one thing that must be kept in mind is that poor people - who can't afford alarms and security cameras and are often working long hours in several precarious jobs - are very often targets of thieves.
Yup. Lots of people here assume that the wealthier east side of town is more a target of thieves and vandals (and part of that false assumption is that they all come from over on the west side).
The opposite is true, and violent crime and home invasions are particularly higher on the west side.
(edit)
This reminds me of a conversation we had some years ago about the riots in Britain, specifically that there were some in those communities who were trying to stop the violence, including shopkeepers who were doing shift work to guard their stores from looters.
The opinion was raised that these people were somehow working against the natural political will of the oppressed by not letting their homes and businesses get looted and burned down. That they were on the side of the racist oppressors, even though most were from the same suffering communities.
That situation was also complicated by the fact that once the looting started lots of people who had no political grievances joined in to get free stuff and break things, as did the mafia, which used the riot as cover to clean out department stores in places like Manchester.
Again, I can understand why people get so frustrated that they do riot, but it is not a solution, but rather an expression of how bad things are.
So again, I get that it seems like going against principles that anyone should speak against riots or stealing for food, and that those who don't go along with playing their traditional class roles that game are being spoilsports. But do we want to continue to have a society where people are so desparate that they have to steal or vandalize? And if not, what is the solution.
Neither these vigilante laws nor expecting people to be robbed until they leave do anything to solve that. In part because not everyone CAN leave.