Ideas About Crime

In his book, The Mechanical Bride, Folklore of Industrial Man, Marshall McLuhan writes about crime:

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"One hundred police working on a case can make a thousand mistakes before they strike on the right solution, but the criminal, working against these hundred police, cannot afford to make a single error.

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So far as human daring and courage go, this stacking of cards is a challenge. And the kids feel it as such. The criminal is the hero because he is fighting against hopeless odds. Against this kind of daredevil there is no use in talking up the mealy-mouthed righteousness of the respectable businessman. Not so far as adolescent generosity is concerned. The public heart goes with the criminal just because the official head is against him. Therefore, until some sort of moral heroism returns to the scenes of ordinary life, the kids will want to shoot it out with the cops."

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This observation from seventy-five years ago could easily be applied to the Luigi Mangione affair. Much of the nation has been engrossed in the motives involved but, as might be expected, to the consternation of the proles, the suspect was captured more quickly than they wished. The story continues in a much more uninteresting vein. 

A similar event occurred on the evening of Friday, June 17, 1994  on a 60-mile chase along California's Santa Ana Freeway (5), Artesia Freeway (91) and San Diego Freeway (405), which began at 5:56 p.m. until he reached his Brentwood home at 7:57 p.m., he being O.J. Simpson in the back seat of his white Ford Bronco. Over 95 million viewers watched this live pursuit, switching the channel from an NBA playoff game between the Knicks and Rockets.

Since it took place on a Friday after work, the saloons were full of enthusiastic witnesses to a live television broadcast of a police chase that lasted two hours. They were all cheering wildly for the celebrated gridiron star accused of killing his wife and another man. This and the following legalities made "The Juice" the most famous football star of all time and he remains so today, at least in part because of his impossible attempt at escape, if such it was.

Sadly, McLuhan was no longer with us on the evening of Simpson's adventure but it's interesting to speculate what his reaction to it might have been.

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