Dangerous downtowns?

Obviously I am thousands of miles away, so I don't know exactly what's going on.

So I have to ask.... is this "shoplifting flash mob" thing really happening?

Five years ago in Australia, there was a lot of hysteria about "African gangs" in Melbourne: gangs of Somali, Sudanese and South Sudanese teenagers terrorising locals. The Home Affairs Minister (the equivalent of somewhere between your head of the DHS, head of the Department of the Interior, and Attorney General - responsible for policy on law and order and stuff) said that this had got to the point that families in Melbourne were scared to go out, and that restaurants were empty. This was widely reported, first in the Murdoch press, who pushed it hard, and then elsewhere, and it was stated as fact.

It wasn't true. Not even slightly. Footage of one of these "African gang" violent incidents emerged showing gangs of blond surfer dudes, not East Africans. Footage of other incidents, at the time the incidents were said to have occurred, showed nothing happening at all.

Restaurants weren't empty, and families weren't afraid to go out. Not at first, anyway. But for a good six weeks after the fact, because of the hysteria that the Murdoch Press and the Home Affairs Minister whipped up, people did stop going out, and restaurants did suffer as a result. There were also loads of arrests of alleged leaders of the "African gangs". None of them were leaders of gangs, and everyone who was arrested was released. Several business associations and local councils threatened to sue the Home Affairs Minister and the Murdoch Press for the damage that they - not the African gangs - had done to local business.

What I'm saying is that Australian experience shows that stories like this can appear from nothing, usually for political motivations.

So are these shoplifting flashmobs definitely happening? Are they happening to the extent that reports suggests? I'm not saying they're not - this is a genuine question.

 

About sixteen years ago, there was a first-year student who went missing at the university here, on 13 January, and wasn't found until 19 March. In the intervening time there wasn't anybody who knew what happened to him.

That didn't stop my parents, two states away, from talking with me over and over in their panic about predatory weirdos roaming about, all in the foregone conclusion that something had been done to him by some predatory weirdo. They were whipped up into an unabating panic by the national news they were watching. Every time I heard from them, they updated me on the latest details of where the riverbanks were being searched for signs and so on.

After he was found on 19 March, I just didn't hear any more about him from my parents. Next time we talked, I had to tell them there was an end to the story. They had never heard it. They hadn't even noticed they hadn't heard it. The story had stopped being hyped on the channel they were watching, and they had stopped having any thoughts of it, just like that.

If I google it now, I can find some coverage by that network of how the story turned out. So of course I can't say they never covered the resolution at all. But clearly, it just went far from the front-burner hype they'd been giving it for two months, as soon as it didn't serve the panic-inducing purpose anymore.

 

Was he ok?

 

No different here, and media literacy is quite low across the board. So while you or I might read a sensational headline and think to hold it in the context of who published it and who owns the publishing company, plenty of people will just believe it if they like what it says.

Looking back, media lit/crit was one of the most valuable courses I took in college.

 

No, it was a tragic accidental and instantaneous death, no foul play involved, in a location where he'd been hidden from view by the first searchers who peered in, The person who eventually found him there hadn't been looking for him.

 

Thanks to security cameras, there have been a very small number. In contrast, Tesla cars catch fire more frequently. As for brick and mortar stores, their real threat is Amazon and Ebay.

Bob Wilson

 

So I had a wonderful evening out with friends in North Hollywood, California last night. Yeah that North Hollywood. (Probably not even the worst thing they've written about it.)

Anyway, it was my buddy's birthday. He and his wife came across the valley with their kids and we formed our party. We walked around for half an hour to kill time. I lived there from 1998-2000 so I enjoyed checking out all the updates and improvements. Lots of gentrification. Many new storefronts. Bustling bars, restaurants, shiny new condo complexes. Major new transit hub and some other big upgrades too.

After wandering around and checking out a few spots we stopped at a Polynesian restaurant and had a great time eating seafood and watching a hula show.

We all had a splendid evening, nobody felt unsafe.

It's a better downtown than it was 25 years ago, even with the homeless in plain sight.

So it bothers me to see one of Murdoch's shops trying to scare people and rile up their readers with sensational junk, and that one hits close to ex-home.

 

Alcohol must still be the biggest drug addiction. They tried to prohibit it once, didn’t work out, crime increased around getting alcohol. So now we just live with a certain number of people killed from drunk driving every year. Back burner news now. No more excitement. DMV’s have some strict rules, probably has helped some. Addiction is a tough problem.
On a personal note long ago way before my life, my grandfather’s father died from alcohol use and left a wife and a crowd of children. My grandfather never had a father, born in 1893 after his father overdosed. So nothing is really that new. Just stop putting skin color into it, even subtly, in the news. It isn’t about skin color. Then those who want it to be about skin color grab it and run with it.

 

Thankfully a different scale of consequences...

 

I had to look up the yearly deaths from drunk driving, about 13,000, which shows how not in the news it is. Of course other substances cause accidents too. Coffee, I have to defend it.
Thefts from stores, it’s the latest news. Costco has a handle on it pretty good.

 

I agree, there's a strong editorial bias in play.

I think Costco's edge is fairly simple. It's hard to shoplift stuff by the pallet, especially with one door in and one door out in their floorplan.

 

the reason we're soft on drunk driving is because too many pols don't want to suffer the consequences personally

 

An ex-sweetie emailed me a link she had come across today, interviewing the author of a book featuring a restaurant that was in Detroit's south Cass Corridor. (Back when she was my not-yet-sweetie, which changed in part through long conversations at said restaurant).

How a family-owned Chinese restaurant shaped Curtis Chin's worldview

 

Up until a few years ago it was illegal to buy or sell alcohol in our rural county in Kentucky. An influx of newcomers and businesses who saw the chance to make some additional money, changed the voting dynamic and now it is legal with the accompanying beer joints- alcohol stores and bars.

I don't drink for medical reasons, but it doesn't bother me that others might drink- I do draw the line at people who become addicted to alcohol and drunk drivers.

I would agree that drunk drivers don't have accidents - they are preplanned events when they consciously make a decision to drink too much and then get behind the wheel. A good case could be made that when someone is tragically killed by an accident caused by a drunken driver it is actually premeditated murder.
That is strong language, but it is needed, and individuals need to face accountability for their actions.

I am reminded of the horrific accident in our state where a drunk driver crashed his vehicle into a church school bus and 27 souls perished in the horrific aftermath.
Those young kids will never get their lives back and had no say in the drunken drivers decision process to get behind the wheel and drive. Those kids cross my mind every time I hear someone mention drunk driving.

 

Costco has like a 10 foot high chain link fence separating the in and out. They are well trained at the exit, inspecting every customers receipt. Target is like a broadway going in and out, no checkers. They put a fast food just up from the in out doors. The bathrooms are right near the entrance/exit.

 

Another member of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA,) the fellowship is also available for recreational drugs. For historical reasons, alcohol remains the big bear even though the founders started during Prohibition.

My fellow Oklahoman, Will Rogers, had this and many other lessons to share:

• You know statistics have proven that listening to prohibition lecturers has driven more people to drink than any other cause.

• They say Washington was never dry. Course you got to lay most of that to the Senate and Congress being in session.

• The American people will vote dry as long as they are able to stagger to the polls.

Jesus turned water into wine and protestants like me turned wine into grape juice.

Bob Wilson

 

I just listened to a really good documentary about prohibition. Much of what you say above is reflected in what they say, especially about Washington. Apparently there was alcohol available behind a curtain in the Library in Congress.

BBC Radio 4 - You're Dead to Me, Prohibition in the USA

 

For anyone with six hours of available video time (vs under an hour for that BBC audio), see also the Ken Burns / Lynn Novik documentary set on the Prohibition. From 2011.

Watch Prohibition | Ken Burns | PBS