The infuriating thing is that nothing will be done about it

 

I'm sure many of you saw and read reports about blatant, in-broad-daylight robberies of container-carrying trains in Chicago last week.

Jarring video from a news helicopter in Chicago Friday captured a gang of thieves ransacking a freight cargo train moments before they were confronted by cops with their guns drawn.

Chopper 7 with ABC Chicago was on the scene as a group of ransackers made their way through a train in the South Austin neighborhood on the west side of Chicago.

The plunder included televisions and air fryers, according to a CBS News report.

Officials said the railway is no stranger to these types of freight cargo thefts – but rarely, if ever, are they caught live on television.

Police officers were eventually called to the scene and a confrontation with the highwaymen was caught live on television. Officers swarmed with their guns drawn as some suspects tried to make away in their cars. 

. . .

There were no reports of shots fired and there have been no reports of arrests made.

Less than an hour after officers and looters left the scene – Chicago’s ABC7 caught more people breaking into train cars.

There's more at the link.

It's reminiscent of reports from early 2022 of similar crimes in Los Angeles.

Photos and videos showing piles of empty boxes littered alongside rail tracks in Los Angeles County, California have gone viral as shipping companies say they’ve seen a dramatic spike in railroad theft. Some of the boxes are packages from companies like UPS, Amazon and FedEx.

Union Pacific, one of the country’s largest railroad companies, says it may avoid operating in Los Angeles County following the spike in thefts, whichit blames on lax prosecution of crimes. The containers and trains are locked, but can be broken into.

Union Pacific said last month in a letter to the Los Angeles District Attorney that it saw a 160% year-over-year increasein theft in LA county. The company claims that a December 2020 special directive issued by District Attorney George Gascón that changed how low-level offenses are prosecuted has contributed to the uptick.

Again, more at the link.

Note the reference to the LA District Attorney and his "soft-on-crime" policies.  Chicago has the same problem.

What this means is that:

• The police have no incentive to catch the criminals, because they know they'll be back on the streets within a matter of hours;
• The criminals have no incentive to stop committing their crimes, because they know they'll get away with it almost without penalty;
• The railways have no incentive to spend money on greater security, because if that greater security catches criminals, the cops won't arrest them and the prosecutors won't hold them in jail.

The ony winners are the companies that insure goods in transit, who make fat profits by raising their premiums because of the higher risk of loss.  Guess who pays those higher premiums?  That's right - we do.  The price we pay to vendors, who ship the goods to us, includes the costs of shipping and freight insurance.  Those thieves are literally costing every single one of us money.

Welcome to the modern economy!

Peter