More on Baltimore’s cashless coffee shop.
James, I’m curious. You previously opined that if more retail shops in Harm City go cashless this will cause the dindus to engage in kidnapping for ransom. How do you envision these kidnappings being carried out? Who will be the most likely targets? What will be the ransom? How do you think city government / law enforcement will react?
Kidnaping for ransom is a major threat in Latin America. It was heretofore a common crime and major problem in the USA, more than eighty years or so ago (read the “Ransom of Red Chief” by O’ Henry, 1910, for a humorous view of the crime). Two notorious kidnappings in the Prohibition era were the Lindbergh baby kidnapping in 1932 and the kidnapping of William Hamm, the Hamm’s Brewery heir, in 1933 for 100K ransom by the Barker-Karpis gang. The public outrage over these crimes caused the government to institute measures that largely eradicated kidnapping in the later 1930’s. The harsh penalties of the federal Lindbergh law (life imprisonment or death, if the hostage died) plus the fact that the newly reorganized and empowered FBI would relentlessly pursue kidnappers across state lines made the crime a less lucrative proposition. Kidnapping is making a comeback in the American southwest where Mexican drug gangs are kidnapping family members of rival gangsters and holding them for ransom. So far only people who are “players” in the illegal drug trade are in danger. However, I believe this is likely to change. In general the dindu and Latino gangs are much less afraid of law enforcement than they once were, even the Feds. So I can see kidnapping returning with a vengeance. 'Cause, as you alluded to James, that’s where the money will be.
Jeremy, we had, some years back, our own version of the Lindbergh, when the son of a high profile drug dealer who lived around the corner from this coffee shop was kidnapped. My prediction does not hold for just Baltimore. Cashless folks tend to have fatter bank accounts and when they turn up with no cash the Dindu drives them or walks them to the nearest ATM and has them make a withdraw. This has happened twice in my neighborhood over the past few years. That's not much, but I see it as the beginning of a trend and expect it to be tied in with carjackings in which the perps are already facing abduction charges. This saves the shop owner but not his well heeled clientele. Once we are all cashless and use our fingerprints to withdraw money, we will be walking debit cards for thugs to cash in wherever they like.
Thriving in Bad Places
James, I believe you are correct that once society goes cashless dindu restitution recovery agents will start engaging in abduction. I also believe that once such abductions increase in frequency it will harden citizen response and make it more acceptable to take preemptive action against suspected recovery agents. With the threat of abduction/ kidnapping comes the implied threat of rape, torture, and murder. In every CCW/ self-defense course the instructors will advise the students that if a robber just wants your money or property to give it to him and let him leave. They will maintain that your wallet, watch, smart phone or car are not worth risking your life over. However, these same instructors will tell you that if a robber/ carjacker wants to take you with him, tie you up, or herd you into the back room of the store or such like, to absolutely, positively DO NOT go with him, do not cooperate. That is trip you are not likely to return from. Most such instructors have law enforcement backgrounds and many have seen for themselves what happens to such abductees. A criminal who is willing to risk a longer sentence for abduction is likely to have no compunction about rubbing out the primary witness against him, namely the abductee. Your options then are at your first opportunity to either try to escape regardless of the risk or to throw yourself at the perpetrator with berserk fury and kill him. James, I’m fairly certain sure your response to this is “bring it on”. I concur. It’s inevitable, that encouraged as they have been heretofore by the Anarcho-Tyranny policies of our Leftist-run state, the dindu thugs are eventually going to make such a dangerous and hateful nuisance of themselves that they will become hostis humani generis, a threat to all Mankind, and it will become acceptable even in polite society to shoot them on sight. Especially after the inevitable string of kidnappings and associated ghastly murders. Leftist DAs will have a harder time portraying any citizen who takes out a 3-man crew of kidnappers as having “taken the law into his own hands” at that point. Whites will be more willing to act and take their chances with the law. On top of that a spike in adductions will likely increase white flight from black majority cities to the point that they collapse economically. There will be walls put up around white and gentrified neighborhoods. Once things get threatening and dangerous enough the “Overton Window” will shift and things that were inconceivable before will become possible. Like before 9-11 it was inconceivable that the government would ever give the order to shoot down a hijacked airliner; after 9-11 such an action is not only conceivable, it would be regarded as necessary and right to prevent greater loss of life.
This story is not without precedent in Baltimore. Over 5 years ago there was a news stand that opened up in the Harbor East area. Really good source of mags from all over the world. The single female owner got robbed at gunpoint. This so rattled her that she too stopped accepting cash...Within a few months she closed down shop. The tide is turning against carrying cash...but still a lot of people want to pay for small purchases with a few fiat notes.