http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/10/billy-corgans-brother-mug_n_874609.html The brother of Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan was mugged by a group of young people Thursday on the CTA Red Line, and was reportedly punched in the face when he tried getting his iPod back from one of the thieves. Jesse Andersen, 35, of Evanston, told ABC Chicago that he was listening to Nelly Furtado on his iPod when a woman "sat down beside him and snatched his music player." Anderson, who reportedly suffers from cerebral palsy and Tourette syndrome, said the woman was with a group of four males, who all appeared to be between 15 and 25 years old. "I thought, you know, she just wanted to see my iPod but, you know, she wouldn't give it back, so I said, 'give it back to me, give it back to me,'" Anderson told ABC. Anderson told the Chicago Tribune that he chased the group and told them to give him his iPod back, when one of the suspects punched him in the face. Corgan took to Twitter to speak out about the attack Thursday. "My little brother Jesse was attacked and robbed this morning by 3 men," he tweeted. "He's ok, but if you want to send him some love..." Corgan then linked to his brother's Facebook page. Anderson reportedly lives in Evanston but takes the Red Line downtown early in the morning to his job at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. He said he was shaken up by the incident, but told the Tribune he knows he'll "just have to shake it off (and) continue" with his life.
And the follow up story in the HuffPo will surely be them telling us how the group of youths are victims and the brother had it coming.
It's good to see the victims of capitalism take the initiative to implement wealth redistribution independent from the government taking its cut.
This is how a society gradually sinks into anarchy. Or, in this case, the jungle. In DC, the metro police are already saying that people really shouldn't be using these devices in the open where potential thieves might see them. I know that makes sense from one perspective, but it also makes it seem like somehow it is vaguely the victims' fault. Either the cities and their police departments crack down hard on this and nip it in the bud or it will become part of urban culture that it is ok to snatch and grab this stuff. Kind of like, if you walk in certain areas of big cities, you are asking to be robbed and the police don't really give a crap. Or, they tolerate open drug sales in certain neighborhoods because it's too difficult to root it out and there is no support in the community. At the end of the day, a community gets the kind of environment they want. If people raise hell, the police can crack down on this. If it were bands of white youths attacking blacks, you know there would be a massive police, SWAT, FBI, Justice Department, even National Guard presence to stop it. The race hustlers in the black community wouldn't stand for it, and white leaders would have no sympathy for the perpetrators. Reverse the races however, and we are told it really isn't such a good idea to use your expensive smart phone in plain view, so get over it.