Social breakdown
/
Video of shoplifters stealing thousands of dollars worth of electrical wires from a Lowe’s store in Oregon has angered local residents.
"It was so blatant, that’s what riled me up," Keizer, Oregon, resident Andrew Sullivan, who filmed the incident, told the Keizer Times. "They were just strolling through the parking lot, just riding the carts."
Many commenters on the video expressed outrage and wondered if local police would investigate the situation. Lowe’s eventually reported the incident, and an investigation is ongoing, but Keizer Police Lieutenant Andrew Copeland noted that in Oregon, many jails aren’t taking offenders such as shoplifters, in order to cut back on their populations during COVID-19.
Copeland said the men would likely face fines, citations and then be released.
"Once you’ve stolen from Lowe's once and know they can't stop you, there’s no real consequence," Copeland said, noting employees at many chain stores aren’t allowed to stop shoplifters. "Second thing is, these people know they can’t go to jail."
And it’s not just shoplifting. My daughter Kate, who ives in Portland, told me recently that someone was firing a semi-automatic into, presumably, the air, one night recently, and the no one even bothered calling the cops, because they knew there’d be no response. Similarly, she called 911 to report that her neighbor’s car was being broken into, while Kate was speaking with operator, and was told that she could file a report on-line, if she wished, “but we don’t respond to break-ins”.
I’m not mean enough to point out to my beloved daughter that it was she and her friends who voted in the very people whose policies are now destroying Portland, but I’m hopeful that the concept of cause and effect will occur to them, eventually.
Everything bad that starts out west metastasizes east; from what’s happening in San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle today will be here tomorrow.
