At least, the Bowery King element is, if this gentleman’s bizarre experience of chasing down a thief observed committing a smash-and-grab robbery is any guide.
While waiting for the police to arrive we stayed about a block behind the man who was now just walking. He no longer thought he was being followed, but also knew the police were called. We watched him take off his shoes, shirt and cut his blue jeans into shorts. Within thirty seconds, he looked likes a completely different person. We called 911 back and gave the new description and his new location.
A middle aged man wearing a ‘Just do it’ NIKE hat suddenly rode up to me on his circa 1980s huffy, grabbed my shoulder told me to stop following. He said “I’ll make serious trouble for you”., I knocked his arm off me stood my ground and told him I was not going anywhere. He looked into my eyes and saw I was not going to back down so he retreated. I caught back up to the thief who had just turned a corner and observed as two other homeless placed a blanket over him and then walked away. If I had not seen it I would have easily walked past him. We called 911 again and let him know he was now hiding under a blanket several blocks away.
As John spoke to the operator, a lady wearing a black jacket and minis skirt lunged at me and tried to take my phone. She held on tight and with all her might tried to take it from me. Another man arrived on a BMX and grabbed my arm. I got her to let go and let the new man know I meant business and to stay away. He got the message and stayed on his bike. He did though also threaten me and said “Watch your back”. As I questioned this lady on why she was trying to take the phone she saw two city employees in yellow vests and started screaming “Help I am being harassed!”, hoping they would believe her. They looked in our direction then looked away and kept working. She continued screaming and the man jumped out from under the blanket ran away with another group of individuals that seemed to appear from nowhere. There were five of them and he blended in with them in the middle and walked away.
Jon called 911 once more and they finally told them they would not pursue because we were not the victims. We asked the operator to reconsider, reminding her we were eyeball witness, filmed it and knew exactly where he was. She reiterated they would not pursue and told us to do the same. The last few photos I took was of him jumping into a car. It came out of nowhere and it was clear they were following us the entire time. The driver got out, stared me down then jumped back in and sped off.
This entire event happened over a twenty minute period and about twenty blocks. While relieved I got the items back, I was also very frustrated with how impossible it was to get a police officer to arrest a clearly guilty person. That is when it dawned on me why smash and grabs and most other crimes now occur in the middle of the day with multipole witnesses. There are no consequences. What I witnessed was organized crime. There were spotters, enforcers, harborers, a woman screaming fake claims to distract what she had done and a getaway driver. All told there was at least twelve people involved and all did not hesitate in getting physical and to threaten anybody that got in their way. They were very organized and it was clear they had done this dozens if not hundreds of times before.
This sounds a lot less like “organized crime” and a lot more like the “surveillance state” that AC and others have described in action. The idea that 12 people were involved in attempting to cover up a single petty crime may sound far-fetched and fantastic when you read it, but the author’s account comes complete with pictures taken by himself and his colleagues, so there is little reason to doubt that it took place exactly as described.
A lot of truths are dropping. A lot of facades are falling. A lot of lies are failing. Don’t be surprised at anything anymore.