If you don't know Mr. Magoo, he was a cartoon character whose terrible nearsightedness led to all kinds of funny hijinks.
During Kristallnacht, the Nazis singled out Jewish businesses for looting and vandalism.
In Ferguson, black protesters, angered at racial injustices, have looted and vandalized all businesses, including those owned by other blacks.
Maybe the protesters are all nearsighted, just like Mr. Magoo and they can't tell who owns what.
Or maybe it's not a protest at all. Maybe it's just looting and vandalism.
Flying out of St Louis Monday morning on an early flight necessitates a stay near the airport. That puts us uncomfortably close to Ferguson.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe, as proposed by Larry Niven in "The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club"[1], there are wandering smash-and-grab criminals who travel around between places where some sort of disturbance is going on, and use them as cover for their robberies. As long as the gang can arrive in a timely fashion, and get more for their loot than it cost to get there, this could work.
ReplyDelete[1] Granted, Niven was suggesting this would happen in a world where low-cost teleportation was available, so that they could hear about a disturbance on the news one minute, and be there the next. But, the ability to travel across the country in a few hours at minimal cost is probably enough to make it a viable way for small criminal gangs to operate as long as the disturbance goes on long enough (or is something that can reasonably be anticipated).