Topic: The Metaphysics of Contemporary Theft

[rickl]

A new post by Victor Davis Hanson.  This is a must-read even by his standards.  Great comments, too.

Last week was another somewhat depressing chapter in a now long saga of living where I was born. I returned to the farm from leading a European military history tour, and experienced the following — mind you, after a number of thefts the month prior (barn, shop, etc.):

1)   I left my chainsaw in the driveway to use the restroom inside the house. Someone driving buy saw it. He slammed on the brakes, stole it, and drove off. Neat, quick, easy. Mind you there was only a 5-minute hiatus in between my cutting. And the driver was a random passer-by. That suggests to me that a high number of rural Fresno County motorists can prove to be opportunistic thieves at any given moment. The saw was new; I liked it — an off-the-shelf $400 Echo that ran well. I assume it will be sold off at a rural intersection in these parts, or the nearby swap meet for about $60. I doubt the thief was a professional woodsman who needed a tool of the trade to survive.

2)   On the next night, three 15-hp agriculture pumps on our farm were vandalized — all the copper wire was torn out of the electrical conduits. The repairs to each one might run $500; yet, the value of the wire could not be over $50. I was told by neighbors that reports and descriptions of the law-breakers focused on youthful thieves casing the countryside — in official parlance a “gang,” and in the neighborhood politically-incorrect patois “cholos” — like the fellow who recently drove in, in his new lowered shiny red pickup (hydraulic lifters are not cheap), inquiring about buying “scrap” and “just looking” before I ran him out.

3)    A neighbor has a house for sale. It is unoccupied and rather isolated. I saw someone approach it on Friday, and drove over to ensure he was lawful. It was the owner’s assistant, who lamented that someone had just stolen all the new appliances out of the house — carting off the refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, and microwave. But why? Do these miscreants wish a civilization of the sort that all houses must seem occupied all the time, or are otherwise considered “communal property” for the taking? Don’t the appliance thieves have homes, and if so, do they have locks on the doors to protect their investments from the likes of themselves?

These days I sympathize with gloomy St. Augustine, writing after the sack of Rome in 410, and then again contemplating things lost when back home, near death, and besieged by the vandals at Hippo Regius. He died I think convinced that a millennium of culture was about to end. And despite a Belisarius to come, it did.

I was almost tempted to put it in the copper theft thread, but it deserves a thread of its own.

[charlesoakwood]

Hanson is depressed.

[Alphabet Soup]

Hanson is depressed.

He's not alone...

[Pandora]

Hanson is depressed.

He's not alone...

Newp.

He's watched California become Mexifornia, with all the attendant ills.  It's not only depressing, it's sickening.

[Glock32]

One of the comments in response to that article made a good point, and this perhaps is the nub of the issue, the situation in California (and increasingly the entire US) is not lawlessness. It's worse than lawlessness, it's unequal and selective application of law. The miscreants who have burgled Dr. Hanson's property are able to operate with virtual impunity. Even if caught they have the benefit of a sympathetic narrative in the judicial system, and given that the Black Robe Mafia has already ordered the state to set free 40,000 prisoners due to the horrors of overcrowding, the odds of actual prison time are nil. Now, contrast this with the Hammer of Thor that would be dropped on any decent citizen who defended his property and livelihood, particularly if the criminals were of a protected species.

The productive class no longer has any defender, and is furthermore actively prohibited from defending itself.

[Pandora]

One of the comments in response to that article made a good point, and this perhaps is the nub of the issue, the situation in California (and increasingly the entire US) is not lawlessness. It's worse than lawlessness, it's unequal and selective application of law. The miscreants who have burgled Dr. Hanson's property are able to operate with virtual impunity. Even if caught they have the benefit of a sympathetic narrative in the judicial system, and given that the Black Robe Mafia has already ordered the state to set free 40,000 prisoners due to the horrors of overcrowding, the odds of actual prison time are nil. Now, contrast this with the Hammer of Thor that would be dropped on any decent citizen who defended his property and livelihood, particularly if the criminals were of a protected species.

The productive class no longer has any defender, and is furthermore actively prohibited from defending itself.

I was thinking of the anarchy of selective enforcement as well, Glock, about which Hanson detailed in another piece.

And of this:

If all the court rulings mandating libraries, counseling, second medical opinions, legal help, etc., coupled with the cost of a unionized, highly compensated guild of guards, make prison too expensive, then will we be left with virtual prisons in which trials and sentencing are followed by freedom? If it is cheaper each year to send the felon to UCLA or even Stanford, why then have a prison — a new metaphor for almost everything gone wrong with contemporary American society?

I didn't connect the high cost of incarceration there -- and almost everywhere now -- when I read about the prisoner release, but there you have it.  Totally, unnecessarily expensive when tents, pink underwear and bologna sandwiches will serve.

[warpmine]

Don't forget the work details of chain gangs. Humiliation and shame must be part of punishment else the sentence of incarceration have no meaning, worse, it becomes a rest home.

Rehabilitation is just another liberal failed feel good policy.

Personally, I'd bait the yard or a neighbor's hoping a perp would try again only to find out the damage a shotgun does t a vehicle.

[ToddF]

We are left with a paradox. The taxpayer cannot indefinitely fund the emergency room treatment for the shooter and his victim on Saturday night if society cannot put a tool down for five minutes without a likely theft, or a farmer cannot turn on a 50-year old pump without expecting its electrical connections to have been ripped out. Civilization simply cannot function that way for either the productive citizen or the parasite, who still needs a live host.

Column of the year.

[Libertas]

Don't forget the work details of chain gangs. Humiliation and shame must be part of punishment else the sentence of incarceration have no meaning, worse, it becomes a rest home.

Rehabilitation is just another liberal failed feel good policy.

Personally, I'd bait the yard or a neighbor's hoping a perp would try again only to find out the damage a shotgun does t a vehicle.

That's an idea I can get behind!

If people no longer respect the law and the law is no longer being upheld by those charged with that responsibility, then acting on our own behalf is the only logical answer.

If it gets any worse we'll have full-blown anarchy.  Won't the Paulites be tickled pink?!

 

[Glock32]

I think the moral of the story here is one of: Shoot. Shovel. Shut up.

[Sectionhand]

It doesn't really matter what the item is ; if left untended it'll be scarfed up by some sticky-fingered bastard . That's just the way things are anymore . On the other hand , I've found it a good way to get rid of stuff I don't want anymore .

I knew a guy who had let his college-age son have the use of a lease car once . After a few months the kid came home from school for the weekend and the car was totally trashed . Naturally the guy was pretty upset with the kid , knowing that he was going to take it big-time in the a** from the leasing company . He was living on Long Island at the time and just drove the car into a seedy part of NYC and left it with his son's unbelievably gaudy key ring hanging out of the door lock . He took a short walk and came back twenty minutes later and the car was gone . He reported it stolen . Problem solved !

[LadyVirginia]

Thanks, rickl. I'm behind on my VDH reading.

He's in a position, not unlike many citizens, of trying to hold on to the family homestead.  It must be depressing to think you could be the last one to have it.

He tells some pretty interesting tales about being operated on in Libya (I think) and suffering illnesses in other countries but it must be sad to realize your home could be as dangerous as any place you've traveled.

But if it's not some gang trying to rip out your appliances, it's the government telling you what valve to use or lightbullb or toilet. 

[trapeze]

It doesn't really matter what the item is ; if left untended it'll be scarfed up by some sticky-fingered bastard . That's just the way things are anymore . On the other hand , I've found it a good way to get rid of stuff I don't want anymore .

I knew a guy who had let his college-age son have the use of a lease car once . After a few months the kid came home from school for the weekend and the car was totally trashed . Naturally the guy was pretty upset with the kid , knowing that he was going to take it big-time in the a** from the leasing company . He was living on Long Island at the time and just drove the car into a seedy part of NYC and left it with his son's unbelievably gaudy key ring hanging out of the door lock . He took a short walk and came back twenty minutes later and the car was gone . He reported it stolen . Problem solved !

During one of the infamous NYC garbage strikes some people took to gift wrapping their garbage and leaving it unattended in an unlocked car.