According to police, Tuesday night’s vandalism and robberies were partly orchestrated via social media. Dayjia Blackwell, known as Meatball, livestreamed the chaos to her nearly 200,000 Instagram followers. At one point, she turned the camera around and
taunted police to come and get her. She also captured herself leaving a liquor store toting a bottle of Hennessy.
Blackwell, arrested Tuesday, is facing charges including burglary, conspiracy, criminal mischief, receipt of stolen property and disorderly conduct.
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It's great that filming yourself and others carrying out mass crimes has become the norm. More than 50 arrests have been made in this case.
I can't believe this clown is trying to cash in on her viral infamy...
Philly looter Meatball, real name Dayjia Blackwell, 21, launched a clothing line to shamelessly flaunt her mugshot with hoodies and t shirts, a day after begging her supporters to send her cash.
www.google.com
She's not a victim, not oppressed by an unfair system, not fighting for anyone who is. She's a criminal, an opportunist, and an ignorant narcissist.
Though she's clearly crying in the mugshot...I don't think it's out of remorse for the damage she's done to her community. I don't expect people to have a lot of sympathy for big companies like Apple or Popeyes (I can't believe they looted a Popeyes) there's a real chance of some of these businesses closing....permanently....as we've seen multiple stores big and small do. Those stores employ locals...and they will be out of a job...further impoverishing these communities. Despite this, I wouldn't throw the book at her...she's clearly had some awful parents in her life and when you consider the effect this had on her views, it's hardly a surprise she turned out this way. If you doubt this, consider that her mother was there with her while she was recording (and presumably looting). The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree...and I think the tree here deserves a considerable amount of the blame.
These mass lootings have been blamed on the effects of covid as late as 2021...the fact that they're still continuing has pretty much ended any truth to that argument. If they were the result of covid's effects on the economy....we'd be seeing them occur in more geographically and demographically diverse ways. I think it's time to face the facts that the mild response to these occurances in 2020 (not to mention shifting blame to police who used things like tear gas or rubber bullets ad excessive responses) in combination with policies that lower the penalties of shoplifting and bail reforms which turn nonviolent criminals loose on the streets the day after their arrests (often violent criminals as well) have shown that the organizations that pushed for these policies, the mayors and various politicians who ran on these policies, as well as the DAs and other public servants who supported these policies have done nothing but harm the very same communities they claimed to want to help.
Now, as easy as it is to blame liberals and race hustlers for enabling and incentivizing all this (which they did) I'd like to point a couple of things out....
1. Nobody can see the future. Sure, policies like defunding the police were obviously stupid and never going to work as planned...other things like bail reform seemed a lot more reasonable in certain narrowly defined circumstances. Unfortunately, it was implemented by ideological wingnuts and zealots who failed to understand what situations bail is entirely justified for.
2. One of the problems with democracy is the inability to admit mistakes. Politicians have a hard enough time saying the platform they ran on was a disaster that failed to have the intended effects and instead created worse problems....but it's basically impossible to admit these things and point out that the reason they supported those policies was because the voters demanded them. A politician who admits the failure of their own ideas is committing political suicide. A politician who admits failure but also points out that the failed policies were the idea of the voters and super popular at the time may as move out of the city or state after their term ends....forget even trying to run for reelection.
This really is one of the major defects of democracy. Imagine if a politician tried a new policy, a new idea, a new way of doing things....and after realizing the disastrous results, they simply reversed course...pointed out why it was a bad idea and perhaps why something else might be a good idea...these mass lootings could have ended in 2021.
Reducing penalties for shoplifting only helps shoplifters. Even if one is naive enough to imagine that people were shoplifting from liquor stores and stealing iPhones because they are starving....robbing these places only causes them to close down and move, robbing grocery stores just makes finding nutritious food to become a costlier endeavor as grocery stores close and customers have to drive further and further for food. Food deserts aren't caused by racism...they're caused by crime and the lack of profitability means the few stores that remain have to increase prices to offset the costs of theft.
If politicians could simply say "Hey, these changes we've made haven't just failed...but they've made things worse, so we're going to undo all those changes and then consider trying something else." and still get reelected...
Politicians wouldn't have to lie as much as they do and voters wouldn't have to wait 4 years to even have a chance at the problems being solved.
