Douglas Murray: San Francisco Gallery Owner Shows How Lawlessness Brings Merchants to a Breaking Point

A gallery-owner in America’s biggest s—thole city has gone viral this week. The San Francisco gallery owner was recorded spraying water A hose was thrown at a homeless man lying on the sidewalk in front of his house. Shannon Collier Gwin was subsequently arrested Charged with a battery

The man doesn’t seem proud of his actions. He said that he simply did what he had to. “completely broke” The woman who lived in his gallery’s entrance for several days began throwing garbage cans at him, shouting at him and even spitting on him. Since the footage of Gwin’s response went viral his gallery has been further vandalized.

Of course Gwin probably shouldn’t have snapped. However, you should know that everyone has a breaking-point, and the closer that law enforcement leaves a city, the closer that people get to that breaking point.

In fact I often wondered why it doesn’t happen more. It’s not just in San Francisco, but all over the country. This one included.

Two days in a row in New York this week, I saw people shoplifting with absolutely no repercussion.

A homeless-looking man was walking around Columbus Circle, collecting items from racks and stacking them up in his arms. I was curious and followed him. He was sure to be walking out with the goods. A security guard was present at the scene. As the shoplifter, the guard was black. However, the would-be thief shouted at the security guard to tell him he was “disrespecting” He said that he would return the goods. With a high probability of success, I believe that if the guard were not black, the race discussion would have taken place and the thief would be able to leave with what he wanted.

It was a good thing that he finally agreed to let go of the items and just walk out. “He comes in most weeks” One of the staff at the store told me. “Why don’t you call the police” I asked. “There’s no point” The reply was immediate. “The main concern is to protect the staff.”

The next day, I was in a CVS Lex and a man walked into the store with a huge bag full of stuff he had stuffed inside it. There was no security at the shop on this occasion and two Asian women working in the tills began shouting at him as he left. “Why you steal?” One kept shouting. He just walked out of the room with no concern.

I asked the staff member. Why don’t they call the police, I asked. “There’s no point” She spoke. “He comes in often.” I asked them why he did it. They just shrugged. Again, so long as nobody is hurt it seems that the city’s drug stores are effectively an open, free buffet at which the city’s homeless and others can help themselves. “He’ll sell the things around the corner for perhaps a dollar” I was told by one of the shop workers.

This is what people in New York seem to be forgetting just like in San Francisco. None is normal. This type of law-breaking is not allowed in most first-world cities and countries. You are not allowed to go into a shop, grab your bags, and then walk out of Paris, Berlin Berlin Rome London. If someone is caught trying to shoplift in any of these cities they are detained by the shop’s security staff. The shop’s security staff will call the police, and then the police arrive to arrest the person. This is how a normal society functions. Breaking the law is not permitted.

This is exactly what is happening here, as it is in San Francisco.

There are many excuses people can make. Many people claim that the thieves are poor, homeless, mentally ill, or benighted. However, no society can allow law-breaking by certain individuals. Others — especially on the political left — portray this sort of thing as essentially victimless crime. According to them, stores such as a CVS or sports clothing store are part of a larger national or multinational corporation. They also point out that insurance can cover all these daily losses.

This excuse, like all other such excuses, is totally unacceptable. The purpose of large companies is not to provide welfare. They exist to make a profit. They are responsible for passing on the costs to customers when they lose money, and in particular when they have higher and more expensive insurance. Owning a NYC store is already expensive enough. They already have to deal with their online competitors. Inevitably many such companies will decide that the losses aren’t worth it and shut at least some of their shops.

In any case, the law-abiding population ends up paying the price for this free-for-all. I don’t know that hosing people down is the answer. But I’m surprised more people don’t do it, or something like it. Because once the law disappears it’s a free for all. And not in the way that our city’s law-breakers will like.

Jacinda, the lockdown backlash

Jacinda Adern, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, is farewell announced that she is stepping down from office. In an emotional statement she cited burnout and said that there just wasn’t anything left in her fuel tank.

Ardern is a left-wing politician of interesting qualities. She is passionate about emotion, showing compassion and all that it takes. Yet when it came to COVID lockdowns no government in the world was more authoritarian than New Zealand’s.

Jacinda wanted to always show her love. However, when it came time to make a decision, Jacinda was unimaginably cruel to her people. The identification of one COVID case resulted in the country being locked down for one time.

The public was about to voice their concern by removing her from office. It was so selfish of her to take away their pleasure.