Before wave of train thefts, Union Pacific laid off some of its police force
I used to live in an apartment complex across the street from a gas station in Houston, TX. It was owned by an older subcontinental Asian (Nepali?) man and his family. I&#x27;d go in about once every two weeks. One day, I came in and that family was gone; they&#x27;d been replaced by a younger cohort of either Indian or Pakistani men and women. The new owners were polite and professional, but far less friendly. Soon after, bulletproof glass went up between the registers and the customers, the product selection became more sparse, and the warm yellow lights were replaced with bright LEDs.<p>Eventually I inquired why the gas station had changed, and the man at the register explained that there were several armed robberies during the time period that I&#x27;d been living there. I was surprised; this gas station was in a fairly decent part of town near NASA, and there was a tennis club right next to the apartment complex. I used to walk barefoot from my apartment to the courts. I&#x27;d never heard sirens or ever noticed that anyone had been robbed.<p>It must have taken 6-10 young men fewer than a combined 60 minutes across several robberies to completely alter the dynamic of the gas station. Their hour&#x27;s worth of work caused hundreds of hours in transfers, equipment moving, inspections, storage, and installation. The experience of shopping at that gas station became unpleasant, and I avoided the station when I could. Soon after, I moved to a richer, nicer, quieter neighborhood down the road (for unrelated reasons--the apartment complex had a pest problem.) But I often think about that shop; there are now children growing up in that apartment complex who think that &quot;gas stations&quot; include bulletproof glass and wary stares, instead of warm lighting and friendly greetings. That&#x27;s their vision of society; even if those children are not criminals themselves, they expect to be treated like them. They&#x27;re like children who don&#x27;t remember plane travel before 9&#x2F;11, except instead of the hold-up at the TSA, it&#x27;s a hold-up in a gas station.<p>This is what I think about when I hear about large-scale property crime like these train thefts. Sure, it&#x27;s just property. But it is the docile, rule-following, peaceful majority (to which I and the rest of HN belong) that creates and finances all the property that ends up stolen and destroyed; allow this stability of commerce to be interrupted by wanton theft or violence and they will flee, retreat into themselves, hire private security forces, and produce less. Poverty may encourage crime, but crime always creates poverty.