Seriously. What do they do at those NAACP meetings anyway? Next time the Colored People meet, they need to get this one solved.
(Question: is there like one big national meeting of all black people every year, or do y’all have chapters? Because maybe lissener can just call the Seattle chapter if it’s the latter; I’m guessing he can’t get this item on a national NAACP agenda).
Our local video store has used DVDs for sale up front by the register. I saw one–I think it was a documentary about tagging–with a note on it. It essentially said, “Congratulations, asshole, for being the first person to make a theft from my store. Now I know better than to stock movies like this one. This store puts food in my family’s mouth and will pay for my daughter to go to college. You just stole from her. That means that if I ever find out who you are, I don’t care about the law, I will kick your ass.” I was very pleased to see it.
If someone fails to return a movie, he also puts a note on the empty box that says, “Jimmy Hendricks [or whoever] stole this video!” It’s especially funny when it’s a softcore porn that got stolen, and the thief’s name is on it forever.
Problem solved! I just emailed Barack Obama and asked him to tell his people to knock that shit off. Thanks Dripping!
I should probably put a big sign over the back door that says “Coloreds” too. It’ll be easier to keep track of them if they all come in the same entrance.
You would be silly not to eyeball everyone who walks in the store. If the statistical chances are higher that a given cohort is likely to steal from you, and the screen for that cohort is skin color, there is no moral imperative which prevents you from applying that filter.
The extent to which it’s practical or appropriate to apply a particular filter depends upon the extent to which that filter is an accurate screen. It occurs to me that it’s not that hard to separate black dirtball from black ordinary citizen, and white sleazebag from white ordinary citizen. But if the correlation between black and thievery is so high you can utilize your anti-theft resources most appropriately focusing only on black customers which you then separate into “needs watching” and “doesn’t need watching,” you need not apologize. Given the white teenage hoodlums in my area, it wouldn’t work here.
Nitpick here—you’d be surprised what homeless people have. If they have a permanent camp, they probably have cell phones and a DVD player. The liquor store where I used to work specifically caters to the homeless. They’re a veritable gold mine. We would cash their SSI checks for them, and they would return the favor by buying almost everything they needed from us. Batteries were always kept well stocked.