What can be done about "flash mob" robberies?
I’ve been following the news from the Bay Area, where several of these types of robberies occurred over the past couple of days. They involve large groups of people “swarming” a store smashing and grabbing everything they can and getting into waiting vehicles. The robberies are planned ahead of time and difficult to combat because of how fast the operation is and how many people are involved. By the time police arrive, the robbers have often already dispersed and a single armed security guard isn’t enough.
I’ve known this to be a problem in the Bay Area for a while; one of the first instances I heard of was one in which teenagers in Oakland swarmed a BART train car and swiped phones and tablets out of riders’ hands.
I know we have a number of Bay Area users here: what is your perspective on the problem of “organized retail theft” and what can be done about it? In the rest of the country, California is portrayed as a lawless place where crime is essentially legal. There is a political and racial element to the problem since the perpetrators (at least in the Bay) are almost always black. Do you think Gavin Newsom’s “more police” promise is the solution?
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13 Answers
I’m no security expert, but I can envision either an armed guard guarding the location 24/7 along with cameras, or the stores close down and say this isn’t worth their time and money to keep shop in these locations.
Putting barriers in front of the stores to limit vehicle traffic won’t be beneficial for the police to arrive or the fire department or ambulances to arrive if there should be an emergency.
You must live in a country where LLaw and Order rules. Nobody gets away with that sh*t.
The first step should be to prosecute those that are caught. Right now it is difficult to catch or even identify those perpetrators but even when caught they are not prosecuted. Even hiring 24 hour security does no good if the perpetrators are not prosecuted. We have made the criminals the victims all in the name of ‘Social Justice’ or ‘Equity’. If you think this sounds lawless, it is. We’ve created a monster and don’ seem to want to fix it. Luckily I’m old and should be dead before we reach the point of no return.
@tinyfaery: Income equality is a great goal but doesn’t address the immediate problem, as even with the most enthusiastic efforts to create income equality, it’s not happening within the next week or month or year or so.
I can think of a few security countermeasures that might be effective.
However, if the problems in SF are really such that you have organized attacks by groups of many people in cars doing hit & run attacks on stores, and/or that the police isn’t interested in prosecuting them, well, I think that does point to several much greater societal problems, so solving the practical issues would be missing the point and lead to other kinds of problems.
Isn’t a problem, so doesn’t require a solution.
@tinyfaery is correct. Tell me more about what you’re going to do to stop that, including the huge tax cut Dems are giving to the wealthy. Flash robs are sexy, but that’s not where the real crime is. It’s legal and systemic.
Hire armed guards and put up signs that say “LOOTERS WILL BE SHOT.” The first time looters hit, shoot them.
@kritiper – that would mean looting warrants a death penalty.
How about looters who are captured are sentenced to hard labor, like cleaning up beaches and highways at the rate of 1 hr per dollar looted?
@RocketGuy That’s right! And you don’t argue with success!
Punishments? After they get caught?? You catch them, then get back to me.
Pre 1900’s all the stuff was behind the counter and you gave the store clerk your list. If a freedom is not used properly then we might have to go to old times, and lose that freedom for a time.
Or we can put everything in vending machines. Vending machines are the future.
You really mean what can be done about organized crime? You relentlessly go after them, you remove the incentive and you boost built in, engineered security. This has nothing to do with social equity or capitalism. Those things don’t and can’t eliminate, greed and thrill-seeking behavior.
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