(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
As crime rates continue to rise nationwide, increased reports of violent thefts have surfaced, showing a disturbing trend of incidents in which thieves are destroying property and stealing merchandise from stores. Lax law enforcement policies have empowered a wide swath of organized thievery perpetrated by individuals who know they will not be prosecuted if they don’t steal at least $1,000 worth of goods.
But one of the most interesting elements of this equation is how the activist media categorize these crimes, which illustrates the left’s covert forms of racial prejudice. Indeed, it is amazing that none of the high-profile members of the race-baiting chattering class have bothered to point out the obvious differences in how these alleged news outlets refer to different types of people engaged in the same behavior.
Smash & Grab vs Looting?
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Over the past few weeks, there has been a rash of organized theft of retail stores in major cities across the country. The issue became particularly pronounced on Black Friday. However, when media outlets reported on these incidents, they referred to the actions of the perpetrators as “smash and grab.”
NBC Los Angeles published an article noting that “[a] citywide tactical alert was lifted Saturday, after a Black Friday marred by several more smash-and-grab robberies across Los Angeles County.”
Business Insider also put out an article on robberies in Chicago and the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, noting that these crimes “follow a spree of smash-and-grab robberies at luxury retailers in California in the past two weeks.”
CBS San Francisco reported that “[l]ooters targeting Bay Area businesses struck again Sunday evening, with smash-and-grab thieves hitting the Southland Mall in Hayward and suspects taking merchandise from a Lululemon store in San Jose.”
Is There a Difference?
These news reports describe groups of people running into stores and destroying property while stealing merchandise. In several cases, employees have been physically assaulted with knives, blunt objects, and even firearms. These actions are no different from what the nation saw during the George Floyd riots of 2020. But there was a distinct difference in how the media described the behavior.
During the riots, media outlets routinely referred to the actions of the rioters as “looting.” However, these individuals were also running into stores and smashing and grabbing items that did not belong to them. Yet, the media did not call these “smash and grab” crimes.
So what is the real difference here?
It seems obvious, doesn’t it? When black rioters trash stores and steal property, they are “looters.” When mostly white groups of thugs engage in the exact same behavior, they are engaging in “smash and grab” activity. If it were only conservative media outlets who made this distinction, one would not have to wonder how the left would react. They would clutch their pearls at the apparent bias in the verbiage used to describe these two separate groups.
But this seems to underline what many already know: Leftists have a racism problem as well. They engage in the exact type of behavior for which they criticize the right. This is especially true of the activist media, whose members claim to care about the plight of black Americans. Remember when they were racializing the Gabrielle Petito story, pointing out that black women who go missing do not receive nationwide coverage? The fact that they are the ones refusing to cover cases of missing women of color was completely lost on them.
These realities are subtle reminders that those who practice wokeism are rarely able to live up to the standards their religion requires. Indeed, it is not that they fall short; they aren’t truly sincere about being good wokeists in the first place. Their objective is to get everyone else to fall in line, not to practice what they preach. It makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, why hold yourself to a standard when you can just schoolmarm everyone else?
~ Read more from Jeff Charles.
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