March 28, 2024 10:15 AM
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Opinion: Stop Looting

The only reward for putting up with craziness is more craziness.” Thomas Sowell

In San Francisco, in 1851, and again in 1856, Vigilante Committees were formed and dispensed a crude form of justice. The 1851 committee was formed because the city had grown from a small village of eight or nine hundred to over 20,000 in just a couple of years, and the city government and law enforcement that existed was totally ineffective in stopping crime. Murders, robberies, arsons, burglaries and thefts were committed daily with virtually none of the criminals ever being caught or punished.

The 1856 committee was started for almost the same reasons. Violent and property crimes were rampant and criminals were getting away unpunished. The difference from 1851 was that a corrupt political machine run by the Democrats, was turning a blind eye to these crimes, often committed by their pals and political allies. Sound familiar?

While the sanctimonious, then and now, sermonize about how wrong it is to take the law into one’s own hands, there are historic lessons to be learned from these vigilante renditions. First, in both 1851 and five years later, San Francisco was being controlled by gangs of thugs and criminals. Honest citizens were being murdered, beaten, robbed and impoverished by outlaws.

What can law abiding people do? They can either surrender, leave the area, or fight back. Considering the type of individuals who would risk the hardships and everything they had to get to California in 1850, the only viable solution was to fight back. When there is a vacuum caused by anarchy, the void must be filled somehow. In 1851 and 1856, that void was filled by vigilantes.

What about our current state of affairs? The vast increase in the murder rate, violent crime rate and property crime rate can be blamed directly on the progressive Democrat policies and their obsequious co-conspirators in the media. In the summer of 2020, anarchy was on grand display. Cops in cities run by left wing Democrats were ordered not to make arrests or stop the rioting and looting. The politicians thought it would be okay to let the rioters “vent” in retaliation for what happened to George Floyd. People were killed. Buildings were burned. Stores were burglarized and looted. No one was punished, even when arrested. Soros funded DA’s released them almost immediately to do it again. A void was created.

Kyle Rittenhouse was called a vigilante, but he was only trying to protect other people’s property, not trying to bring criminals to justice. He was filling a void created when politicians ordered law enforcement to “stand down”. Now individual shoplifters and organized looters are stealing millions of dollars worth of retail goods, threatening and sometimes hurting or killing those who try to stop them. Almost nothing is being done to stop them. How is this vacuum going to be filled? Because it will be.

Those that can afford it, might pack up and move their businesses to cities that actually enforce laws and prosecute law breakers. One can envision some store owners hiring their own vigilante thugs to break arms, legs and heads of looters and shoplifters, and doing so in such a way as to allow the owners “plausible deniability”. Those who haven’t been financially ruined, might get vocal and start backing candidates who will refund police, back initiatives that put crooks back in prisons, and vote in prosecutors who will demand bail and file charges against these violent, thieving hordes. Whatever happens, the vacuum will be filled, either through counter violence or the ballot box.

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One Response

  1. This is a good article by Buz that points out that vigilantism gets a bum rap and is sometimes justified. A more recent example of this is the Battle of Athens, Tennessee in 1946 where a corrupt political machine and sheriff’s department was ousted after a gun battle with returning WWII G.I.s who decided it was necessary to “take the law into their own hands.”

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