‘Woke’ Criminal Justice Group Claims Term ‘Looting’ Is Racist
Professors try to whitewash crimewave
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Two criminal justice teachers have claimed that using the word “looting,” to describe groups of individuals breaking into California retailers, is "racist."
Professor of criminal justice & community policing at the University of New Haven and a former police officer, Lorenzo Boyd, said:
“Looting is a term that we typically use when people of color or urban dwellers are doing something."
“We tend not to use that term for other people when they do the exact same thing," Boyd said.
The co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute of Journalism Education, Martin Reynolds, also said the term signals “the depiction of the flash mobs running roughshod through the aisles of Louis Vuitton and other retailers.”
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“This seems like it’s an organized smash and grab robbery," Reynolds said.
“This doesn’t seem like looting."
"We’re thinking of scenarios where first responders are completely overwhelmed. And folks often may be on their own.”
The Daily Mail reported:
Their comments come after at least seven robberies involving gangs with as many as 50 thieves ransacked California stores, and each individual could avoid heavy criminal charges due to the state’s 2014 law dictating that anyone caught shoplifting items whose value does not exceed $950 would be only charged with misdemeanors.
Some experts fear that the law is being abused by organized crime rings which might be the true masterminds behind the gang of thieves, paying the low-level criminals to commit mass crimes for them in exchange for a slap on the wrist.
The distinction in terminologies originates from the California penal code, which defines looting as ‘theft or burglary… during a ‘state of emergency,’ ‘local emergency’ or ‘evacuation order resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot or other natural or manmade disaster.’ The term ‘looting’ gained infamy when it was predominately used to describe black survivors of Hurricane Katrina who stole water and other basic goods from local stores to survive through the aftermath of the storm.
The outlet also noted that “no local or national emergency has been declared for the Bay Area, where much of the crime has taken place.”
Boyd said the word “looting” is used to politicize that crime by the media by connecting it to Kyle Rittenhouse, who was recently found not guilty for killing two men while acting in self defence.
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"These types of massive organized smash-and-grabs were happening before the Rittenhouse situation happened,” Boyd said.
“It’s a false equivalency. It’s people trying to politicize crime.”
Critics say such 'woke' experts are trying to whitewash the recent crime wave.
Marine and Town Hall contributor, Julio Rosas, wrote on Twitter:
“Future CNN chyron: Mostly peaceful shopping in the Bay Area.”
Dinesh D’Souza tweeted:
“Experts refuse to call a spade a spade unless, of course, it’s a spade wielded by a white male.”
Ex-Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker wrote:
“It’s looting. Just like there were riots in Kenosha, not just protests.”
The soaring crime wave prompted Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare that he would get tough on lawbreakers despite the law barring prosecutors from charging shoplifting with felonies.
“After Proposition 47 was approved by voters, anyone caught shoplifting items not exceeding $950 would be charged with misdemeanors,” the Mail reported.
“But critics said the measure encouraged the rampant organized retail theft, with gangs of thieves filmed smashing glass cases at a jewelry store and snatching garments from upmarket yoga clothing brand Lululemon on Sunday — one day after others were filmed swarming a drug store and stealing prescriptions.”
