https://www.yahoo.com/news/90-cargo-containers-looted-every-…
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My bad. This old news. Looting is done on rail not in port.
Many years ago, when I was on a cross-country flight for business, I happened to sit next to a tall, strongly-built African-American man who appeared to be about 40 years old. He was friendly and we had a long, interesting conversation.
Gradually, he revealed that he was a criminal. His specialty was robbing cargo containers on trucks during a transport drive. He didn’t work alone. The truck driver was bribed to leave the container unlocked at a specified time and place. The criminal’s gang would then efficiently strip the truck. They were professionals and made a good living doing this. I never found out how the truck driver escaped prosecution.
This man told me confidently that he would never be caught. He said that the robberies were sporadic (he didn’t use that word) so the police would never catch up. The FBI was interested in major crimes, not in “middle class criminals,” as he described himself. Catching his gang would be like “whack a mole” since law enforcement could never know when and where one truck out of thousands on the road would be robbed.
After a couple of hours of friendly conversation, he invited me to join himself and his girlfriend on a sailboat cruise in the Bahamas. I politely declined.
These gangs of robbers are not impulsive looters (like the ones who break windows and rob stores during riots). They are organized and probably well-armed, though it is in their best interest to eschew violence. They have been around for a long time.
Two legal cannabis stores have been robbed by a gang of 5 robbers in the past 2 weeks in my area. The news has shown gangs of organized robbers breaking windows and robbing stores in Los Angeles.
This problem will only grow if the owners do not increase their measures to counteract thievery. We all pay the price.
Wendy
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This man told me confidently that he would never be caught. He said that the robberies were sporadic (he didn’t use that word) so the police would never catch up. The FBI was interested in major crimes, not in “middle class criminals,” as he described himself. Catching his gang would be like “whack a mole” since law enforcement could never know when and where one truck out of thousands on the road would be robbed.
We’ve tolerated “white-collar” crime almost going almost all the way back to the founding of the Republic. If you steal millions of dollars at the “stroke of a pen”, the penalties tend to be light. Few Ivy Leaguers get punished with the same kinds of sentencing and “pre-trial detainment” common for blacks and Hispanics.
It’s progress that middle-class criminals are now getting some of the deference we show to the wealthy.
interest
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The news has shown gangs of organized robbers breaking windows and robbing stores in Los Angeles.
This problem will only grow if the owners do not increase their measures to counteract thievery. We all pay the price.
And the California state government and many California city governments will vigorously prosecute any store owners who increase their measures to counteract thievery.
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I have FA’d this post which contains a personal insult.
Wendy
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It’s probably just me, but this statement sounds right along the same lines as Chicago’s vacuous and light-headed lightfoot mayor, saying that shop owners needed to step up their security. If they did, the smash and grab robberies problem would be solved.
Actually they wouldn’t. The police cannot be everywhere at all times, and if you’ve read anything about these robberies the perp swoop in with a dozen or more, grab whatever they can find (it’s clear it’s been reconnoitered because they get the high end stuff) and they’re gone before the police could even roll.
Home Depot, for instance, just put their expensive power tools behind locked gates. (I asked an employee if it was because of the smash-and-grabbers on the West Coast and he nodded.) Now you have to get a worker to open the gate if your want to get one. If you want to steal a screwdriver or a yardstick, well, help yourself. A power saw? Find someone who knows the combination, let them fiddle with it for a minute, take out the one piece you want, bang, the game slams closed.
Guaranteed the smash-and-grabbers will move on to easier targets. They’re not going to go for the bottle of Round UP, that’s for the petty shoplifter; the high value stuff just went under lock and key. That doesn’t mean the cops won’t respond to the smash-and-grabbers and maybe even catch some of them but the reality is that there are a lot of people who are schmucks and if they find a scam they are going to play it until it’s no longer profitable or too hard to execute.
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I notice a Walmart in my area has installed gates at the entrance. I suppose that makes it more difficult to escape through the entrance with a shopping cart filled with loot.
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I have FA’d this post which contains a personal insult.
Wendy
You were wrong, but that’s okay. What else is new?
(Looking for it to be restored.)
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