Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Liberals Will Have To Outlaw Barbed Wire Now
California malls are resorting to barbed-wire barriers after a string of flash-mob smash-and-grab lootings. Previously on “California Voters Are Stupid,” we saw California voters approve propositions to release thousands of criminals from jail and reduce retail theft under $950 to a misdemeanor. (So, basically, the Waukesha mass murderer could have made bail by stealing a couple of TVs from Best Buy without adding to his existing criminal charges.) Then, to compound their stupidity, they elected radical-left district attorneys who think crime is just a symptom of poverty and therefore refuse to prosecute criminals because it’s mean to poor people or something.
You have to be deeply, deeply Californian not to understand how releasing criminals from prison while simultaneously defunding the police will lead to an increase in crime. Retail store owners are running out of options. The police won’t arrest what the DAs won’t prosecute, and the criminal class knows this and knows it can loot stores at will with little chance of being caught and less chance of being prosecuted. (Also, the political class wants you to know you shouldn’t call it “looting” because “Looting is a term that we typically use when people of color or urban dwellers are doing something.”) So, now they have to barricade their stores and homes with barbed wire and layers of security, which also happens to be a common practice in many of the countries where California’s immigrant populations originated. But that’s only because the governments in those countries are corrupt, and the police cannot be relied upon to protect the citizenry.
Following Democratic-left reasoning sentiment that stigmatizing bad behavior or making criminals feel bad about themselves “is not who we are,” it’s quite easy to predict what happens next. You can’t have barbed wire surrounding retail malls and making the criminal class feel unwelcome. Imagine the hurt feelings. Before long, some progressive legislator is going to proclaim that barricades and other security measures are “traumatizing to marginalized communities,” and there will soon be a law making it illegal to use barbed wire or other security measures in homes or private businesses. The law will exempt government facilities and the private property of members of the state’s legislative, judicial, and executive branches.
They will also pass a law making it illegal to defend yourself if you “should not have been there” wherever you were attacked.
Published in Policing
Yep
I’ve seen third world countries that have soldiers armed with what I took to be fully-auto weapons guarding banks, but I never saw barbed wire in front of windows and doorways.
barbed wire and broken glass embedded on the tops of walls were pretty common, with bars on the windows, and an armed guard or two at the entrance. doesn’t work to put barbed wire across the doorway…
If it limits people to a tight single file line, it might.
Broken glass is a hundreds year old technique. But barbed wire in front of upscale stores? That’s the picture. I’ve been in some pretty grungy places, but I’ve never seen that. Of course, bars on windows are considered stylistic and fashionable.
I think I saw the link at whatfinger, but in any case, the brain-dead mayor of S. F. plans to limit parking as a solution to the “smash and grab” technique for looting. She probably read that 25 cars were used in the recent incident.
Well, what’s the answer then? For the long term. Armed guards at every store front? Or perhaps prosecuting every face that appeared on camera and giving long jail terms.
That’s how they’re doing it for the January 6 defendants.
I suspect that is no single answer. Guards, increased jail capacity, quicker turnaround in the legal system even if it means more judges and more courts in session, effective enforcement of existing laws, recalling Chesa Boudin, allowing concealed carry, or all of the previously mentioned. None of those could hurt.
They have to be wrought iron, though.
I prefer cast iron, it’s more ornate and solid looking. I confess I have coveted many fences, mostly from churches, museums and old government buildings.
Back when I was a kid, they still used cast iron pipe for sanitary sewers. This was before bell and spigot, so they used oakum and melted lead for the joints. If you stick your finger into molten lead and pull it out fast enough, the vaporization of the moisture on your finger keeps you from getting burned. I’ve seen it done.
No, the Californians understand. Increasing crime is the goal. Progressive Politics is malevolence, not idiocy. The Left sees Stalin, Pol Pot, Chavez, Castro, Hitler & approves. 1984 and Brave New World are how to manuals for the left.
I remember visiting Detroit in the 1980’s and seeing every single business with black iron bars on all their doors and windows. It was kind of scary. Looked like something out of a film-noir movie. I guess L.A. is headed in that direction. Only difference there is that the criminals might have to negotiate a minefield of human poop on the ground while making their escapes.
So, instead of keeping criminals in one location behind bars and barbed wire, they’re allowed to roam free so now we have to surround our homes with bars and barbed wire?
Gee, once the Loot-Gangs moved on from Walgreen’s and onto Nordstrom and Louis Vuitton, the radical left DA decides to posture like a soy milk Dirty Harry.
In the rougher parts of Latin America, the people put broken glass on the walls in order to prevent thieves from jumping over. It seemed so bizarre to me when I was there. Now it’s looking less bizarre.
They’re safe as long as they steal less than $950 worth of goods.
I am all for long jail terms for all violent people, be they 1/6 rioters, or looters.
You can’t make that illegal. What would they use to surround their free speech zones?
Not just the rougher parts. I’ve seen glass on walls in government buildings, and upscale hotels. It’s just the way it is.
Next up. Added security measures will be declared “racist” and illegal.
See Philadelphia outlawing plexiglass barriers in stores.
I hear you. My home in Lusaka uses a mixture of glass, iron spikes, razor wire and electricity on the fence and gate surrounding the property.
First place I saw it was a church.
With inflation, that might not be all that much loot.
Shrubs with lots of spikey thorns also provide an additional level of deterrence.
Lusaka, Zambia? Your fortification alone is likely more costly than what my entire home is worth. Nicely done. Turrets with automated machine guns is the only feature missing.
How far is it from Benghazi?
Yup, We redid the walls to prepare for the last election. It was surprisingly affordable. it would have cost 10 times as much to do the same amount of work in North America.
You could make a fortune selling that set up to people living in blue states.
I think you mean prison terms.
Though, maybe you are happy with the 1/6 rioters still being in jail, having not yet had their days in court.