950 as a misdemeanor is a factor.

Originally Posted by old.sparkles

Is this related to BLM, defunding the police, COVID or something else do you think?

Originally Posted by dave_j

In many ways it's similar to crimes committed by those upright citizens wearing snazzy dress and drowning in champagne in the city who indulge in the non existent fantasy that somehow so rarely finds itself before the courts, namely exploiting opportunity or better known as corrupt insider trading.

What these groups are doing is likewise understanding the limitations and wilfulness of those whose task it is to stop these abuses and realising that there's no real advantage to be gained by doing so.

Trump will understand why they do what they do.. it's because they can.

Originally Posted by old.sparkles

So a bit off topic for this thread then.

Originally Posted by Hiro11

Not sure why you're trying to shut down this discussion, I think this is 100% relevant. At the heart of the debate around BLM is the role of law enforcement. The linkage between crime levels and law enforcement role is central to this discussion. To me, there is a clear linkage between rising levels of crime in the US and the ongoing debate about the role of law enforcement.