Not in a good way.

KTLA Los Angeles reported that a smash and grab robbery happened at the Topanga Mall Nordstrom.

I thought, “WHAT???”

That was one of the first malls I was in when my family moved to California. Back then it was called Topanga Plaza.

It’s just shocking when you hear of someplace from your misspent youth being assaulted like that.

One of my first jobs was at a Toys R Us nearby. The friends I made working at Toy R Us and I spent time in all the local shopping centers. We were young, and we were Valley Boys!

Where were you likely to find Valley Girls???? Right! They were at the shopping centers too.

While I’ve been aware of the smash and grab phenomena, I really hadn’t thought about it as anything more than something weird that was going to pass. Now, perhaps because this feels like an assault on my cherished memories I wonder how we’ve come to this point.

To be sure there was shoplifting. There was an LP in my collection that had considerable guilt associated with it. The only thing I ever shoplifted, and I did it on a dare. I mean literally, the only thing I ever stole was that LP.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that my friends were similar. Maybe once, and then never again.

None of us would have considered being violent about it. Maceing people or smacking ‘em around? Oh Hell no! We wouldn’t have thought of doing something that could hurt somebody.

Which makes me ask again what the hell has happened that’s made so many people think it’s okay to wholesale ransack stores and hurt innocent bystanders?

Is it just that there isn’t much in the way of consequences?

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I really enjoyed watching the viral video of the cigarette thief in Stockton, CA getting his ass kicked.

He deserved it! The thief was later arrested in association with a string of other robberies and at his court appearance told the judge he was asleep when asked if he understood his Miranda rights. This guy is out on probation, clearly he didn’t learn a damn thing in prison.

The startling thing about this story for me is the 7-Eleven clerks let him go after beating his ass.

They showed mercy and kindness, yet hours later, this guy is arrested at another convenience store. He had to still be hurting from the beating but he was doing the same thing a few hours later???

The general consensus about this guy getting beaten, is that he deserved it. For once, I’m not the outlier.

Here is a guy who had immediate consequences for his actions and learned nothing. He’s been in prison and learned nothing. So where does that leave us?

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I am reminded of my childhood in the Deep South. There were Chain Gangs of prisoners dressed in stripes fixing roads, digging drainage ditches, putting in fences near highways, cleaning up trash, and whatever else the State decided needed doing.

My Father would point at the prisoners as we drove by and say that’s what happens to you if you break the law. You end up chained like an animal doing public work to pay your debt to society.

I asked my Father what a debt to society was.

He then explained that keeping someone in prison cost the state taxpayers money. Feeding them, clothing them, looking after their medical needs, hearing their bullshit in court, all cost the state money. That represents a debt the prisoner owes to society on top of whatever crime they committed and its only fair that they work to pay that back to the taxpayer via public work.

Then he said something I remember very clearly.

He said, “If I ever see you on one of these chain gangs, I’ll be very disappointed, I’ll probably have to pull off the road to cry, I’ll still love you son, but I’ll never be able to forgive you for throwing your life away.”

My Father admitting he’d cry, or even that he could cry?

Now you know why the one LP stolen on a dare had such profound guilt associated with it.

Thinking about it, those Chain Gangs had another purpose. They served as an example to young impressionable children like myself. Seeing these men chained struck fear of breaking the law, or even the rules at school, deep in our hearts. If big strong men could end up like this, we children had no chance. Best obey our parents, the rules, and the laws. They don’t have moonpies or RC in prison, or so my momma says.

The trouble now is that we’ve gone so far into the Wild West, that only gunslinging Marshalls who shoot first and ask questions later can rebalance the scales.

It’s very likely that the Marshalls weren’t nice guys. It’s more likely that they were personally worse than the gangs of criminals they were hunting down.

The famous Marshalls were apex predators taking out the competition. Had they not been paid well, and treated with respect, when they were done with the criminal gangs, they could easily have filled the void and become super criminals. You’ve got to wonder if they didn’t think about it.

Societies are never supposed to cede control to criminals. Which is what California has done, and other states are doing. The apex predators that rise to fight criminals can just as likely become apex criminals.

After all why not? My thinking as an apex predator would be, “Society’s usual checks and balances couldn’t deal with shitty little criminals. I had to take out the trash, I deserve everything the criminals owned, including their business and and income streams. I call it the spoils of war, and no-one can stand against me…”

Mayor Bass had better make being an LA Police Officer a really good deal damn quick. And she better be prepared to look the other way for a few years while officers are brutal in bringing down the criminal element. She also better have an exit plan for officers accused of excessive brutality that includes a nice quiet retirement, not trials or prison.