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.”
So then all of Europe really belongs to Italy ? These people are morons
No…you Anonymous, are the Moron.
Who ever this person is a she or he ill call it an it if it feels this is stolen land than why doesn’t it go back to were its ancestors came from and see if its any better. Maybe it should look at its self and consider it is part of the problem.
Then again, Professor Turley, lots of shoplifters sell their stolen goods on Amazon.com Marketplace… so it is entirely possible the the Washington Post’s owner benefits indirectly from the rampant, record-breaking shoplifting that is closing stores across the country.
It’s because they’re black, I’ll bet.
Built on stolen land? So… what kind of name is “Judkis?”
Democratic jurisdictions need to faithfully adopt redistributive change with progressive bag limits… or the Martha’s Vineyard, Capitol Hill models and summarily deport, eject their “burdens”, deplorables.
Stop reporting on crime in crime ridden cities?
Stop pointing out the causes of crime in crime ridden cities?
What sense does that make?
It’s Liberal/Leftist/Democrat nonsense. Biden’s policies are not supposed to make sense, they’re supposed to mock, gaslight, and confuse the American people. The Democratic Party is purposefully destroying the United States. In my view, everyone who votes for a Democrat this November 5th is a traitor. The next administration should treat them accordingly. Various so-called “journalists”, who are in reality, are mouthpieces for the Democratic Party-dominated establishment. The root of the problem is Democrats believe they own the government, and are willing to arrest, bankrupt, harass, and kill dissenters.
As soon as crime comes to her doorstep the her story will turn 180 degrees.
I pray that Trump will reinstate law and order. Also,he needs to collapse a ton of useless pointless departments of government. Cut the spending and force people to take some responsibility for themselves. End the welfare state before we drown in a sea of beggars and thieves.
Looting only occurring in areas that are going to be destroyed anyone – the bodies of the looters will lay unburied and rotting in devastated cities
Democrats got away with stealing the last election. They are dumb enough to try try try again until they are stopped. Even including assassination.
“. . . the economic conditions leading to shoplifting.”
Which means it must be Tuesday. Because on Monday, the Biden administration told me that the economy is booming.
“. . . a *wild narrative* about cities as terrifying hellholes of crime . . .” (Judkis; emphasis added)
Tell that to the loved ones of Laken Riley.
Wild narratives is all Wapo publishes.
Shoplifting isn’t the real story. The real story is the destruction of civilization by leftists. The deliberate and malicious destruction by stupid, malicious leftists
What I see is “Looting” – not “shoplifting”. Two guys with baseball bats at the exits could cure that overnight.
“. . . mocks shoplifting stories as the ‘moral panic’ of a nation built on ‘stolen land.’”
A Neanderthal claims: She deserved it, for wearing a short skirt.
That is properly denounced as barbaric.
Yet when the same sentiment is published in WaPo, it somehow becomes enlightened.
*just deserts not desserts.
Nice catch, word nerd.
“The real story, she suggests, is the economic conditions leading to shoplifting.”
And because the USA has two parties, presumably you have to choose one or the other. Like, it isn’t possible to talk both about how to solve shoplifting and how to solve the economic conditions that lead to it, because every issue has to be divided and carved in two, even if it’s fundamentally impossible to solve the issue if it gets divided. And then people wonder why there are so many that no longer believe in American democracy. The miracle, if you ask me, is that so many people still believe in it, in spite of all the overwhelming evidence that it doesn’t work.
Economic conditions do not cause shoplifting. The overwhelming majority of poor people do not shoplift.
Current DNA analysis strongly indicates that the current “native” tribes somehow “inherited” the Americas from a previous lot of humans. And they from one even more ancient. If we hold true to evolutionism where the strongest survive, none of this is a surprise. It’s not “stolen” land, it’s more of a hand-me-down. There’s a lesson in it all, and that is if you spend all your time warring with other tribes, then smashing the brains out of the youngest conquered offspring, sooner or later “Mother Nature” is going to evolve your hiney into relative oblivion when something better comes along.
There does happen to be true evil at work among us, such as whistling past the schoolyard where one child took weapons to school and lost his mind on schoolmates. How this never once happened prior to 1995 is a question I never see asked. Ever. Or how smashing the innocent minds of our own babes on boulders of an insane psychological nature is for one second seen to be either logical or sane.
How about making a point to speak the truth and work from there? And to heal thyself, “progressive”.
If not for the “stolen land”, Maura Judkis and her family and friends would never have been born.
Fani Willis, 22 articles of impeachment
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Dn9uOWVUJf4
Very interesting thanks for posting!
It’s actually a great idea. If we refine shoplifting to make it an expression of political rebellion, crime statistics will go way down. And isn’t that what we all want to see?