Since we began the day with a dead canary in the mine of democracy, here’s another. That video shows a thief rampaging through an Apple Store in Emeryville, north of Oakland (where Woke Kindergarten romps). Nobody tries to stop him. Nobody even appears alarmed by him. He escapes by running right by a police car.
That conduct is the broken window theory of civilization in action. It represents a near total surrender to anarchy and chaos, and a potentially fatal decline in shared societal responsibility. I can’t find where the heading (“They just want bread to feed their kids”) comes from. Is that mocking sarcasm from the poster, or did some Oakland enabler of crime use that rationalization to describe the scene? In either case, it reveals the slippery slope from the progressive mantra constantly mouthed by progressives to excuse illegal immigration. (I heard it on an old “Blue Bloods” re-run last night and tossed a pillow at the TV, alarming Spuds): “They just want a better life!” Virtually all crime is committed with the goal of making a better life for the criminal or those he or she cares about, as “better life” is defined by that criminal.
Glenn Reynolds, the hyper-active conservative law professor proprietor of Instapundit, commented on the video, “50 years ago — heck 20 years ago — most people in the store would have brought this guy down. Now, nothing, even from the “security” employees. On the one hand, Apple deserves this because it’s what they’ve worked to produce. On the other, this guy is a pollutant to his neighborhood, and by encouraging him Apple is no better than a factory with a stinky smokestack poisoning its neighbors.”
Exactly.
Added: this report seems on point…
Ethics Alarms 
“They just want bread to feed their kids,” I believe that is a quote and excuse from AOC. My question is, why then are they not stealing bread?
In this case, the guy’s kids must only eat apples.
During Katrina, theft of non-essentials, such as televisions and designer shoes, was excused by left-wing pundits with the suggestion, “Maybe they are going to sell it.”
So, they legitimize theft of anything because someone might sell it to buy food for their kids.
Even though we know that’s not happening.
Infuriating.
I try to be the law-abiding type, but I would just want to thrash him; not detain him; beat the crap out of him.
Because, that is what happens when the norms of civility are discarded.
Peaceful society is that fragile.
-Jut
It is too late. The police are more interested in arresting taxpaying citizens (who aren’t dangerous) than arresting career criminals. If someone had tried to stop the Apple Store thief, that person would have been arrested and severely charged. The thief would have been released with no bail and then never showed up in court. In the linked article, even the crime-victim store owner is against arresting the criminals. Society has been brainwashed into accepting such crime.
The worst crime you can commit is not paying your taxes. The second worst crime is ‘taking the law into your own hands’ even when the law is lying on the ground because the government refuses to pick it up and enforce it. Selective enforcement of the law as a way to control dissent or criticism of the government seems to be all that is left in these Democrat-led cities.
So… who took the video? A shopper? An accomplice? Or is this just another fake?
I wondered about that too, and, as usual, why someone took the time to video what was going on rather than stop the crime. These days literally everything in public is likely to be videos by someone, and social media whores are always looking for clicks. Anything can be faked, of course, but if this is, it isn’t appreciably different from dozens of similar videos catch smash and grab raids, and we know that the Bay area has essentially legalized shoplifting in general. If it was staged, someone did a great job: lots of terrific details, down to the useless police car. I’d say Occam’s Razor tells us it’s real overwhelming confirmation bias, which tells us to think, “This can’t be happening, can it?”
Well, it was also reported here with an explanation of the police car, etc.
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/why-a-police-car-did-not-stop-an-apple-store-theft-in-emeryville/
So an empty police car that’s parked in hopes of reducing crime…and the police department makes that public information, so all the criminals know it.
This is precisely what a “defund the police” scenario would look like.
Somebody has to know that when police protection and intervention breaks down, the armed citizenry will eventually take up the mantle of law enforcement…right?!?
So instead of trained police officers enforcing the law, a force of millions of people, wielding guns, will perform that role. Is that really what’s desired?
This path is NOT going to end well, particularly for criminals, but also for everyone in general.
Hey, that “ghost car” trick really works great!!!!!
And indeed, it looks like the video is genuine: https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/why-a-police-car-did-not-stop-an-apple-store-theft-in-emeryville/
I would have tripped him.
What did he actually steal?
Doesn’t Apple have some sort of tracking and activation on display model inventory that can’t actually be used in a circumstance like this which would make the devices worth $0?
If so, doesn’t this approxiate to the impact and value of vandalism?
Newsom decreed thefts under $950 wpuld not be prosecuted. Thus guy stole . . . what . . . 15 to 20 cell phones? How much does each one coat? $1200 to $1500? Isn’t that grand theft?
jvb