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Hand gun weapon with handcuffs - illegal use of weapons concept

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From the Charlotte Observer:

One suspect was taken into custody, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police. An on-duty CMPD officer at the mall was able to locate the suspect and de-escalate the situation, CMPD said on Twitter.

One of the shooting victims was discharged from the hospital Thursday night, according to the mall. The second victim remains hospitalized.

Northlake Mall said in a statement that it will provide counselors “to ensure that employees know that they are both safe and cared for as they return to work.”

An analysis by the newspaper last year found the SouthPark Mall had more serious crimes than the other three area malls.

In response to such incidents, some malls have taken steps to increase safety and security at their sites. This includes increasing police presence and cameras, tightening teen curfews and even bringing in gun-sniffing dogs.

All this comes as reported crime at four major malls in the region — Carolina Place, Concord Mills, Northlake and SouthPark — has dropped since 2017, a new crime data analysis by The Charlotte Observer found.

The Observer took a detailed look at those crime stats, and the recent actions by the malls to deal with them.

Lawlessness is also posing a problem for American cities, trying to rebound from pandemic lockdowns and the work-from-home revolution. John Sexton at HotAir calls it the “urban doom loop.”

First, when the pandemic hit, there were lots of white collar workers who decided to leave the city and ride out the storm in their 2nd homes in the Hamptons or Vermont or wherever they could go that was away from lots of other people.

Second, removing all of those workers from downtown has an impact on other businesses which were dependent on them, i.e. restaurants, shops, etc. that catered to officer workers. Many of those shops and restaurants are struggling to survive or have already closed which also means there is not as much to draw people from the suburbs into the cities at night or on the weekends.

Finally, the third part of the doom loop comes from the impact that less economic activity downtown has on the cities themselves. Much of their revenue comes from these areas so if they aren’t being utilized the city’s tax base is shrinking and that means fewer resources to deal with problems (homelessness, crime) that are also plaguing cities. So hopefully you can see how all of this creates a loop that feeds back on itself. The less money cities have, the less appealing downtown areas are. The less appealing those areas are, the less chance of luring customers and businesses back to downtown.

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