Legal Relativism and Food Insecurity

In the new “legal relativism” and mob justice atmosphere that uses “social justice” as an excuse to loot and burn down stores in their neighborhoods, Everett Mitchell, the Director of Community Relations at the University of Wisconsin, Madison campus, stated during a discussion panel, “Best Policing Practices,” that prosecuting shoplifters from Walmart and Target is “aggressive police behavior.”

"I just don’t think they should be prosecuting cases for people who steal from Wal-Mart. I don’t think that. I don’t think that Target, and all them other places – the big boxes that have insurance – they should be using the people that steal from there as justification to start engaging in aggressive police behavior."

http://www.mrctv.org/blog/wisc-director-community-relations-suggests-shoplifting-not-crime#.7agyzr:Fe3e

Perhaps it is why, for the first time in my life, I experienced yesterday at my local Walmart a person stationed at the exit, checking receipts carefully and scanning baskets of goods purchased. It wouldn't be a far stretch to start checking purses, bags, and backpacks like they did under communism.

The social justice lefty crowd wants to engage in selective policing of their choosing, overlooking most crimes, drug offenses, shootings, traffic offenses, crossing our borders illegally, robbing and shooting innocent people, the knockout “game” against white people, breaking and entering, etc.

I have personally seen judges give elderly individuals expensive court fines of $400 and community service for stealing a $4 bottle of Aspirin which they needed for pain. Yes, the law should apply equally to everyone and nobody should be shot for petty theft or for stealing food. But then Obamacare and the current economy is causing some desperation among low income individuals.

Saying that stealing is acceptable behavior is not just a further step towards a Marxist society, it is a giant leap forward.

When I lived under communism, people had to become creative in order to survive and bartering was a common way to meet a family's needs when shelves and stores were empty or rationing coupons were in short supply.

The problem was, under communism, a lot of people bartered goods and services they had stolen from work. People were so exploited that most no longer cared that they had to steal to survive. Any shred of dignity, work ethic, and honesty they had were gone, with a few notable exceptions.

We were all equally miserable and the means of production supposedly belonged to the people, so they thought it justified to take from their own “communal property.” If they were caught, they were often given lengthy community service on the job, sometimes years.

Most “comrades” made sure they were not caught, by bribing the proper individuals who staffed the checkpoints. The entire society was corrupt “out of dire need.” The survival instinct was stronger than any fear of reprisal. Bribery was king – most could be bought for the right price. The price could be a loaf of bread, a pat of butter or a monthly supply of food for the family. Toilet paper, aspirin, and “piramidon,” a type of fever-reducer, were at a premium.

The justification was that everyone stole because life was hard and the inept and corrupt communist government ran shortages of everything! The proletariat pretended to labor, hiding in plain sight at work, and the commie apparatchiks pretended to pay them a meager salary.

It was not unusual to see people trade milk for gasoline, bread for vegetables or eggs, butter for sausage, salami for a pair of shoes, soap and Kent cigarettes for medical services, an X-ray, or a lab report which were supposed to be free to begin with.

I remember the Russians buying red crystal glasses from Romania and selling them to Arabs (who collected them) for dollars at a time when nobody wanted to buy rubles or Russian goods. There was a flourishing trade of color TVs from Romania to the Soviet Union before its epic "fail" in 1989. Who could have seen that coming after decades of tyranny, across the board daily misery, and stifling of the human spirit?

In case you have not paid close attention, there are shortages here and there of food and over the counter drugs, vitamins, and other items, some temporarily and others permanently. Brands or items you bought for decades are no longer available. Regulations and the dire economy have forced manufacturers and retailers to reduce their inventories or to stop producing certain items altogether.

Food banks are being used more than ever in America and there are constant radio ads around D.C. that ask for donations so that children have something to eat. I thought our American children were obese; hence Michelle’s new and improved healthy lunch fare at our nation’s schools.

Radio ads in one of the nation’s wealthiest counties ask listeners to donate school supplies, enough for 37,000 children who need to go back to school. Where did these children come from if our birth rates are below replacement value and abortions are a lucrative business that sells baby body parts for research? They must be the illegal alien children brought here to fundamentally transform us.

As the Shangri La of socialism and equality is advanced more and more in this country by both so-called separate parties, how long will it be before we experience a situation like Venezuela, where the military had to step in to regulate the food distribution because of its scarcity?

How long will it be before we see row after row of empty shelves, just like Venezuela, requiring days and weeks of combing stores, standing in endless lines, in order to find what your family needs for survival? Most grocery stores have a three-day supply of food, after that, if supply is disrupted, it will be chaos.