A pal sent a note this morning about crime in California. There apparently is a lot swirling around in the Golden State at the moment, and it is not all out on the Left Coast. Here in The Swamp it is about money to keep this labyrinth moving. Out there, Governor Newsom is subject to recall for his alleged high-handed approach to public health, among other issues, but there is also running commentary on the subject of Bacon, an emotional former staple food product.
Apparently the pork producers now confront the same sort of state intimidation the Auto Industry used to suffer. Due to the size of the California market, Detroit normally acquiesced to Sacramento regulations on emissions and safety regulations. In this latest case, the state managed to pass legislation in 2018 mandating more humane conditions for raising pigs, even in other states. With 15% of the US market in pork destined for California, the auto model is now applied to livestock.
Aside from Bacon, crime is another swelling matter there, and the aberrant public policy of permitting the shoplifting of goods worth less than a $1,000 dollars (and not much less). The inability to expect police response has naturally caused the shutdown of drugstores and popular big-box merchants, impacting the quality of life in many neighborhoods. In fact, it is creating ‘commercial deserts,’ a term formerly applied to the lack of supermarkets in the cities.
There has also been an outbreak of violent behavior, coincident with the “Defund the Police” movement most popular in large urban jurisdictions. That is counter-intuitive, since the demographic populations subject to the “broken window” policing imposed in the last criminal outbreak in the 1970s are still in favor of order in the streets. The partisan opposition to law enforcement has already had two practical effects. Good Cops who have alternatives to patrolling a hazardous beat are taking them. That will result, should the crime surge continue, in more marginal people being recruited with the predictable mixed results. And a call for some national response to help the poor cities.
That thought occurred to us this morning in the Editorial Board meeting. The local paper- the Times-Exponent- has a crime blotter, headed by the tag line that: “arrest does not imply guilt.” It is mostly composed of brief accounts of people drunk in public and screaming obscene language. There are also a few- I counted three in the article this morning- about shootings. Interestingly, they are about ones conducted by women, presumably defending themselves against drunk men shouting profanity. We apologize if this is due to extrapolation on our part, since we have rarely looked up the blotter and have no idea if this is unusual in demographic or frequency.
As always, the Writer’s Section has a theory. We suspect there will be part of a campaign for some sort of National Highway Patrol to “assist” local jurisdiction in “tamping down this surge of crime.” A similar “well-armed” force had been announced aa couple administrations ago to do the same thing, but it fizzled. Now they have a “national problem” which must be addressed by a “strong and forthright centralized approach.”
Forgive me if I seem to depict the whole Writer’s Section as being alarmist, but this campaign across the scope of government appears to be deliberate and comprehensive. The swell of acting-out behavior is interesting. I think there was an incident- one- in the eight years I worked in the Pentagon. Out in the parking lot, as I recall, and caused a momentary stir. This latest one, at the Metro entrance was interesting in dynamics and sad in it’s result.
You have probably heard it. A knife-wielding 27-year-old kid appears, not radically dissimilar to many of the tens of thousands who work in The Building. He attacks a Pentagon Security guard and in the knife assault goes for the officer’s gun, which he acquires and empties the magazine. Result is the killing the officer with the last round used on himself.
Quite a stir, and you would think parts of the story reflect the preferred media narrative of violence. That is what seems to get reported, or t least what fits. We will be watching for you, so there is no need to pay much attention, not that many of us are. Instead, we took a poll, but you know how those things work out these days.
We dunno. But it certainly is strange these days, isn’t it?
Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra