The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Corporate Profit’ and the Political Ideas That Are Driving America’s Crime Wave

Posted on | December 28, 2023 | Comments Off on ‘Corporate Profit’ and the Political Ideas That Are Driving America’s Crime Wave

The image above is from a police dashcam showing the end of a pursuit in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. The SUV was driven by 18-year-old Demetrius Walker of Milwaukee, and the front-seat passenger, 18-year-old Nevaeh Beck of Milwaukee, had stolen about $300 worth of merchandise from Home Depot, where Walker had helped himself to some snacks and soft drinks. After a pursuit of about five miles that reached speeds over 90 mph, heading back into Milwaukee, the SUV crashed into a light pole, at which point five people — Walker, Beck, two other teenagers and a 5-year-old child — fled on foot before being apprehended:

According to the criminal complaint, Wauwatosa police responded to a retail theft at Home Depot on N. 124th Street on Friday, Sept. 22. Officers were told two females walked out of the store with cleaning supplies and loaded them into a black SUV with no license plate. The criminal complaint says the pair left the store with $308.93 worth of cleaning supplies without paying for them. The complaint also says the driver of the SUV, identified as defendant Demetrius Walker, also entered the store, “took two bottles of soda and a bag of chips and left the store without paying for the property. As soon as the females loaded up the (SUV) with the rest of the stolen merchandise, Walker drove away.” . . .
In an interview with police, Walker “admitted to shoplifting from Home Depot and that he took drinks and a snack without paying. Walker admitted to being the driver of the vehicle. Walker admitted that he knew the merchandise being loaded into the (SUV) was stolen because he was told by Beck that it was stolen as she was loading the (SUV) up. Walker admitted to fleeing from officers because he had been informed that the (SUV) was stolen,” the complaint says.

Stolen SUV. Stolen cleaning supplies. Stolen soda. Stolen chips.

Watch the YouTube video of the police pursuit:

 

After watching this YouTube video in the wee hours, I read the comments, many of which were about the “usual suspects” nature of these criminals. Being a habitual viewer of police videos on YouTube, I am inured to this unpleasant reality. Why do some people feel the need to resist the law so strenously? You see the blue lights in the rear-view mirror, you pull over. You know you’re guilty. What are the chances you’re going to outrun the cops in your stolen SUV? And once you wreck out, with multiple cop cars in pursuit, why even try fleeing on foot?

Perhaps these young scholars from Milwaukee were so busy studying for their AP Physics exams that they didn’t have the leisure to watch YouTube videos and figure out they had no chance of escaping the law. Perhaps, but what I perceive — not just in this video, but in so many dozens of others I’ve watched — is that some people have an attitude of disrespect for the law and contempt for authority.

Gosh, I wonder how they got that attitude?

The anti-police rhetoric that flooded the TV airwaves during the summer of 2020, and the media coverage that excused the “fiery but most peaceful protests,” have helped foster a belief that resistance to law enforcement is some kind of heroic duty. So you drive the stolen car until it crashes, then you flee on foot and, if you happen to have a pistol handy, you get into a shootout with the cops, dying in the proverbial “hail of gunfire,” thus becoming a courageous martyr for social justice.

It would be easy to write a 5,000-word essay about this irrational and destructive mentality, but that’s not what got me going on this particular video. No, it was this comment that set me off:

“I’m so happy we’re protecting corporations profits”

This infuriated me, and I replied:

“Your attitude — ignorantly deriding ‘corporate profit’ — is indistinguishable from that of the criminals. Why do you think businesses (large or small) exist, huh? Where do you suppose the profit goes? And what would happen if the business could not make a profit? You should be ashamed of yourself, but if you had any sense of shame, I suppose, you never would have said such a thing.”

Has this person never read Atlas Shrugged? Or do they just not understand how business operates? Here’s a simple formula:

Profit = Jobs

It’s really not much more complicated than that. The only reason any business exists is because the owners — whether sole proprietor, partnership, or corporation — hope to make a profit on their investment. If they fail to make a profit, they go out of business, and then they can’t employ anybody. No profit, no jobs. This is true both on the global and local level. Where any government creates conditions that are incompatible with profitable business activity, they will thereby drive jobs out of the community. (Hint: There are no CVS stores in Gaza.) You may say, “Well, Home Depot is a gigantic nationwide business that’s in no danger of going out of business anytime soon.” True, but any particular Home Depot location that doesn’t make a profit will be closed, costing jobs at the local level. And if a community tolerates lawlessness, there won’t be any Home Depot locations there. Like, there’s no Home Depot in downtown Baltimore; you have to go out on the east side, near I-95.

There are today many places in America where the local Democratic governments, by tolerating crime, have ruined the economies of their communities. The entire state of California is circling the toilet bowl:

California’s budget deficit swells
to record $68B as tax revenue falls
— Politico, Dec. 7

Report: Wealthy Taxpayers Are
Fleeing California
— Breitbart, Dec. 20

The California exodus continues.
Chart shows how unusual
the population drop was
— San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 21

There are many causes of California’s problems — Gov. Gavin Newsom enforced one of the most draconian and longest-lasting COVID-19 lockdowns in the country — but a lot of it has to do with the crime wave unleashed when the state’s voters approved Proposition 47, which reduced “most drug possession offenses and thefts of property valued under $950.00 from felonies to misdemeanors.” Well, guess what? The level of retail theft in California is now “beyond crisis level,” as the Sacramento County sheriff has said. Anyone who sneers at “corporate profit” ought to have second thoughts, if they’ll just watch a few videos about what’s happened in San Francisco — one empty storefront after another in what were once bustling commercial districts:


 

My friend Dianna Deeley, who used to live in the San Francisco area, was saddened when I sent her those videos. This economic destruction was entirely avoidable, and the voters of California who inflicted this destruction — electing people like Newsom, and voting for ill-considered “reforms” like Prop 47 — should be ashamed of themselves. But then again, if they had any sense of shame, they wouldn’t vote for Democrats.



 

Category: Crime, Wisconsin

Comments

Comments are closed.