Vigilantes Are Scary People
…whatever color they come in. I don’t give a rat’s patootie what you think your God says. If the fella has valid liquor and business licenses (Hell, even if he DOESN’T ~ that’s what cops are for. Call them or the city.), your thugs have no business destroying his wares.
They weren’t your ordinary thugs. Dressed in bow ties and dark suits, nearly a dozen men carrying metal pipes entered a corner store, shattered refrigerator cases and smashed bottles of liquor, wine and beer, terrifying the clerk but stealing nothing.
The just wanted to leave a message: Stop selling alcohol to fellow Muslims. In urban America, friction between poor residents and immigrant store owners is nothing new. Nor are complaints that inner-city neighborhoods are glutted with markets that sell alcohol and contribute to violent crime, vagrancy and other social ills.
But the recent attack at San Pablo Liquor – and an identical vandalism spree at another West Oakland store later that evening, along with an arson fire there and the kidnapping of the owner a few days later – have injected religion into the debate.
They just wanted to “leave a MESSAGE?” What kind of B$ is THAT? How ’bout picketing his store with placards bearing said ‘message’, for starters, if you feel that strongly. And since when is destroying someone’s personal property and, in many cases, destroying his version of the American dream “leaving a message“? They’d be the first ones screaming if some NeoNazi hate group left their calling cards on a lawn in West Oakland, but I guess terrorizing the immigrant minority is justifiably different.
NOT. How DARE they!
Humanity...or the Lack Thereof | Mr. Bingley | 
January 10, 2006 9:26 am
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The just wanted to leave a message: Stop selling alcohol to fellow Muslims.
Here’s a radical thought: how about ‘their fellow Muslims’ learn to say…work with me here…no.
If they tought their fellow Muslims were capable of saying “no”, they wouldn’t feel the need to cover their womenfolk in burlap, n’est pas?
(Oh my God, John ~ you nailed it!!)
Well rats. I was working on this one and you beat me to it.
True that, John – nor would they feel the need to issue a fatwa every nine seconds threatening death to anyone with a couple of questions about how things get done. Whatever else may be said about Islam, it doesn’t seem to be about setting anyone free from anything: moral, civic, and intellectual inquiry are stifled.
Hopefully a store owner will “leave a message” that if you vandalize my store you will be shot, repeatedly.
nb’r, it’s CALIFORNIA. Near San Francisco. Protecting yourself and your property is strictly VERBOTEN.
(you beat me to it
Only because you’re gainfully employed and I sniff paint all day. Except when I’m blogging.)
it’s CALIFORNIA. Near San Francisco
Burqhaley?