Last night’s local news was dominated by reports of multiple criminals being shot, in some cases fatally, either by cops or by intended victims protecting themselves.
I know my readers won’t mind me being brutally honest when I confess that these reports satisfy me. Every time a violent criminal is put out of action, our city is safer. I wish for no man’s death. But if death is the price some men pay for their predations, then so be it. One fewer for us to worry about.
One of the news reports, on KTVU-TV, included an interview with a woman who lived nearby to one of the incidents. She deplored the fact that some people are so desperate, they have to break into houses in order to steal stuff to survive. She implied that we should not be blaming the thieves, but rather the conditions that cause them to steal. Listening to her, I suspected that she probably voted for Pamela Price, and probably continues to support her.
What kind of human being excuses theft and burglary for any reason whatsoever? Let her home be the next to be invaded; we’ll see how she changes her tune. Look, people have been poor since humans have trod this sad, pitiful Earth. But the vast majority of them did not resort to pilfering their neighbors. They knew that was morally wrong. Instead of stealing, they sought to improve themselves and their children. We’ve seen generations of Irish, Germans, Jews, Asians and Latinos struggle up from poverty by working very hard, insisting their children go to school and obey the law. One of the greatest things about America is how people can rise up from the depths to achieve success. This is not a platitude; it’s the plain and simple truth.
So I have no sympathy whatsoever for criminals who get shot while trying to prey on innocent others. A person who breaks into a house is a sociopath, no matter his motivation or circumstances. In the community in which I was raised, Judaism, no child would ever have been tempted to do something so twisted and wrong. We had the Ten Commandments drilled into us. We had respect for the police instilled in us. We didn’t expect anyone to help us, except for family. We were taught to be good citizens, with all that implies. I’m very proud of that tradition.
But it’s sad that not every community values these moral and ethical strictures. In some communities, obeying the law is seen as compromising with the enemy. Theft, mugging, robbery and shoplifting are seen as acceptable behaviors, if not entitlements. Imagine being young and strong, and feeling that you’re entitled to smash a store window and steal, or bash some old lady over the head and grab her purse, or break into a parked car. I can’t put myself into that head state. It’s beyond everything I know and believe in. I fervently wish that everybody felt as I do, but tragically, we have politicians, like Carroll Fife and Pamela Price, sending not-so-subliminal messages to young people that there are extenuating circumstances that justify their criminality. Young people aren’t stupid. Their sensitive antennae pick up these messages, resulting in a thought process that essentially goes, “Hey, even the District Attorney says I have a right to steal. And if, by some bad luck, I get busted, she won’t prosecute me, or if she does, it will result in probation at worst, because Pamela Price is fighting structural racism.”
This is the reality in which we live. This is why crime is out of control in Oakland. We should not underestimate the strength of the opposition we’ll encounter from the likes of Price/Fife, as we try to restore lawfulness to Oakland. These wokes will fight us like cornered badgers. Let them. We’ll beat them anyway.
Steve Heimoff