The entire narrative around “Black Friday” has completely changed. In the old days, I would write a column every year about the chaos that we would see at major retailers all over America as crazed consumers fought over deeply discounted merchandise. The fact that Americans would get so crazed over cheap trinkets made in China said a lot about where we were as a society, but there was also a side to Black Friday that was fun and exciting.
It was a yearly ritual that millions of Americans looked forward to, and major retailers always made a lot of money. Unfortunately, those days are now gone. This Black Friday, store traffic was 28 percent lower than it was in 2019…
Traffic at retail stores on Black Friday dropped 28.3% compared with 2019 levels, as Americans shifted more of their spending online and kicked off their shopping earlier in the year, according to preliminary data from Sensormatic Solutions.
In 2021, Black Friday made headlines all over the nation for a much more alarming reason. Highly organized gangs of thieves looted stores from coast to coast, and this continued a trend that we have seen rapidly growing in recent months. For example, in Los Angeles a mob of wild teens “cleared out” all of the hammers and crowbars at a Home Depot in the Los Angeles area…
According to LASD, eight people – between the ages of 15 and 20 – stole hammers, crowbars and other tools from the store. They say the entire hammer section was cleared out… enough items were taken to be considered grand theft. The suspects took off with an approximate value of $400 worth of tools.
“We tried to stop them,” store employee Luis Romo told FOX 11. “We closed the front entrance and they put their sledgehammers up and whoever got in the way, they were going to hurt them.”
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why they took hammers and crowbars. Those are the tools that are favored by “smash and grab” looters all over the country, and the next night there were so many such robberies that the Los Angeles Police Department actually declared a tactical alert for several hours…
The Los Angeles Police Department declared the alert around 8:30 p.m. Friday and lifted it at 2 a.m. Saturday. The alert followed a string of robberies in the area early in the evening, including an incident at 5:30 p.m. in which at least 10 men robbed a store at 130 S. La Brea Ave., pushed employees onto the ground and fled, according to LAPD Officer Mike Lopez.
Stores were looted all over the city throughout the night, but of course the same thing is happening just about every night these days. Sadly, things aren’t any better in northern California. The Bay Area was also hit hard throughout the long weekend, but of course organized looting has pretty much become a regular thing in the Bay Area at this point…
The mayhem of Thanksgiving week follows a three-night-long free-for-all in California’s Bay Area last weekend, previously reported by Breitbart News.
Looters hit high-end stores like Louis Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent in San Francisco’s Union Square on November 19. The next night a group of 50-80 rushed a Walnut Creek Nordstrom near San Francisco.
Top politicians in California are now promising to crack down on these thieves, and I am sure that must have them quaking in their recently looted boots. Over in the middle of the country, we are also seeing organized looters go absolutely wild. In the Minneapolis area, two Best Buy stores were targeted by “flash mobs” on Black Friday…
Dozens of looters descended on a mall in Minnesota and brazenly marched through two Best Buy locations, taking whatever they liked with them off the shelves.
One incident occurred near the Burnsville mall in suburban Minneapolis with about 12 people rushing in to steal items, while a second incident occurred in Maplewood – about 25 miles northeast – on Friday night with a larger group of 30 people looting electronics.
Last year, we witnessed this sort of behavior during the George Floyd riots, but now looting has become a way of life in some of our largest urban communities. In Chicago, the looting never seems to stop. In fact, looters hit three major stores in less than an hour on Black Friday…
About 1:40 a.m., police responded to a burglar alarm at the shoe store in the 1200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue and found a shattered window and missing clothes, Chicago police said.
About 20 minutes later, police responded to another alarm at the North Face store in the 1600 block of North Damen Avenue and found the front doors pried open, police said. Numerous coats were taken, authorities said.
About 2:40 a.m., police responded to a third alarm in the 2600 block of West Division Street and determined electronic devices were taken after the front door was forced open, police said.
I could go on and on, but I think that you get the point. We are now witnessing the sort of rampant lawlessness that I have been warning about for years. If these mobs of young thieves will go to such extremes now, what will they be willing to do once things get really bad in this country?
Right now, every single one of those young thieves could go out and get a job somewhere. We are in the midst of the most epic worker shortage in U.S. history, and there are literally “help wanted” signs just about everywhere you look.
So these looters are not taking things because they are desperately poor and can’t find employment. Rather, these organized gangs are looting because they have made a conscious decision to do so. Of course it doesn’t help that politicians in many major cities have passed laws that make shoplifting much easier than it once was.
Even if they are caught, the thieves know that they will be dumped back on the streets very quickly. I am so concerned about the direction that things are headed. Lawlessness appears to be increasing at an exponential rate in America, and that has very serious implications for 2022 and the years beyond.
***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***
Image via Concord Police Department. Article cross-posted from The Economic Collapse Blog.
Yes, We Need Your Help
I hate being “that guy” who asks people to donate because I think our conservative news network is so crucial, but here I am…
When I left my cushy corporate job in 2017, I did so knowing that my family would have to make sacrifices. But I couldn’t continue to watch the nation slip into oblivion and was inspired by President Trump’s willingness to fight the good fight even at his own personal expense. What I didn’t realize then is that conservative media would be so heavily attacked, canceled, and defunded that the sacrifices would be extreme.
Many in this nation are struggling right now even though we weren’t struggling just a few years ago. I’m not alone. But I wake up every morning and operate the sites we’ve been able to build because there’s really no other choice. I refuse to be beholden to Big Tech like so many other conservative news outlets, which is why you won’t see Google ads here. With that said, it’s often challenging to pay the bills and it’s even harder to expand so we can get the America First message out to a wider audience.
The economic downturn has forced me to make a plea for help. Between cancel culture, lockdowns, and diminishing ad revenue, we need financial assistance in order to continue to spread the truth. We ask all who have the means, please donate through our new GiveSendGo. Your generosity is what keeps these sites running and allows us to expand our reach so the truth can get to the masses. We’ve had great success in growing but we know we can do more with your assistance.
We currently operate:
- NOQ Report
- Conservative Playlist
- Uncanceled News
- Based Underground
- Truth Based Media
- Five other conservative news sites
I would even be willing to entertain investments and partnerships at this stage. I’ve turned them down in the past because editorial purity is extremely important. I’ll turn them down again if anyone wants us to start supporting RINOs or avoid “taboo” topics like voter fraud, vaccines, or transgender supremacy. But I’d talk to fellow America First patriots who want to help any (or all) of our 10 news sites. Hit me up at jdrucker (at) substack (dot) com if you’re interested.
For those who have the means and just want to help keep the mission of spreading a conservative, Christian message to the nation, please consider a generous donation.
All ORIGINAL content on this site is © 2021 NOQ Report. All REPUBLISHED content has received direct or implied permission for reproduction.
With that said, our content may be reproduced and distributed as long as it has a link to the original source and the author is credited prominently. We don’t mind you using our content as long as you help out by giving us credit with a prominent link. If you feel like giving us a tip for the content, we will not object!
JD Rucker – EIC
@jdrucker