Category: Crime

Ask Me Again

Psychos, Shootin' Time

…why I never walk out of my house without carrying a gun:

A knife-wielding maniac was shot and injured by cops after he started terrorizing a New York City grocery store overnight, the NYPD said Monday.

The suspect was shot outside the City Fresh Market near 120th Street in Harlem just after 1:30 a.m. when he repeatedly refused to drop the 13-inch kitchen blade, according to cops.

The man had been thrown out of the grocery store some time earlier after getting into an argument with someone inside.  He later showed up brandishing the knife, police said.  Surveillance video obtained by Pix11 captured the man lingering outside the sliding doors and waving the weapon as workers huddled inside.

When police arrived on the scene, the man allegedly kept pointing the knife in their direction before an officer fired.  The knifeman took a bullet to his abdomen, was taken to a hospital for surgery and remains in a critical condition.

Sorry, but faced with a similar situation, I’m not going to wait around for the cops to show up.  Wave a knife at me, especially one like that, and whatever happens after that is on you.

I’m not boasting or whatever;  I’m stating the obvious.  Gawd know I don’t want to shoot someone.  But I really don’t want to be stabbed just because I happen to be at the supermarket.

New Name For An Old Thing

Crime, Grammar Nazism

Sent to me by Combat Controller, this description of a Diversity Bollard:

A recent innovation of installing bollards outside festivals, events, concerts etc. with a high volume of foot traffic to protect the common citizen from diversity-driven cars, vans and trucks.

Of course, nowadays one has to be extremely careful when leaving a house because of the above phenomenon.

I really like the term “diversities” because it’s an all-encompassing term for all sorts of dangerous scrotes like ghetto dwellers, muezzin groupies, mescal swillers and so on.

Consider it part of my lexicon from now on.

Wrong 10

Books & Movies, Crime

Yeah I know, it’s another piece of A.I. garbage, masquerading as thoughtful critique, but this take on the 10 greatest heist movies gets it wrong.

To save you the time of watching the video, with its fake voice and faker conviction, here’s its list:

10 – Oceans 11 (no argument;  the first and best of the Oceans franchise, and far better than the original Rat Pack version)
9 – The Italian Job (with Michael Caine;  also no argument)
8 – Inception (nope;  it’s not a heist movie, but sci-fi)
7 – Rififi (no argument)
6 – Inside Man (no argument)
5 – The Sting (nope, it’s not a heist movie;  it’s a sting, just as the title suggests)
4 – Reservoir Dogs (nope, it’s not a heist, just as the “narrator” suggests)
3 – Heat (no argument)
2 – The Town (haven’t seen it yet, so no comment)
1 – Goodfellas (nope;  it’s not  even remotely a heist movie)

You see, there’s a framing problem, here.  The definition of a “heist” movie is that it’s about criminals stealing stuff from an institution, not from people.  It has to be about the actual robbery, in other words, and not about the aftermath (Reservoir Dogs) or just an aside to the plot (Goodfellas), or about robbing an individual (The Sting, Inception).  That’s not to say that the above are not good movies — they’re all absolutely brilliant — but they’re not about heists, according to my definition.

So if we delete the unqualified, it leaves four spots open on the list.  Here are my modest suggestions for inclusion, in chronological order:

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951, Alec Guinness)
Charley Varrick (1973, Walter Matthau)
Thief (1981, James Caan)
The Score (2001, Robert De Niro, Ed Norton)
Heist (2001, Gene Hackman)
…and we could add either or both of the Thomas Crown Affair movies, with absolutely no argument from me.  Even Snatch could conceivably be included, as it begins with arguably the funniest robbery ever filmed.

To be frank, though, heist (or “caper”) movies are not my favorite genre, so there may be others that are worthy but that I haven’t seen, so feel free to add your own suggestions in Comments.

Afterthought:  I suspect that not many have seen Jules Dassin’s Rififi, but I would earnestly recommend that you do so.  When the entire spectacular heist is filmed without dialogue or music, you have to know… so that poxy A.I. list got at least one thing right.

Right Idea

Crime, Immigration

I see that the famously-tolerant Swedes are coming to their senses about this immigration business:

Sweden’s government on Tuesday said it would put forward a bill introducing a requirement for migrants to adhere to an ‘honest living’ or face deportation.

The country’s centre-right government, supported by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, came into power in 2022 and vowed to get tough on immigration.  They are now trying to rapidly push through a slew of reforms in various areas ahead of legislative elections in September.

The new requirement would make it easier to withdraw residence permits for migrants.

Speaking at a press conference, Migration Minister Johan Forssell told reporters: ‘Following laws and rules is a given, but it must also be a given that we do our best to live responsibly and not harm our country.  If, for example, you ignore paying your debts, if you don’t comply with decisions from Swedish authorities, if you cheat the benefits system, if you cheat your way to a Swedish residence permit… then you do not have the right to be here,’ Forssell said.

Other examples the government cited as examples included working without paying taxes or not paying fines.

That all sounds perfectly reasonable to me.  Immigrate (lawfully) by all means, but once you’re here, act like an actual citizen and not like some criminal scrote, or face getting tossed out.

Loath as I may be to suggest that we learn any policy from the Scandis, this would be an exemplary one for us to implement as well.  I don’t know the specifics of their policy, but it should be made that said repatriation and loss of residence status would include the entire family of the deportee, including any children born Over Here.

Yeah, Whatever

Anarchist thugs

Anytime a couple of anarchists blow themselves up, it’s a good day for the world:

The bodies of an anarchist couple were found beneath the rubble of a cottage on the outskirts of Rome after they blew themselves up while making a bomb.

Police believed Alessandro Mercogliano, 53, and 36-year-old Sara Ardizzone were plotting an attack against a police station and Leonardo, a defense contractor, which made parts for F-35 jets.

Traces of ammonium nitrate, a chemical used to make explosives, were found in the debris of the abandoned building beside an ancient Roman aqueduct on Friday.

Police said the pair were supporters of Alfredo Cospito, the jailed figurehead of a loosely-organized anarchist network called the Informal Anarchist Federation.

I must admit, though, I like the name:  “Informal Anarchist”.  I’m something of an “Informal Commie Killer”, myself — except I’m not going to actually do something like shoot a few Commies, oh no not me, no sirree.

Anyway, to return to the main point: