{"id":85097,"date":"2023-05-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=85097"},"modified":"2023-05-08T09:14:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T14:14:53","slug":"a-nation-of-cowards-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=85097","title":{"rendered":"A Nation Of Cowards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the 1960s into the 1980s, New York City hit rock bottom – so far. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a time when leftism had ravaged the city – rent control had eliminated the supply of affordable housing, leaving block after block of vacant, burned out buildings in a city where finding an apartment was the stuff of upper-middle-class horror story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the crime?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It got to the point where New Yorkers were advised to carry a “decoy” wallet – with a little bit of money in it (because muggers would sometimes attack or kill people who didn’t have some <\/em>money to give up. New York had well over 2,000 homicides a year – among the most dangerous cities in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here we are today: as criminals re-take the streets, the violent mentally ill are all over the subway, and our idiot elite is saying we have it coming<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/stillgray\/status\/1655023433544265729\n<\/div>
Not actually the Green Line at 5AM in the Midway. Or…is it?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Go ahead – condemn the bystanders for grabbing cameras instead of hauling off on the crazy who’s abusing the woman on the bench. We’ve seen what happens<\/a> when the wrong<\/em> criminal, addict of crazy gets harmed. New York has a long history of holding good guys to a level of account that no bad guy will ever see<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giuliani cleaned all that up. It’d doubtful there are enough sane voters left in Gotham to do that again, of course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not just New York, of course. This happened in Dinkytown Minneapolis on Friday night\/Saturday morning:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/CrimeWatchMpls\/status\/1654737923625963520\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another episode – same night, some of the same “people”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/CrimeWatchMpls\/status\/1655024838006784002\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the victims contacted CrimeWatch:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few people asked why “bystanders” didn’t help out. It’s simple – they travel in a pack, and pick out people walking alone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/CrimeWatchMpls\/status\/1655053027273854984\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the good guys need a lot more bystanders to flood the zone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way – this was the media’s coverage:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/kare11\/status\/1655052336945942531\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No word if the authorities are still looking for a man with an umbrella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

I bring it up because of the parallels with the 1970s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was 30 years ago that New Statesman published Jeffrey Snyder’s epochal monograph, “A Nation of Cowards”,<\/a> which made the case that it was time for citizens to step up and defend the order that society depends on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was one of several prime movers in pushing “gun culture” out of the shadows and into the mainstream, of course – but more signally, it made the case that relying on the police to protect order was not only futile, but a little craven; what makes your life invaluable, but a cop’s worth only whatever we pay them to do the job? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once, and always, worth a read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 1960s into the 1980s, New York City hit rock bottom – so far. It was a time when leftism had ravaged the city – rent control had eliminated the supply of affordable housing, leaving block after block of vacant, burned out buildings in a city where finding an apartment was the stuff of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85097"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85101,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85097\/revisions\/85101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}