You take something that doesn’t belong to you.
You have no intention of returning it.
And — as an added caveat — you plan to sell it and pocket the proceeds.
Make no mistake about it.
This is stealing.
And It is wrong.
It is old school to outright condemn stealing.
As for consequences, phooey.
The victim is the one that should have guilt.
Wait.
That’s wrong.
The victim is the person “appropriating” things that don’t belong to them.
It’s irrepressible that they be punished even if its measured and suits the crime.
Oops.
There I go again.
They didn’t commit a crime.
It was a forced indiscretion.
Of course, such behavior is explained away.
First, it is viewed in the context of the situation.
They stole food to feed their family.
But that was eons ago in the restructuring of the system.
Now we justify unadulterated first degree murder.
Rotten childhood.
Partaking in too many drugs.
Living in poverty.
Being a rich and spoiled brat.
That qualifies you because its your parents’ fault.
Blame it on the generation before.
Blame it on the generation that followed.
Somebody is disrespecting you.
The system is the problem.
You know the system
It was once referred to as the criminal justice system.
Now it’s the justice for criminals system.
Same thing?
Not by a long shot.
This is about breaking down civilization.
The ends now justify the means.
That is what a growing number of us believe social justice is all about.
Someone has something we don’t have.
We need it.
Strike that.
We want it.
It’s not fair.
It’s justice if we take it.
Just like the social justice Mao embraced.
The same social justice system Stalin fine-tuned .
History called them purges.
But Mao and Stalin viewed it as social justice.
There was no crime against mankind.
We life in a world where we define justice as the scales tipping in our favor.
Balance the scales?
That’s for suckers.
After all, those that strive to strike a balance are indecisive.
You have to take a side.
You’re either for the “man.”
Or you’re for the “people.”
The man, of course, are corporations where you appropriate stuff from their stores.
Or the mom and pop owners of 7-Elevens practically working 24/7 where you appropriate whatever you desire.
Or the suckers that are making payments on the car you appropriate.
The people are always those that are wronged
Just like the rat.
Just like the cow.
Just like the dog.
Just like the duck.
Just like the pig.
They are all “the people.”
The red hen was “the man.”
Let’s face it.
The Little Red Hen was a sucker.
The old bird held on to a fowl concept.
We reap what we sow.
You don’t plant the seeds.
You don’t work the fields.
You don’t harvest the wheat,
You don’t bake the bread.
Therefore, you don’t get to eat the bread.
Back in another galaxy far, far away from California circa 2023, the Little Red Hen was a role model.
You don’t contribute to society; you don’t reap the benefits.
Today, the Little Red Hens are road kill in the social justice movement.
Now when something is valued at $949.,99, is not even chicken feed.
It’s yours for the taking.
It’s social justice, baby.
The truth in California is clear.
There are no consequences.
You get to commandeer the bread today,
There is no consequence.
There is no penalty.
There is no restitution.
But it is worse than that.
You can beat the Little Red Hen senseless when you steal the bread.
It’s OK.
It’s social justice.
You need the bread,
The Llttle Red Hen had some.
Its not your fault the old bird had the audacity to resist your right to appropriate.
Appropriate.
Sounds silly, doesn’t it?
No sillier than calling the wholesale rip-off of merchants as shrinkage.
In the bad old days, it was called what it was.
Stealing,
Thievery.
Unlawful.
Wrong.
But those words sting,
Ther are no longer thieves
There are just those that have a moral compasses that is haywire.
It’s not their fault
They are just getting what they are due.
Twenty pairs of Levis free of charge from Kohl’s
A big garbage bag of cosmetics from Ulta Beauty for zilch.
Putting people behind bars for a month for stealing $900 worth of goods doesn’t reform them.
Then again, letting them run around looting stores doesn’t either.
But put them in jail they would learn more skills sets.
They are the same skills sets they learn as they step up their game as free range criminals.
The only difference is when they are behind bars they can’t steal unless it is from their social soulmates in orange.
We need to restore justice,
That doesn’t mean giving restorative justice the boot.
It’s a good concept.
You need to get to the root of problems.
We need accountability.
We need to repair the harm we do.
What we don’t need is chaos..
Laws are required for order.
There is no justice without accountability.
We shouldn’t send people away to prison for 10 years on a Third Strike triggered by stealing a loaf of bread.
We shouldn’t let criminals roam the streets like sacred cows doing a locust act on stores.
There is a reason a set of scales symbolize the concept of justice.
It’s a reminder that justice is a balancing act.
It’s not something that should be treated as a see-saw shifting back and forth with the political winds.
Stealing is bad enough.
But condoning it through excuses repackaged as social justice is even worse.
This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
