There is no connection between "people are starving" and organized gangs stealing $200K of cargo at a pop. The organized gangs aren't Robin Hood. They aren't giving it to hungry people.
Are you missing the global context of how much more expensive food is?
Sure they might not be “giving it to hungry people” that you know; but they themselves might also be hungry, or people they know. We have no idea what they’re doing with the food; and that means both of us don’t know.
i would suggest it's the confluence of a number of changes. Including the higher food prices, we have: better comms like, cell phones, multi-user "database" like google docs, guns almost too cheap to meter and available within a 2-day cross country drive with no waiting period anywhere in the united states, more powerful vehicles for catching up to food trucks, and hauling away with quickness, low-touch mostly anonymous local and national branded markets with advertising and sales like tiktok, insta, craigslist, and ebay, as well as news spreading how other people are getting away with it, and possibly a lack of good information about where to get food from food banks. And if that's not enough, there are lots of recipes being shared. Just kidding about the last part.
If you're desperate you steal opportunistically to satisfy your need. People who make a business out of it aren't usually the same kind of people. As different sorts of crime go I don't think this is that bad, but more of the downstream costs fall on poor/working class people because they're low-margin goods to start with.
> The organized gangs aren't Robin Hood. They aren't giving it to hungry people.
There are many cases where organised gangs are robin hood. Gangs need the local population on their side. They will pay for festivals, art, schools, etc. sometimes.
Sometimes does the heavy lifting. Most of the time, they sell drugs in the community, rob people and businesses in the community, and shoot people in the community who aren't happy with their actions or are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Is that in-between drive-by shootings that kill neighborhood kids? I'm sure the neighborhood easily forgives a murdered 12-year old when they see a block party paid for by the gang members.
