Washington Post writer Maura Judkis is under fire this week for a column in which she mocks shoplifting stories as the “moral panic” of a nation built on “stolen land.” It is reminiscent of those who excused rioting in past summers “as an expression of power” and demanded that the media refer to looters as “protesters.” Now, the Washington Post is suggesting that it may be just desserts for a nation of colonizers and enslavers.
The prior day, the Post ran another column downplaying accounts of stores closing due to shoplifting even though employees blamed rampant shoplifting in San Francisco. There have been increasing store closures where the owners have cited the problem of rising crimes. Indeed, in D.C., I recently spoke with the owner of a popular restaurant who is closing because of the rampant crime threatening his customers and employees.
In cities like New York and Washington, consumers are now faced with locked away merchandise requiring an employee to assist in obtaining items. Stores did not take that extreme action because shoplifting is a myth or exaggerated.
Judkis wrote a Friday piece entitled “The zombie CVS, a late-capitalism horror story.” The hook was another store being looted in D.C. Judkis matter-of-factly describes how
“Everything else that remains in the store in Northwest D.C., which is not much, is under plexiglass: Dawn dish soap, L’Oreal shampoo, MiraLax, a handful of Clairol root touch-up hair dye kits, flu season combo packs of DayQuil and NyQuil. The diapers are behind the counter. The Cetaphil and Neutrogena face washes are under lock and key. Other shelves, stretching entire aisles, are totally empty. “
The reason for those extreme measures is brushed over. Instead, Judkis uses the story to mock such coverage as “a horror story of Late Capitalism” in which “the empty CVS had somehow become a stand-in for all that is wrong with American cities — and liberals (and liberal democracy?) — in 2024.”
She then adds “America is a sticky-fingered nation built on stolen land, and its current moral panic is about shoplifting. It’s not just a worry in Columbia Heights. All over the country, from sea to shining CVS, there are concerns about petty theft.”
She dismisses the shoplifting as a “political talking point” despite many stories citing such crime as the reason for closing stories in various cities. She questions the real basis for such moves and claims that “in certain conservative circles, there’s a wild narrative about cities as terrifying hellholes of crime, theft and lawlessness. The bleakness of the D.C. CVS played right into this belief.”
The real story, she suggests, is the economic conditions leading to shoplifting.
Other journalists have made similar objections. New York Times writer (and now Howard University Journalism Professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones, has called upon journalists to stop covering shoplifting crimes, even criticizing MSNBC’s Al Sharpton for his discussion of a viral video of a man who recently stole steaks from a New York City Trader Joe’s.
Writers like Hannah-Jones believe that reporters should actively suppress or dismiss stories on such crime to frame public opinion. It is all part of advocacy journalism. You can almost attribute the denial of reality to “a late-journalism horror story.”
I bet if someone broke into her home and stole a few items she would have a different point of view.
I agree about having to be a special kind of ignorant to work for Washington Post, their “journalists “ & I say that loosely, are amazingly inept, no knowledge of history & events. They are preoccupied with their spin & their own manufactured importance- the need to promote rage instead of truth says all there is to say in regards to their abilities
Apparently, she doesn’t know that the Indians she sticks up for did the same thing. Where the Lakota currently live was stolen from the Cheyenne. The Lakota stole the land them because they were pushed out of, first, the Mississippi valley, then the Great Lakes region in the mid-to-late 1600s. The main villains (prior to the White man), in the Lakota migration story were the Cree and Ojibwa.
We can all around the world and see that this happened. About one-fifth Poland used to be Germany. Ireland is still not fully reunited. The French currently hold the Alsace-Lorraine region. Finland used to part of the Kingdom of Sweden. Parts of Sweden also used to belong to Norway and Denmark. Parts of Poland used to part of Ukraine who stole it from them in multiple wars of conquest that took them to Kyiv before they lost those conquered lands to Russia.
But what I’m really interested in, is does she support the Palestinian Arabs against the NATIVE, FIRST PEOPLE’S OF ISRAEL (the Jews!). They were there for thousands of years before the Arabs showed up in the 7th Century. I bet she doesn’t. Rather, I bet she thinks there should be a two-state solution. Even the Arabs have been clear, since 1917 and the Balfour Declaration, that they would NEVER allow Israel to exist and that the rivers would run red with Jewish blood if it should happen. And we’ve seen this since the early days of the British mandate.
The word jew was invented in the 13th century… If you are talking about hebrews then you are talking about black skin people like Noah the black albino, so…
Obv every country in the world is prob stolen land if you listen to these idiots.
I think you have to be a special kind of stupid to work for the Washington Post!
Speaking of “zombies” and “late-capitalism horror shows” , This, is why you would never have found me, or my family, at the Super Bowl Victory Parade. Or, now, even Six Flags. Perhaps we can get some free tickets for Madame Judkis, though??? Oh, yes, there are several short videos of the people from whom land was stolen, and who are oppressed – – –
“After opening for only one day, a Six Flags amusement park near Atlanta, Georgia was overrun by a mob of up to 600 rioters who proceeded to fight each other and destroy property. The incident led to a shootout involving the Cobb County Police Department and resulted in the hospitalization of an alleged assailant.
“As officers followed the crowd out, ensuring they left the property, an unknown number of suspects fired at officers. An officer returned fire, striking one of the suspects,” Cobb County Police Department said.
The establishment media has decided to focus primarily on the shooting of the unnamed 15-year-old involved in the police altercation, and many outlets have ignored the events leading up to the incident.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/chaos-georgia-six-flags-violent-mob-invades-ends-shootout-police
She’s primarily a food journalist.
Testing
The shoplifting epidemic is directly traceable to Democrat policies that enable crime at the expense of business owners. Inexplicably, business owners are treated like undeserving billionaires. There is this concept that businesses can magically withstand unending theft, without raising prices, firing anyone, or closing locations. When a business loses so much money, or employees are exposed to safety risks, that they close a location, they are then accused of “white flight” or racism, if the neighborhood has a significant minority population.
These activists and the politicians who cater to them refuse to connect policy with consequence.
Business owners cannot afford this. My local pharmacy had to close one of their locations, because they were robbed too many times. That neighborhood is now without a pharmacy. He once dumped out a box of broken locks to show me how many times they’ve been robbed in the past year. The pharmacy has not been able to afford any renovations, because they’re just trying to keep their heads above water. The pharmacist stopped making deliveries to hospice, because he was carjacked and all the desperately needed pain medication was stolen.
Democrats painted all cops as scum, and defunded police, which directly resulted in soaring crime, including murder and rape, and delayed response times. In Austin, TX, the city government is so severely anti-cop, that the police force loses more officers every year than it hires, resulting in zero cops available for hours at a time.
Instead of admitting that specifically Democrat policies have been disasters, Democrats double down and call concerns about out of control crime “hysteria”, and businesses that close some sort of “white flight”, no matter the race of the business owner. Gaslighting at its finest. Not too long ago, the Democrat party line was that the shoplifting wasn’t happening. Now they admit it is, but claim it’s overblown.
When will voters hold their politicians accountable for the consequences of polices? Not anytime soon, apparently. One would think that people dying and nationwide fiery riots would be enough for voters to turn away, yet the Democrat Party is still going strong. Many of the very people who complain about high taxes, high cost of living, jobs leaving, illegal immigration collapsing benefits infrastructure, high crime, geopolitical instability, and skyrocketing grocery prices, keep voting for the Democrat politicians who caused it. I remember when California put the gas tax on the ballot, and Democrats did such a swell job of pretending that potholes wouldn’t be fixed that the gas tax repeal failed. Those voters went right back to complaining, and the potholes still weren’t fixed.
Excellent work.
Right. Let’s drill down on this now ubiquitous concept of the US being “stolen land.”
Native Americans had no concept of land ownership. There were no deeds to land. Land was kept or lost based on a tribe’s strength, and tribes regularly shoved other tribes off their land. The Black Hills changed hands among 6 different tribes just in about 200 years. The Lakota Sioux pushed other tribes off the Black Hills in the 1800s. Arikara, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, and Pawnee all had lived in the Black Hills before the Lakota Sioux won the land through superior force.
Did the Lakota Sioux steal the land? Were the Cheyenne living on “stolen land” they took from the Arikara? Did the Pawnee hold demonstrations and demand the Lakota Sioux return the “stolen land”, even though they were not strong enough to hold it? European colonists, and later US citizens, were the stronger tribe, with overwhelming force and technology. The wheel and riding horses had not developed in the Americas, beyond the former being a child’s toy, prior to the arrival of Europeans. Once the Bering Land Bridge was lost, so was the conduit where innovations were shared. Native Americans were cut off from the rest of the world, and experienced different pressures than which shaped European and Asian advancements.
Native American tribes were not a bunch of pacifists. Aztecs and the Iroquois Nation are two examples that practiced genocide and slavery.
We need to view history accurately, learn from the past, but not apply anachronistic standards. Sioux behaved very differently in 1724 than they do today in 2024. I would no more blame modern Sioux for the warfare they waged on other tribes than I would blame modern America for the wars with Native Americans in the past.
The Americas were rich in land and resources. Europe and Asia were lightyears ahead of Native Americans in technology and weaponry. Europe, especially, was land hungry, as its population had grown to the point that there were people starving to death for want of land and resources.
There was no possible way that if Columbus had turned around, that the Americas would have been left to the Native Americans, undisturbed. It would have been claimed at some point, if not by a European country, than by one of the Asian or Middle Eastern ones.
Activists are operating on the principle that we should somehow unwind the past, give all the land back to the Native Americans, yet allow them to keep the innovations that came to them as well, such as a unifying language, the wheel, horses, cars, trains, planes, the internet, and the rest of the exhausting list of modern conveniences.
If a magical barrier had sprung up to make the Americans unfindable forever, then slavery, human sacrifice, and a lack of individual rights would still exist. There would be no wheel, modern medicine, transportation, or anything else from the modern age. Women would likely still be viewed as chattel to be stolen.
Today, Native Americans have the option to live off-grid if they choose to, and get back to nature, but then leave that and return to the modern world at any time.
“If a magical barrier . . . be stolen.”
Well said.
Maura wanted her 15 minutes of fame, and she got it. If you get a gig as a reporter, you are incentivized to say the stupidest things anyone can think up, then the Internet ends up talking about you for a day. That’s all we’re seeing here.
>…the Washington Post is suggesting that it may be just desserts for a nation of colonizers and enslavers.
Where did Maura Judkis’s family come from? Unless she is Native American, they immigrated WAY before the rest of us did, she and her family are colonizers and possibly enslavers.
DNA studies have shown that whitey is actually the ” native american”
If stealing is being “sticky-fingered”, then I guess sodomy could be “following too closely”.*
* from the film “The Laughing Policeman” (1973)
This Leftist moron’s sticky finger came her butt…the same place her tiny, screwed up brain is located.
And, right you are!
I wonder which nations she would claim include no “stolen” land.
I would like to see the real estate land title to see when and what was stolen. It was my understanding that the Indians stole it from the deer and buffalo way before the entrance of the white man. As Tonto would grunt to the Lone Ranger, “Something not smell so good here, Kimo Sabe”.
I’m sure Maura Judkis will feel perfectly at ease when she exits her abode in the morning to find her car windows smashed and everything of value inside stolen.
Stolen land? Study some history. Every continent in the world consistently had groups that overpowered groups far behind in technology and development. Our natives, like any other group were not perfect: they constantly warred and pillaged neighbor tribes, engaged in rampant kidnapping and slavery and had no written language, and still lived in the Stone Age. They had entered the Americas during the last Ice Age, and were not long term inhabitants. Texas was definitely not stolen. Santa Anna jailed Stephen F. Austin for two years when he tried to renegotiate treaty. Santa Ana broke promises by tearing up the Constitution of 1824 and making himself a dictator. Of course, Texians, Americans AND Mexicans living in Texas objected. On March 2, 1836, quickly wrote the TEXAS Declaration of Independence and fought for rights Americans had enjoyed for 50 years. Just STOP with the stolen nonsense.
If Democrats had their way, there would of been a total blackout on the illegal who allegedly murdered nursing student Laken Riley.
There also would be a blackout on the fact the Democrat sheriff campaigned in 2020 on not cooperating with immigration authorities on the deportation of illegal immigrants.
John Williams said in an interview, “It is not my intention, when elected sheriff, to cooperate with those detainers.”
In that case, his stuff is up for grabs. Looters should start there.
Another poorly educated big mouth:
Maura Judkis
Washington, D.C.
Reporter covering culture, food and the arts
Education: George Washington University, BA in journalism, 2007; University of Southern California/National Endowment for the Arts, journalism fellow, 2011
Professor Turley refers to the piece written by the reporter as “advocacy journalism.” I prefer to call it propaganda. Much like the woke Sanctuary City crowd who squealed in pain when illegal aliens showed up on their doorsteps, I suspect the Post writer will lament, perhaps in private, having to drive extra miles for her sought after lotion or toothpaste.