The people of Wal-Mart get a bit of a bad rep. A lot of this is deserved. If you go into a Wal-Mart after say 11pm you are going to run into some very strange people almost certainly. There are entire websites dedicated to this very unusual phenomenon and it does seem to be nationwide.
North Carolina on the other hand, gets a bit of what I consider to be undeserved reputation of being a bit of a redneck state. Not that I have anything against rednecks - as a country boy myself I proudly consider myself to be one of them actually.
I am also a law-abiding citizen (for the most part) and sometimes you have to stand back in awe at the idiocy of some people and the crimes that they commit.
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The thing that really gets me about this "crime" is that can you possibly think of something that you would be less likely to get away with than this? The car is registered to you, the people in the store are your ex workmates so they will immediately recognize you, there are cameras all over the place, it was broad daylight and you aint exactly going to be able to make a quick getaway because Wal-Mart doors aren't exactly made of non durable materials.
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Apparently he continued to drive the car in the store and caused massive damage. Fortunately, no one was injured or even struck by the vehicle although the driver, Lacy Gentry, did try to hit an police officer when they arrived. There isn't any indication about how long he was driving in the store but seeing as how police have a bit of a lag in arrival time, I would say he had plenty of time to cause havoc.
This is more funny than anything else but this is only because of the fact that he either didn't want to hurt anyone or the people were just really good at getting out of the way and avoiding harm.
He is being charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors and well, I think rightfully so. Anyone that would commit a crime like this, that you are definitely going to get busted for, clearly has mental issues and probably needs some rehabilitation.
Another thing that gets under my skin a bit is the fact that a lot of the news outlets are really going out of their way to not disclose much information about Lacy other than his name and age. Would you care to guess why that is? Well, it is because he is a black man
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I don't care that he is black nor would I ever try to draw some sort of conclusion that his race has anything at all to do with his motivation to commit this crime. The problem that I have is that if this had been a white guy, the race would be at the forefront of the conversation and definitely would be revealed. There would probably be some sort of discussion about white privilege and how the only reason he wasn't shot by the police was because he was white.
It it worth noting that the police did not shoot this Mr. Gentry and he was apprehended without harm. Why isn't the media focused on that? Well it is because it doesn't fit into their race-baiting and hate-inspiring narrative that they seem to be oh so terribly focused on.
On a personal note, Concord, where this took place, is located in the Western part of North Carolina and those of us over here on the Eastern part generally find the folks on that side to be a bit more nuts than we are over here.
Also, even though he didn't hit anyone there are some funny conversations going on about how a vehicle can be used as a deadly weapon... One of the best comments I have seen, which inspired more than 200 responses was this
Another fully automatic assault car attack. Fully automatic assault cars with high capacity fuel tanks need to be banned! Nobody needs a fully automatic assault car, nobody!