Lights, Camera, Action: "The Purge"
Here’s what I don’t get: When a violent crime is underway, why would anyone whip out a cellphone and start shooting a video?
That is not what I would do. I would sprint away. While dialing 9-1-1.
Yet the reason we’ve all had a good look at the chaos and violence that’s been unleashed recently in America’s urban centers is because the world is full of amateur filmmakers.
In fact, these videos look eerily like “The Purge,” a depressing 2013 dystopian film about the government surrendering to criminals by legalizing all crime - even murder - for one day a year. Law-abiding Americans had to hide in their homes and try to protect themselves while feral outlaws went on a rampage in the movie.
It’s no exaggeration to say that some of the disturbing scenes caught on cellphones these days look like a Purge is underway in cities like New York..
Get a load of what one man caught on his phone this past weekend in a Manhattan McDonald’s:
@CrimeInNYC NYC always good for some chaotic mayhem. He didn’t hurt anybody, but could have been ugly ! pic.twitter.com/I6WvqROuGR
— Shakes Mcgoo (@McgooShakes) September 17, 2022
Social media was abuzz Monday. Not because a man was swinging a tomahawk around a fast food joint, but because the suspect - Michael Palacios - was arrested, charged with 4th degree criminal mischief and possession of a weapon and allowed to go free.
Yep, thanks to New York’s soft-on-crime legislature in Albany and the “no cash bail” law that took effect in 2019, this man was right back on the streets. His crimes weren’t violent enough to warrant a jail stay.
Turns out, Palacios is a bicycle messenger. In a TV interview Monday he said he carries a tomahawk in his backpack for his own protection.
It’s impossible from the video to know who or what started the altercation - these videographers need to perfect their sound technology - but surely chopping up an eating establishment with a doggone tomahawk ought to earn a man at least one night in the cooler.
California was the first state to abolish cash bail. New Jersey, Illinois and New York quickly followed suit.
It’s working out splendidly. For the criminals.
Elections have consequences. Vote accordingly.
