When I think about the brazen crime taking place in our big cities these days, I’m reminded of a story Royce Feour used to tell. Now, unless you are a boxing aficionado, you won’t know the name. But in his day, Royce was a highly recognized boxing writer. He covered all the big fights of the day in Nevada.

Anyway, Royce, who died in 2018, liked to gather young reporters around him and talk about how he sold the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Fremont street. He had a box, a stack of newspapers and a cup for change. He’d sit there most of the time. But sometimes he’d have to leave his position for a bit.

He said he could leave the money and newspapers for hours and no one would mess with it. People would take a paper and leave the money in the cup. He swore this to be the gawd’s honest truth. And I believe him.

So what happened between the 1950s and today?

Today, the crime du jour is to get together with 100 of your like-minded pals and storm a high-end retailer. Armed with a hammer, you and your buddies break display cases and steal everything in sight. Hardly anyone gets caught. And if they do, they spend zero time in jail and eventually evade punishment thanks to liberal justice conceits.

I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of our modern criminal justice system. It obviously needs a re-think – not for revenge but for deterrence. But, where is the personal shame? In Royce Feour’s day, knocking over a newspaper boy would be universally condemned. Is there one person – just one – of these smash-n-grabbers who sees this as low behavior, rather than a lark. Is there not one mother or father out there so outraged at the behavior of their son or daughter that they publicly condemn the behavior?

NEWS OF THE WEEK

“Taking Viagra cuts the risk of Alzheimer’s by up to 69% and it could be prescribed to beat dementia, study suggests.” Now, if we can only remember to take Viagra.

ONE MORE THING

– Save the Earth. It’s the only planet with beer.

– I am officially “you look good for your age” years old. – How does Moses make his coffee? Hebrews it.

– Beware of the dog. (The cat is shady as hell, too.)

– Put the politicians on minimum wage and see how fast things change.

– If a man says he will fix it, HE WILL. (There’s no need to remind him every six months.)

Thanks for reading. Please be kind to
all you meet, laugh a little and always
question authority.


Sherman Frederick is a Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.