DIANA writes:

Most of the headlines about the carjacking and murder of a New Jersey lawyer at the Mall at Short Hills last Sunday are perfect examples of everything Lawrence Auster despised about journalism. “Shooting” ….”carjacking” ….only one headline mentioned the word “murder.”

Regarding these murdering fiends, they were apprehended very quickly, less than a week after the outrage. This suggests to me that they were all parolees. I will venture a guess that their priors are not petty, but consist of serious crimes. Let’s wait and see, but that’s what I think.

Their names: “Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said Hanif Thompson, 29, of Irvington; Karif Ford, 31, of Newark; Basim Henry, 32, of Newark; and Kevin Roberts, 33, of Newark, had all been charged in the Sunday attack.”

Hanif, Karif, Basim…Muslim prison names? Or are they related?

Third, beyond the sheer evil of the act is the surpassing stupidity. Did they honestly think they were going to get away with this? I suggest that even dumb criminals know that they are going to be caught. They want to be caught. They want to go to prison, it’s their natural habitat. The formalities of being arrested and tried are all good fun. They love causing havoc. They also know that the media cover their crimes. They love attention. In this regard, they are delinquent children.

I have suggestions as to what to do about this, but I know it will never happen, so let’s not waste time.

Finally, this puts the lie to the whole notion of avoiding bad neighborhoods. Of course you should do that. But the Short Hills mall is a luxury mall. It’s usually referred to as “exclusive” —  another ridiculous misuse of words. If it were truly exclusive it would be gated. (It should be.) A luxury mall in an open society is a magnet for the Hanifs, Karifs, and Basims. You can avoid them, but they don’t avoid YOU. Because you are lunch.

Laura writes:

I doubt the accused wanted to get caught and I bet they don’t exactly love prison, but if serious crime were met with swift trial and swift execution of the guilty, they would likely have thought more about the consequences. They wanted a nice car. They had guns. And they had no hesitation to use them against a shopper at the Short Hills mall. It was stupid and savage.

— Comments —

Diana writes:

Regarding prison, I agree 100% that swift trial and swift execution would cut down on crimes like this. Even a moron understands what the grim reaper means.

However, with respect, I knew a prison psychologist. Big former liberal. Got real as a result of dealing with these thugs on a day to day basis.

“Love prison,” maybe not. They don’t love anything. But they like it, and are drawn to it. In prison they have relationships, status, etc. Prison is more than an alternative world, it’s their world.

They are not like you and me.

Diana adds:

You say that these fiends would think twice about the consequences of their actions if justice were swift and sure, indicates you agree that they are aware of consequences. And I agree. They know they’ll go back into jail. Why do they go back into jail if deep down they don’t at least like it?

 Laura writes:

They don’t fear it, at least not enough, which doesn’t necessarily mean they like it. But it is entirely possible that some do like it. Do they like it enough to stay in jail for the rest of their lives, as at least one of them probably will if the allegations are correct? I kind of doubt that, but it’s possible. However, I think what matters most is that there is not some truly powerful disincentive. It’s amazing that so many people think that the death penalty is inhumane. The opposite is true.

Karl D. writes:

I have been to that mall a couple of times as I have family who live close by. I wouldn’t call it a “Luxury mall” but it is a little bit more upscale than your regular suburban mall. While it is a very nice mall, it is also well known to locals and mall employees alike that it also attracts the worst ghetto elements from nearby East Orange and Newark, NJ. I used to take the bus to visit with family in New Jersey when I lived in Manhattan. The bus route would take you right through East Orange, NJ and right down its main drag. It never ceased to amaze me. Block after block of fire gutted homes and buildings, drug addicts and prostitutes wandering down the street and all the usual businesses. Liquor stores, check cashing joints, bars and hair salons along with some obligatory Afro-Centric shops and community centers. As soon as you made a left off of the main street everything would change. It was another world of nicely kept homes, well manicured lawns and historical markers.

Getting back to malls and upscale stores. In the past there was an almost a “gated mall” of the mind. Up until the 1990s no thugs or ghetto trash would even think of walking into Barney’s, Bergdofs, Tiffanys or any other upscale store. Even the white working class would think twice about it. First, because they simply couldn’t afford any of their wares, and second, it just felt uncomfortable. Out of place. Now due to easy credit and the mantra of radical equality, literally everyone with luxury taste will frequent these stores. The staffing has radically changed as well. In the past to work at a place like Bloomingdales women (as well as men) had to almost look like models, dress well, be able to comport themselves properly, speak proper English, and have a sense of class about them. Walk the main floor these days and you will find nothing but black, Hispanic and Asian women who are poorly and cheaply dressed, overweight, speak broken English, and are too old to be in such a supposedly glamorous position. Bloomingdales holds a special place in my heart as it is where my parents met in the early 1960s. She was an information girl and he was a floor manager.

Diana writes:

Thank you to Karl D. for pointing out the fact that the mall wasn’t a “luxury mall.” That is one of the reasons I read your blog – to get the facts that the media get wrong.

Echoing Karl’s experience, you see the same thing if you take the “Bee Line” bus from the Bronx up Broadway to the Hudson River communities, which you can catch outside the last subway station in the Bronx.

As you go through Yonkers, you see what Karl reports. Mostly what struck my eye was the number of heavily muscled young men, lounging around.

Then you pass the Yonkers border, and it’s like you enter a different planet.

James N. writes:

One of the things about every one of these stories that fascinates me is how little whites know about actually existing blacks, as opposed to movie blacks, sports blacks, and imaginary blacks.

The dead lawyer did something (we don’t know what) to resist. This was “disrespect”, and grounds for death.

I know, I know, I can hear them now: “It didn’t make any SENSE”. It didn’t make any sense in whiteland, that’s true. But respect, and lethal violence in response to the lack of it, is what blackland is all about.

We have allowed a completely separate and hostile culture to arise in America, and rather than confronting it, whites have escaped from it. The internal movement of the white population from cities to the country, from neighborhoods to gated communities, from the mid-Atlantic states to Northern New England, from California to the intermountain West is one of the largest population movements in history.

However, in areas that abut significant concentrations of blacks, the retreat has relied on symbolism (hence the coinage “upscale”) to designate white areas. The utility of symbolic separation may be breaking down as more and more direct physical violence is visited on whites engaging in previously safe activities becomes known. “Upscale mall” sounds so much nicer than “sundown town,” but the former lacks the punch of the latter.

This tragic couple had just bought a fixer-upper in gentrifying Hoboken, where the white population is rising and the black population is falling. Who would have thought he would die at an “upscale mall”?

Diana writes:

As I suspected, they had previous records. I don’t feel particularly intelligent. It was all rather obvious.

Buck writes:

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