If the point of the first clip was to prove that Bill Maher is an insufferable prick, then mission accomplished.
As for the second, unlike Bill Maher or the C-suite nihilists at CNN who think that getting Trump elected will Make Line Go Up, I actually have spent most of my adult life working retail. Organized retail theft is not new, it’s not confined to “liberal cities”, and it isn’t caused by “wokeness” or “shoplifting being legal” or because cops aren’t allowed to bash people’s skulls open. If you want to address why it’s happening more often, then you need to look at how manufacturers and Big Agro have raised consumer prices beyond what can be justified by inflation and why retailers have cannibalized their staff to the point that they can no longer adequately deter thieves - I.e. because of the psychopathic cult of perpetual growth that says a company’s only duty is to its shareholders, that spending money to make money is less desirable than cutting your own leg off so you’ll have some extra food for dinner, and that the illusion of growth is more important than the health of the business.
But to address those problems, people like Bill Maher would have to pay their fair share of taxes, and people like the Waltons would need to take a pay cut. Why do that when you can scare the voters into electing “tough on crime” politicians who’ll funnel more money into unaccountable police departments and outsource the problem to them?
Wait – so these massive gang invasions of stores, smashing and grabbing by hordes of gang members who then wheel out shopping carts literally overflowing with expensive goods, is all because stores don’t have adequate staffing?
It’s pretty hard for surveillance cameras to film a “strawman”.
Previous posts here are the straw men: full of attempts to minimize the extent of property crime in the SF-Bay area, to blame reports of high crime on conservative fear-mongering, and also a bunch of refutations to things that neither Maher nor anyone here has ever said, like “it’s illegal for employees to confront shoplifters”, “shoplifting is allowed in California”, or that thefts under $950 cannot be prosecuted in California (they just became misdemeanors rather than felonies).
But really, the point of posting the video is just that it’s pretty damn scary. These are dangerous organized gangs dealing in large-scale theft. The video shows several instances of them being arrested by what were essentially quasi-military SWAT teams. And this was in what I had thought was a fairly peaceful part of California, away from the big cities.
I’ve argued that yes, lack of adequate law enforcement, due in part to lack of resources in relation to the magnitude of the thefts is part of the problem, although one could make the counterargument that law enforcement is just overwhelmed and is not designed to deal with this magnitude of crisis. Indeed I think I’ve pointed out that in jurisdictions that don’t have this problem, law enforcement is routinely called when shoplifters are apprehended although there are exceptions, and law enforcement can and does respond. When nothing can be done when a whole gang of thugs is ransacking a store, the situation is clearly out of control.
That said, let me respectfully suggest that it’s ridiculous for anyone to claim that lack of adequate retail staffing has anything to do with this. Retail staff are there to assist customers, not to defend against a gang of hoodlums armed with axes and crowbars for breaking into secure cases of valuable merchandise. What do you expect the retail staff to do? They’re going to do exactly what they did in that latest Walgreens’ incident: stand and watch.
In any case, this is once again drifting off the topic of Bill Maher. It came up because Maher said shoplifting was a big problem in SF and that effectively there’s almost no enforcement, and Maher’s detractors basically came back with “no, it isn’t, and the problem is being exaggerated by liars like Maher”.
Note that I’m referring to armed security personnel, not cashiers and stockers. And before you say that Walgreens doesn’t employ them, I’ll point back to my article:
Obviously that’s not an ideal situation but if you had an armed presence it might give thieves a reason to go elsewhere.
Now, I do acknowledge there does seem to be a problem in San Francisco (maybe not unique to that city, which would be even worse) where we do have relatively large groups of people looting active retail stores with impunity. Shoplifting is nothing new but gangs of looters are not the usual thing you expect working in retail. If that kind of thing was going on back in my retail days I’d be terrified.
Another possible contributing factor is that SF police seem to just not be doing their jobs anymore. So thieves have a higher likelihood of getting away with theft.
To summarize my position across all those dozens of posts (or whatever the actual number was – but I’m sure you would never exaggerate to make a point ) your difficulties with comprehension are not my problem.
Yes, it is crystal clear. It incorporates that aspect of human language understanding usually referred to as “common sense”.
I didn’t want to be part of any pile on in this thread; I posted a positive link about Maher a few posts ago and was going to post another. But it’s just getting weird.
All you needed to admit was “Yes, Maher spread a false RW talking point about shoplifting” – which is pretty inarguable as he’s on video – and we’d be done here.
Instead you’re throwing your toys out of the pram because you can’t do that for some unknown reason.
And yeah, there have been 50 posts containing the word “shoplift” in this thread, so “dozens” isn’t an exaggeration. You were part of a lot of that conversation, so I’m surprised you’d suggest that.
Care to elaborate? Because it looks like Maher’s exact words on his show, and then in conversation with Joe Rogan, are exactly the opposite of the points you tried to make in post #503.
Sure, I’m happy to help you out with your feigned comprehension difficulties.
When I heard Bill Maher say that “shoplifting was basically legal in San Francisco”, you know what I did not do? I did not immediately book a flight to SF to pick up a whole lot of free high-priced merchandise. I did not then plan to shoplift some large suitcases from Nordstrom to pack all the free loot (if Nordstrom hadn’t yet all closed down in the area) and then fly home again.
Know why I didn’t? Because I understand the meaning of spoken English, and so do you, and so did everyone else who heard Maher’s comments. It was understood that Maher was highlighting a property crime epidemic in the area. There’s obviously ample evidence that he’s right.
The argument against Maher’s position that has merit is that his attribution of cause is simplistic, but that’s a whole different discussion. But your linguistic nitpicking is ridiculous.
This attempt at a rationalization doesn’t make any sense.
You’re suggesting, that in a segment about How the left was lost, where he holds up the idea that San Francisco has “basically legalized shoplifting” as evidence that “the left has gone nuts”, all he meant to say was just that that kind of crime is high in that area?
Why’s he even talking about the left, if he is not trying to leave the viewer with the impression that shoplifting has been legalized (i.e. the thing he actually said)?
Why does he always mention how “crazy” the left has gotten when he talks about this issue on his show and in interviews elsewhere?
You know what, why am I even bothering with such a long post?
Maher has said repeatedly that San Francisco has legalized shoplifting, on his show and elsewhere. That’s simply a lie.
Didn’t miss it – I addressed it several times, most recently here:
California politics is at most a contributing factor, but ultimately this is a socioeconomic problem at a national level. When public policy consistently prioritizes lower taxes and reduced public services and engenders the largest disparity in the industrialized world between the rich and poor, it should be no surprise that there are consequences. Whatever the exacerbating issues may be in some parts of California, it’s clear that law enforcement is not doing their job.
) your difficulties with comprehension are not my problem.