Lightfoot’s blame-the-victim response about flash mob thieves reminiscent of pre-woke SNL sketch

Posted: December 12, 2021 by John Ruberry in crime
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By John Ruberry

If you give a press conference and the result looks like a Saturday Night Live sketch, a pre-woke version of the show that is, then you have a big problem.

So it was last week with Chicago’s inept leftist mayor, Lori Lightfoot, when she blamed retail crime victims for the rise of flash mob thieves plaguing Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping area.

“We still have retailers that won’t institute plans like having security officers in their stores, making sure that they’ve got cameras that are actually operational, locking up their merchandise at night, chaining high-end bags,” the first-term Democrat said. “These purses can be something that is attracting a lot of organized retail theft units.”

So it’s the victims’ fault.

Just like it was in this SNL skit from 1991, featuring Chicago native Joe Mantegna, where he blames New York City crime victims for their problems.

“Yeah, I was flying to Florida, and we had a stopover in New York,” a caller to a talk radio show told Mantegna. “Well, while we were sitting on the ground a group of ‘wilding’ teenagers boarded the plane and beat with me on the head with a pipe.”

“And which airport was this,” Mantegna asked,

“LaGuardia,” was the reply.

“Well, there you go,” Mantegna scolded the caller.

Chicago Police brass were said to have a plan in place to combat smash-and-grab thieves and avoid scenes such as what happened when a Burberry’s on North Michigan Avenue was emptied of purses–each handbag was worth more than a thousand dollars. 

If there was a plan by the CPD, then it clearly didn’t work. Since Lightfoot’s delusional presser a North Face store on the Mag Mile was struck twice. But proving that the Burberry’s looting was just a tame opening act, yesterday a luxury car dealer just off of the Magnificent Mile was robbed of an estimated $2 million worth of high-end watches–which, are you paying attention Mayor Lightfoot?– were locked up inside a locked glass display case. Yep, $2 million.

The dealership is now seeing customers on an appointment basis only–its doors are locked during store hours. Welcome to the new Chicago.

On Friday night’s Flannery Fired Up show on Fox 32 Chicago, host Mike Flannery estimated that 20 percent of the storefronts on North Michigan Avenue are empty. Regular readers of my posts know that the Mag Mile was devastated by two rounds of looting–oops, I mean “mostly peaceful protests”–in 2020. 

The luxury dealership, which sells Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, is owned by Joe Perillo, who is rethinking operating in Chicago.

“It is wrong for someone to break into a place – if they get caught, they get let out!” Perillo explained to ABC 7. “If they get arrested, they get let go. So, how do you intend to ever solve that problem?” He added, “If they don’t do anything about this, they’re going to lose a lot of businesses. They lost Macy’s. They’re losing Neiman Marcus. They may lose this store.”

While Neiman Marcus still has a store on the North Michigan Avenue, the Gap and Disney have also left in the last year. And remember what Flannery said about Mag Mile vacancies. 

It’s not just Lightfoot’s fault.

Kim Foxx is one of those woke so-called prosecutors whose campaign was funded by radical leftist George Soros. She’s received plenty of well-deserved scorn for her mishandling of the Jussie Smollett case. But the greater sin of the Cook County state’s attorney is her catch-and-release policy involving criminals accused of serious offenses. Even some alleged murderers are out of jail on electronic surveillance.

How ’bout if a non-woke SNL updated that skit with a Chicago twist?

“Hello, my store was emptied of merchandise by flash mob looters,” a caller to that SNL-radio show might say.

“What do you sell,” Lori Lightfoot would reply.

“Purses worth more than $1,000.”

Lightfoot’s retort would be, “Well, there you go.”

Retail groups have been complaining that shoppers are now afraid to visit North Michigan Avenue. Who can blame them?

Chicago is dying. The cause of death? Woke politicians.

Well, there you go.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Best Advice/Warning you Will Ever Get From a Priest

Posted: December 12, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

You can’t do better than this from Fr. Z in a post titled A Rabbit ran under the Wheels of my car:

Rabbits don’t have immortal souls.

You, dear reader, have an immortal soul.

We don’t know when our time will be up.

It could be soon.  It could be unforeseen.

It will happen.

If you have your own rabbit moment, and you have unconfessed mortal sins and no access to the last sacraments, you are probably going to go to Hell.

He has a solution in three words:

GO TO CONFESSION.

You can’t do better than that for your soul

Schadenfreude Alert or getting what you vote for

Posted: December 11, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

In SF:

The other night, Joya Pramanik’s husband spotted someone wearing a ski mask on what was an otherwise warm evening on their quiet street. She worried the masked man was up to no good — and it pains her to say that, since what she loves about San Francisco is its easy embrace of all types of characters.

Pramanik, a project manager who moved to the U.S. from India in her teens, cheered Trump’s failed reelection bid but says she realized too late that Democratic activists have hijacked her city.

“If I say I want laws enforced, I’m racist,” she said. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m not racist. There’s a reason I live in San Francisco.’”

In Oakland:

My wife and I are scrambling to find daycare for our 16-month-old son. We’ve had a “nanny share” up until now, which means we and another couple employ a nanny for both couples’ kids and split the cost. Our nanny is wonderful, and she lives just a few blocks from us. But a few weeks ago, someone walked up her street spraying bullets into random houses. One of the bullets found its way into her living room, as she and her family ducked for cover. At that moment, she and her husband decided they were moving their family out of Oakland.

The shooting didn’t even make the local news. Apparently, in the Bay Area right now, you can walk up a residential street firing your gun into houses, and you still won’t be able to compete for attention with all of the other sensational crimes. 

Charlotte NC:

the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department will no longer charge people for violating city ordinances after a new state law decriminalized many of them.

City ordinances include playing loud music, panhandling, littering, trespassing, curfews, animal abuse and more. CMPD has instructed officers to not arrest or charge anyone criminally for a violation of a city ordinance until further notice.

In an email obtained by Channel 9, Deputy Chief Steven Brochu said the new policy is due to a change in state law.

In September, Gov. Roy Cooper signed a new law decriminalizing some city ordinances. The new state law applies to all local governments. That prompted a review process for all communities to determine which ordinances will still have criminal penalties.

Of course that doesn’t compare to Oakland & SF but you’ve got to slow walk law enforcement before the people start running away.

Remember when you vote for the left you get what you’re you’re voting for.

Update: Let’s not forget (via Instapundit) LA

Jamie McBride, head of the union representing LAPD officers, said he can’t guarantee personal safety. His warning came with a movie reference.

“My message to anyone thinking about coming to Los Angeles, especially during the holiday season, is don’t,” Jamie McBride, the head of the LA Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD officers, said in a television interview. The message from McBride comes as what many residents and business owners view as a wave of crime slamming the city and surrounding areas.

“We can’t guarantee your safety. It is really, really out of control. I said it to people before, it’s like that movie ‘Purge,’ you know, instead of 24 hours to commit your crime, these people have 365 days to commit whatever they want,” McBride said.

Man, creating stuff is hard work!

Posted: December 11, 2021 by ng36b in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

It’s tough watching people destroy things.

I remember watching the second plane ram into the Twin Towers on 9-11, eventually bringing down both buildings that had taken years to build and had created so many jobs and generated so much wealth for this country.

I watched in similar dismay as riots broke out last year and scores of businesses were looted and burned, putting hundreds if not thousands of people out of work and out of savings.

I think its hard, especially for me, to watch this destruction because I know first hand just how difficult it is to create something. It took me years to build my own home, having to wade through mountains of paperwork and battle the elements, city bureaucrats and even my own builder at times. I could never stand by and let someone destroy it needlessly because they had some imagined offense in their head that somehow justified their actions. Destruction is far too easy, especially when destroying someone else’s property.

Once you’ve put in the sweat and tears to build something, you immediately learn to place value on the building process. It’s only the truly lazy among us and those that have never had to build anything who can stomach the wanton destruction of private property.

In a similar fashion, its easy to complain that the media is a basket case of loser, left-leaning literature, but are most of us doing much about it? This blog here, and others like Instapundit, are a good start. It’s not cheap though, and I’d encourage you to donate to DaTechGuy so that he can keep it running.

And if you’ve liked the content I’ve produced this year, why not get my book? It makes a great Christmas present for that hard-to-please person. If you’re not into reading things on paper or a Kindle, you can now get the Audible audiobook version here. Sharing the link with your friends and having at least a few purchase it really helps me out.

Remember that creation is hard. Give your favorite creators some love this Christmas season.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Please check out my book on Amazon, its the easiest way you can directly support me!

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