Smash and Grab continues un-abated.

Apparently, the word on the streets of LA, steal as you will the stores don't have the balls to stop you. Briefly on Saturday afternoon hundreds bum rushed a department store and made off with 100 thousand in merchandise.

One thought is, "glad I don't live in LA". My cautionary tale don't let it get a foothold in Ohio. If they are not already doing it, I hope each of our police departments are scouring the internet for evidence of a flash mob. 

We all long for security but we have to demand law enforcement and judges will first stop the steal and second prosecute those who play in this arena.

Much of this started with the LA district attorney George Gastone releasing thieves with no bail and failing to prosecute theft under $ 1000 dollars.  

I really get pissed when I think store clerks are told to stay away from thieves and let the police deal with it.

Last week I talked about Walgreens in San Francisco having to lock up Ice Cream, due to people simply walking out with the product. 

We have taught this behavior, thieves and "organized crime" will take what you give them. Many liberal cities are not prosecuting low level crimes and thieves have learned how much to steal and walk. 

In some corners we are seeing the end of civilized society. Merchants that can no longer operate in high crime areas will end operations. It's happening in San Francisco where a half dozen Walgreens have closed. Whole Foods gave up the ship too. What follows is liberals pointing out urban areas have become food deserts.

We know the answer and its law and order. It's really not a new concept. Remember when Rudy Guliano insisted Manhattan district attorney's prosecute loitering and petty theft. To quote Joe Biden "Son of a Bitch" the theft stopped, making New York one of the most tourist friendly cities in the nation.

That was unraveled by Bloomberg, Deblasio and now Adams. They gave the criminals their right to ply their trade. How do we know, check the "body count". First of all, stop and chat were declared an invasion of one's civil rights. They stopped the "chat" and shootings and killings have increased by at least 50 percent. 

I detest giving criminals having more rights than the victims, but in nearly all cases the victim is never made whole and is often traumatized for the rest of their lives. 

I hate the fact that I have become myopic in my thinking, but I have. I now feel we have to protect Ohio, Western Pennsylvanian, West Virginia and other adjacent states. 

I feel completely beaten down in that justice will not be served. In the large metro areas, they have been overwhelmed by homelessness and crime. 

We are such a silly people, almost all behavior is learned. The dregs of society realize there is little consequence to a life of crime. If we were to teach the old axiom that a life of crime is a dead end and requires living in a barebones environment. There would be fewer willing to engage in crime. We could teach this lesson if we simply stopped coddling killers, rapists, robbers and theives.  

In Youngstown-Warren we have judges such as Krichbaum, D'apolito, Sweeney and prosecutors like Warren's Dennis Watkins. It gives me hope, but also a feeling that we live on an island, and we don't go too far out to sea.

It's not that the threat is muted in the valley, but the large cities have changed. One of my favorites was Indianapolis. It has lost a lot of swagger due to less people working in the city and restaurants closing or just hanging on. 

We all know the stories of Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia so I won't go into that. Overall, I see a move to renovation of small to medium cities and a move away from Urban jungles. 

. 

A lot of this has been done by pushing out blight. The best example that we have locally is the expansion of YSU. The Capital expenses included Williamson Hall pushing toward the city and connecting the two via Phelps. YSU keeps going, they have expanded with the Excellence Center toward the city, a new tennis center, fitness center and soon to be a renovated student union. YSU's expansion has made some landowners rich and improved the city.