Food Deserts are the Fruit of Democrat Policies

Flopping Aces ^ | 05-08-24 | Vince

[Starman417]

After the Rodney King riots in LA in the early 1990s, news organizations told us endlessly that citizens were angry about the food deserts in minority communities. I remember thinking there might be another reason why there were no stores in the neighborhoods besides the implied racism.  Maybe the burned husks of buildings might have something to do with it…

At the time, I was living in Washington, DC and understood all too well what I was seeing.  DC had endured extraordinary riots in 1968 and wide swaths of it still resembled a war zone. Riots have a way of destroying more than just the buildings that go up in flames. They rip the hearts out of a community, something that often takes years or decades to repair.

Riots, however, are just one way a community can be destroyed.  Another, far more insidious, is common crime. While with riots everyone can point to the damage and clamor for rebuilding, with common crime, once the window is replaced or the body chalk is washed away the neighborhood looks exactly the same as it did before.

But of course, it’s not the same. From citizens being scared to walk down the street to kids having to dodge junkies as they walk to school to upstanding members of the community not visiting certain neighborhoods – and not spending money there – the fear of violence has devastating consequences on any community.

Food deserts are one of those consequences.  Retailers are typically not charities.  They exist to make money. When violence, security costs and shoplifting make it so they can’t make money, they usually close.  Hence, when all the food stores close, you have said “food deserts”.

The funny thing is, however, that the people who create the conditions that lead to food deserts never take responsibility for them. Democrats have unleashed an unprecedented amount of street violence and crime on Americans, from coast to coast.  In California, which made shoplifting under $950 a misdemeanor a decade ago, shoplifting is de facto legal. That basically means that you can steal $949 worth of merchandise every single day and likely never go to jail. So, if you steal that $949 worth of goods every day, sell them for 25 cents on the dollar, you can generate an income of $86,000 a year tax-free!  Not bad.

Both Illinois and New York enacted bail reform that makes it far more likely that offenders will end up back on the streets, and we’ve seen exactly that, whether it be for shoplifting or assaulting cops or citizens.

Why all of this matters is because the chickens are coming home to roost.  Across the country, from San Francisco to Seattle to New York to Boston stores are closing because of crime.  Some, in an effort to reduce shoplifting put literally every single item behind lock and key in an effort to remain open. (Surprise, it didn’t work.) But, rather than recognize that stores are closing because they can’t make a profit due to the extraordinary amounts of crime, Democrats are blaming… you guessed it:  Racism.  Communist, racist, Democrat (pardon the redundancy) Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley assails the fact that CVS is closing another store in a minority community, not because of shoplifting or security or losing money, but “racial and economic discrimination”.

But of course she’s not alone in her unhinged take on stores closing.

[PGR88]

I’ve lost all concern for this.

the Left destroys institutions, and then attacks its opponents on the expected consequences.

Hate police, but cry about sky-high black murder rates

decriminalize theft, but call disappearing retail stores “racism.”

promote sexual license, but avoid discussing dire consequences of abortion and broken families.

[blackdog]

Now Memphis city government is closing down all the gas station quick markets because they have become "hot spots" for criminal activity. In those neighborhoods, that was the only store that sold food since all the grocery stores closed.

It's not that they are crime hot spots, it's that the police cannot enforce any laws until the shooting starts. The city attorneys, mayor, and police chief, don't want any laws enforced.

[TonyinLA]

Leftits are so funny.

They burn down or steal the shelves empty in their stores causing those stores to leave the area, then complain about a “food desert” as if they weren’t the ones directly responsible for creating that desert. But yeah, its not the fault of the theives and arsonists. It’s whitey.

[rdcbn1]

Definition of a food desert

A store location where the owner prays that BLM and Antifa will burn the place to the ground so the owner can collect insurance before the local gang bangers and meth heads can steal the place into bankruptcy or kill the owners in a robbery.

[Freest Republican]

Most retailers in the ghetto do not have insurance.

The riots did billions and billions in uninsured damages destroying people’s lives. The idiot leftists go with the insured $1-$2billion total as all damages.

[Gaffer]

Just wait until Biden and the big leftist cities get all the transport trucks mandated to propulsion other than gas/diesel. Then you’re gonna see some real deserts.

[lurk]

Food deserts are just desserts.

Sheriffs And prosecutors in adjacent counties will be less flexible.

[Flavious_Maximus]

The democrat Pygmy cannibals are about to go hungry.

Grocery stores and restaurants don’t serve human flesh so the cannibals will have to seek food elsewhere. Perhaps in their own urban jungle they will find a tiny morsel here and there, usually around college campuses where HAMAS protesters will become willing Soylent Green nutrient. /spit

[Freee-dame]

“ The riots did billions and billions in uninsured damages destroying people’s lives. The idiot leftists go with the insured $1-$2billion total as all damages.”

I did not know this. The numbers I have seen about the damages in those riots did not seem large enough and now I know why.