Obviously, I hate shoplifters and am not posting this to glorify them, but this is a piece of NYC hood history and the vintage footage brings back memories for sure. This took place 9-10 years before the goofy hipsters started arriving in NYC and their rich Midwestern parents paid their rents and funded their little faggoty adventures; before Times Square got Disneyfied. Those first Hipsters are all in their late 30’s/very early 40’s now.
I’m 3 or 4 years younger than these Lo Life guys, but I lived through the era. What the narrator (Vic Lo/Thirstin Howl) is saying about those times, I remember well.
You had these guys who are the forefathers of the smash and grab robberies you see today. But even worse, you had the Decepticons in the same era (88-92) who would ride the trains and just walk through all the cars and rob everybody. Luckily, I was never victimized by them. I rode a different train line most of the time than the ones they used to ride. Decepts would walk through all the train cars poking people and bashing them with hammers and taking their clothes, money and jewelry.
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