In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action is a book by Philadelphia-based Vicky Osterweil that currently sits atop of the Amazon new release charts. The book encourages and makes excuses for property destruction and riots that are currently taking place across the country.
And for that, it was featured and promoted in an NPR article out last week called “One Author’s Argument ‘In Defense Of Looting'”.
But as the Post Millennial puts it: “This book promoting riots is a number one new release on Amazon, a mega-corporation that benefits every time a local shop gets torched.”
The book celebrates rioting and looting at a time in the United States where many business owners have seen their life’s work go up in flames and innocent civilians have been assaulted or mortally wounded defending their property.
Osterweil, who looks as though she is barely twenty-something, was interviewed on NPR last week to make her point that looting is actually “a redistribution of wealth” and not theft. She argues that property damage is the same: just a “way to reapportion assets which she deems necessary in an unequal society.”
Citing a socialist macro view and the goal of some type of ridiculous property re-distribution, she calls the riots a “mass expropriation of property, mass shoplifting during a moment of upheaval or riot.”
Osterweil, who is white, argues: “Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police. It gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected.” She calls looting “basically nonviolent” and claims that it provides for “poor people who want to live a better life.”
“Most stores are insured; it’s just hurting insurance companies on some level. It’s just money. It’s just property. It’s not actually hurting any people,” she argues.
But as many – other than Vicky – seem to notice, the looting and riots have real world consequences:
On the ground in Kenosha, WI for @townhallcom.
Currently surveying the damage after the riots that occurred in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake. A lot of buildings are boarded up, including the Kenosha County Democratic Party building. pic.twitter.com/0HmfGaWaoN
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 24, 2020