Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even shorter, the whole article could be a single word: liquidity.
Thieves like liquid soap in particular
Especially the Tide brand in the $20 bottles. They are roughly equivalent to $20 bills.
Why Thieves Steal Soap
31–40 of 121 posts
Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#32Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#33The Safeway in the San Francisco Castro neighborhood is especially... exciting... relative to the surrounding area. It even has its own full time police officer. One time as I was leaving I asked the officer why Folgers crystals of all things were locked up. His reply was "[ethnic group] gangs steal essentials in bulk, and sell them to the homeless." From that point forward it clicked in my head, retail theft is abou…
> [ethnic group] interesting way to combat racism...
Is that combating racism, or is it combating information? Is there such a thing as a racist fact?
Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#34The Safeway in the San Francisco Castro neighborhood is especially... exciting... relative to the surrounding area. It even has its own full time police officer. One time as I was leaving I asked the officer why Folgers crystals of all things were locked up. His reply was "[ethnic group] gangs steal essentials in bulk, and sell them to the homeless." From that point forward it clicked in my head, retail theft is abou…
Interesting. I just assumed it was homeless stealing that stuff directly. I've seen it happen in SF at Safeway and Walgreens a few times. (so just anecdotal data)
Actually once at the Safeway you're talking about. Last year I saw a man with an open duffle bag run out of there with security half heartedly following into the parking lot. They looked around for a few moments and went back in. Lots of homeless hang around there, especially by the Starbucks around the corner.
The Safeway (or Unsafeway as my wife calls it) near Japantown on Webster St is frequently a source of drama too. The last instance I saw was where a homeless woman got caught by a guard at the door with some items under her coat. She dropped to the ground screaming about being pregnant.
Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#35The Safeway in the San Francisco Castro neighborhood is especially... exciting... relative to the surrounding area. It even has its own full time police officer. One time as I was leaving I asked the officer why Folgers crystals of all things were locked up. His reply was "[ethnic group] gangs steal essentials in bulk, and sell them to the homeless." From that point forward it clicked in my head, retail theft is abou…
> [ethnic group] interesting way to combat racism...
If the parent didn't want to associate a group of people with stealing, they could have just started the quote at "gangs" and it would have worked just as well...
But really, any reader who doesn't already have racial prejudices will recognize that the operative word is "gangs", not "[ethnic group]". It's a bit of an insult to the sensibilities of HN readers, and it doesn't protect anyone from anything.
Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#36Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> [ethnic group] interesting way to combat racism...
Is that combating racism, or is it combating information? Is there such a thing as a racist fact?
If a fact shows an ethnic group in negative light, then its possible its better to ignore that fact and not speak of it. By not speaking of it, it may make the overall problem of racism go away faster.
So goes the theory at least.
Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
> [ethnic group] interesting way to combat racism...
If the parent didn't want to associate a group of people with stealing, they could have just started the quote at "gangs" and it would have worked just as well... But really, any reader who doesn't already have racial prejudices will recognize that the operative word is "gangs", not "[ethnic group]". It's a bit of an insult to the sensibilities of HN readers, and it doesn't protect anyone from anything.
I agree with you, but I'm going to quibble over:
> any reader who doesn't already have racial prejudices
because I don't believe these people exist.
Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> [ethnic group] interesting way to combat racism...
Is that combating racism, or is it combating information? Is there such a thing as a racist fact?
Well the implication is that the parent assumed that the officer was racist against [ethnic group]. It's not a fact that that's who was stealing, it's an observation filtered through the man's biases.
Not that I think it's appropriate to assume malice on the part of the police officer, nor to censor everything race-related that you find objectionable.
Re: Why Thieves Steal Soap
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> [ethnic group] interesting way to combat racism...
Is that combating racism, or is it combating information? Is there such a thing as a racist fact?
There may be no such thing as a racist fact, but there's definitely such a thing as racist dissemination of a fact.
If, for example, you post a list of facts about crime rates among a particular ethnic group apropos of nothing, it's probably racist, regardless of whether or not the facts are true.
That said, in this case I think it's just the bad taste that one often gets in their mouth knowing that a racist might read a comment you make and have it confirm their prejudices.
As for how it's combating information: is there meaningful information lost here? He could have told you what colour his pants were, too, but it wouldn't add a whole hell of a lot to the story.