For anyone who hasn’t been paying attention, California is reverting to the Old West. We’ve had a series of smash-and-grab ‘flash mobs’ who are hitting places like Home Depot for tools, then hitting high end stores in Beverly Hills for whatever they can get. In addition, there’s been a wave of car thefts in Southern California. Correction, there are always car break in and thefts in LA, but it’s at an all-time high right now. There was a rash of catalytic converters thefts during lockdown. Now it seems cars are getting hit for both contents and joy rides. Recently, YouTuber Casey Neistat had his cars broken into. He was angry enough to tweet about it along with his appreciation to the police who got all their stuff back. I get why he was mad, I do. But I also thought Casey’s tweet was a little over the top. However, I shrugged and kept scrolling. Seth Rogen did not. Seth took exception to Casey’s comments and stood up for Los Angeles, saying it was lovely here – just don’t leave anything valuable in the car.
Dude I’ve lived here for over 20 years. You’re nuts haha. It’s lovely here. Don’t leave anything valuable in it. It’s called living in a big city.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) November 24, 2021
A lot of people were turned off by Seth’s comments. Some felt he was justifying crime. Others reminded Seth that LA wasn’t so “lovely” for everyone. Casey also replied to Seth. He let Seth know he was mad about the incident and felt violated. Seth responded again, this time doubling down on the privilege angle of his comments:
You can be mad but I guess I don’t personally view my car as an extension of myself and I’ve never really felt violated any of the 15 or so times my car was broken in to. Once a guy accidentally left a cool knife in my car so if it keeps happening you might get a little treat.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) November 25, 2021
As you can imagine, this went over like a ton of bricks. While some agreed this was the price one pays for living in a big city, most were flabbergasted that Seth would take this approach to a personal crime. They really wanted to know if Seth believed that 15 break-ins was something anyone should have to just accept. I don’t think Seth was justifying crime, for what it’s worth, but his responses were tone-deaf. Although he’s right about not leaving anything of value in your car anywhere in LA, even the fancy parts. And if you do, hide that stuff like it was of National Security. My kids were taught this in their single digits. But the rest of it falls flat. First, I’m having a hard time believing Seth had his car broken into 15 times. I lived in a dodgier area than Seth for the same length of times and only had my car broken into once. They stole my bag of stuff going to Goodwill and dumped in on my next-door neighbor’s lawn. Any break in is upsetting and, as Casey said, it feels like a violation. I don’t think people should feel that’s the tax for living in a big city.
I’m particularly struck by Seth’s comment about his car not being an extension of himself. Considering the investment both financially and personally people put in their car to get them from point A to point B safely, very few people regard their cars as just things. Plus, this is Los Angeles, dude. Cars ARE extensions of ourselves. You can barely survive here without owning or knowing someone who owns a car.
After some back and forth on Twitter, Seth made it known that his intent was to defend LA. He objected to it being called a “sh*th*le” and added , “As far as big cities go it has a lot going for it.” I’ve come around to LA too. It does have a lot going for it. But it has a lot going against it and crime and a renowned corrupt police department happen to be among them. But Los Angeles is a big girl and can take care of herself. If Seth wants to defend her, there are a lot better ways to go about it.
*Thanks to DListed for the story
Photo credit InStar Images
Team Seth. LA is not a 3rd world shithole because some youtuber’s car was broken into. I’m also side-eyeing that guy’s pro-police propaganda for a particularly vicious and corrupt LAPD. Wait for the “I’m moving to Arizona because taxes, wokeness, and homeless people are too popular in LA.” I guarantee it’s coming.
I’m fully on board for questioning why he left valuables in his car in a country where women are still the ones put on trial when they are violated by rape.
He was the victim of a crime. Why should he need to explain himself and be blamed, when he didn’t do anything wrong?
Why did he leave anything valuable in his car seems a lot like Why was she walking by herself in that neighborhood. You can’t in the same comment take issue with a system that victim blames women and then victim blame him.
I very much said in my post that the criminal justice system (and the court of public opinion) indeed puts women on trial when they are violated and not only is it accepted, it helps men get slaps on the wrist, if not outright acquitted. Women are still very much told all the things we need to do to keep from getting raped.
Second of all, this guy went straight for racist insults (3rd world shithole) and backed a crime syndicate (LAPD), so that tells me all I need to know about him. And the people who looked right past this to support him.
@Songs- I 100% agree. I just googled Seth’s house and sure enough it’s gated and he has his own garage. He is just another elitist white male and really showed his true colors here.
Haylie, your question is absurd. One thing has nothing to do with the other
If you can’t see the connection, then it’s not me spouting absurdities. Good morning!
“I’m fully on board for questioning why he left valuables in his car in a country where women are still the ones put on trial when they are violated by rape.”
@Haylie, this is a logical fallacy.
+1, Summergirl. False equivalency
@Merricat, thank you! That is the more accurate term. I was searching for the term false equivalency and it was on the tip of my tongue!
100% or Austin
Agree with all of this. Haylie, you aren’t wrong at all. At the end of the day it’s just a car, he wasn’t robbed at gunpoint and lauding the lapd and calling one of the largest cities in the country a shithole 3rd world says all I need to know about him, and what he thinks of the people that comprise that “shithole”.
Maybe you haven’t been to LA recently but a lot of its areas are shitty. I come from a third world country and it looks bad compared to the cities I have seen in my own country. My husband had to go to LA for work and he was assaulted and the cops refused to do anything so I could see why Casey was grateful the cops helped.
Fabiola, thank you for your perspective, even if it is fucked up that you need to say “Yeah I come from a third world country and parts of LA are pretty bad.” I’m also so sorry that happened to your husband. I hope that he is doing well now.
NO!! Stay OUT of Arizona. Please.
Yes, getting robbed makes you feel violated but the rest of Casey’s point was tone deaf.
It doesn’t take a genius to realise why there’s a new crime wave happening right now. And the fact there’s a huge divide between the rich and poor in LA, and Casey belongs to the former.
Yes, no one should have to love living with crime in their town, but the best way to minimise it is to raise the standard of living of the poorest in your town. It’s a responsibility of residents and government. That’s something worth angrily tweeting about.
You don’t need to be on a team or take sides here. ESH. YouTuber guy used racist / pro-police references that should be unacceptable / criticized (I love L.A.) (though it has its issues, including the LAPD, as others have noted). Seth was classist and speaking from a place of nearly unimaginable privilege as a very, VERY rich man. Most people don’t have that privilege or anything like it. This is not a joke, and it’s not funny.
Honestly, for anyone who’s had their car broken into or things stolen, it is scary — you feel destabilized. Those feelings are legitimate. You feel acutely aware of how vulnerable you are in general. It’s not a violent physical attack on the person, but it is still totally understandable to feel scared and upset. We don’t need to be policing or trying to invalidate how people feel.
As I said though, I definitely agree that the original poster’s Trumpian racist comment about the city was completely unacceptable and deserved all the criticism it got.
@Haylie “I’m fully on board for questioning why he left valuables in his car in a country where women are still the ones put on trial when they are violated by rape.”
Nailed it. Adding that murder victims are also put on trial in the media and now on the cesspool of social media in the US, like they are sitting right next to the murderer/defendant in the courthouse. As if death is a foreseeable outcome to routine daily living. Fun list:
1. What was he thinking keeping valuables visible in his car and driving with the doors unlocked?
2. Why did she walk home alone instead of calling a cab?
3. Why did he use the ATM at all when he saw that sketchy guy behind him?
4. Why did he choose to attend a violent protest?
5. Why was he jogging down a street he didn’t even live in?
I’ll stop here and will join in blaming this victim too mostly because he tagged the cops in his responses. Dude, just make a police report and self-medicate like everyone else!
Meh. I live in a first ring suburb of a mid size city. If I leave my car open it gets riffled through. They take the change and look through the glove box. I keep it locked now and never leave anything in it. It isn’t great but I didn’t feel violated. Should it happen? No. Does it happen? Yes and I can’t get too worked up about.
I agree with feeling violated. My car was broken into in my driveway and while nothing was taken, as I keep nothing in it, I was still upset. The glove compartment was hanging open and the air just felt wrong. I live in a nice area of town in Canada and it is getting out of control with the break ins. Doesn’t matter where you live, and over the top or not, you feel how you feel.
I have friends that live in Iowa who got a video of someone sneaking on to their farm and stealing parts off of their cars.
It happens more commonly in “big cities”, but it also happens everywhere. Geography doesn’t determine quality of character.
Tiffany- thank you. I live in the country in Central California and it is rife with meth labs and car theft. Modesto, about 35 minutes from my town, used to be the cat theft capital of the entire US and is still top 5. And It’s a city of less than 250,000 people.
So true. I know someone who moved to NYC but had Iowa plates for months afterwards. Her car didn’t get broken into until long after. (And they stole her Hot Tamales and left the Good N Plentys!)
I used to have a car that was known for being easy to lockpick. It got broken into all of the time and you really do get used to it in a weird way. It’s funny to see what they take and what they spurn. I filled up the ashtray with a mummified apple core and random crap. Ha ha, made you touch a mummified apple core. But I think you could get into that car with a bic pen.
Oh and I also had a bag of donation clothing get stolen once! Plus a bunch of ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. I guess they ate cookies and had a fashion show.
I’m not mad at Seth.
Labeling an entire city as a crime ridden shithole is Trumpian horseshit. And then you want to thank the LAPD, a racist organization riddled with literal gangs?
Yay, I’m not mad at Seth either. And I do side eye the people who get really up in arms about petty theft. I’ve had my car and my son’s car broken into multiple times and stuff stolen from my garage. It’s annoying but I also recognize that it’s a result of all kinds of societal problems so I’m not going to get all worked up about it because, comparatively, it’s nothing compared to what a lot of people have to go through. And I also made the mistake of dealing with the cops when stuff was stolen from our garage and it was sickening how they kept pushing me to id one kid of color even though I repeatedly said I wasn’t sure who it was I saw taking the stuff from the garage.
Yes! The way police departments go hard terrorizing neighborhoods to solve petty crime for victims they believe are more innocent than others cannot be ignored.
And we’ve had plenty of stories of late of how our cash bail system demoralizes already disadvantaged populations, treats their guilt as a forgone conclusion and often leads to jailhouse brutality, death, bankruptcy, and even suicide.
Arrest can be life ruining and the police largely do not care. They exist to make their more valued citizens feel safer at the risk of everyone they share the city with.
Thank you! I live in Little Rock. You kind of just learn to leave your car unlocked and nothing in it. There is crime. Even violent crime, but overall, I love this city. I don’t love how you can still see the results of Jim Crow and the war on drugs after all this time, but I would never call it a shithole, and in my opinion, when people outside of Little Rock talk this way about it, usually what they mean is ‘I’m scared of black people’ (citation: they’re my family). As to having your car broken into 15 times. I’ve lived in my house for 4.5 years now. I have no problem believing it’s been gone through 15 times.
Team Seth as well. And fuck this YouTuber for even saying the worlds “Third World Country”. Educate yourself.
I lived in a beautiful idyllic (think Stars Hollow) town for many years and had a car broken in to in my driveway while we were home sleeping. This is the same town where people regularly left their houses unlocked and kids walked to school without supervision. Car thefts happen all the time, all over the place. In this case, my ex left his drum kit and work computer in the car, so it was broken in to. My car parked right next to his was empty and left alone. Of course, we reported it to the police who did nothing and the items were never recovered.
Calling a city a “3rd world country” because your car was broken in to is ridiculous and I think Seth had the right take.
+1 for team Seth.
Same – within the narrow confines of this exchange (rich white guy pushing back on rich racist white guy comments), I’m with Seth over the “thank you, police, who have only ever been here to protect me and my valuables” guy.
Also 3rd world country is a racist, colonizer, dehumanizing term.
Yup!
Good point – I don’t mind the youtube person being upset, they were a victim of a crime and have every right to be angry and feel violated, but the way they wrote about it was off-putting. But there’s also good points made against Seth’s “it’s all good” attitude, because it’s easy to say when you’re a multi-millionaire living in the nicest neighborhood, and there are a lot of people in LA really struggling.
Casey Neistat is also a multi-millionaire. I highly doubt that Seth would be commenting these things to some dude just trying to get by.
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/casey-neistat-and-candice-pool-venice-home
Oh for sure, just commenting on the broader point from the article “Others reminded Seth that LA wasn’t so “lovely” for everyone.”
I seriously dislike those blustery white men on social media. Total privilege. “But I can be mad, can’t I?” You can have any freaking emotion you want without flaunting your white privilege. The problem is when your white privilege is mistaken for “an emotion.”
Exactly.
Just like I’m mad at people responding with “but stolen cars are devastating to people”. Yes, they are, Mandy. But we’re talking about break ins, which are also disconcerting and bothersome and a violation but also not a stolen car.
both my husband and I have had our cars broken into while they were in our driveway in the suburbs in a small New England town. never happened when we’ve been parked in Boston a million times. 🤷♀️ so I guess I do think it’s a bit much to freak out about LA being crime riddled because your car got broken into once, especially because he was able to get his stuff back.
but I also disagree with Seth – it does feel violating to know someone was digging through your car without your knowledge. I would feel the same way about my house.
I live in Newfoundland, Canada. Our entire population is less than most big american cities, and the same shit happens here. I never leave anything of any value in the car. In my small town of 500 people, our local pharmacy has been robbed twice in the past six months,people literally cutting holes into the building to get in. Petty crime can happen anywhere and no matter how many cops are around or security systems, it will still happen. It sucks, but that’s it.
I work in a high end summer resort area where pretty much nothing happens 9 months out of the year, but every summer there’s a few car thefts and break ins. And every year, there’s people who freak out and yell about this place going to hell because “when we were kids we didn’t even lock our doors!”. They’re the same ones leaving the car outside, unlocked, with the keys in it, despite the multiple warnings from the police.
I think the 15 was just a bit of hyperbole, not an accurate accounting. He’s just saying it happens. But I agree with his bigger point – even if the car is a necessity, that doesn’t need to mean it’s part of your identity. In those kinds of situations, you really can choose how much suffering you experience. It can be a minor nuisance, or you can embrace it like it’s a major assault on your being.
I guess I’m with Rogan on this. Crime is not good, obviously, and I want policing to reduce it, but if I’m on the receiving end of a relatively minor kind (car theft, as opposed to someone actually breaking into my house or assaulting me personally), I am not going to boil up my insides over it. I have quite enough other sh*t to worry about.
But the car is not an extension of himself because he can comfortably get a new one, with all the bongles and gadgets he pleases. But for a person who’s not in his income bracket, getting and upkeeping a car is very expensive. It’s more than a possession, it’s a livelihood.
I agree that if a car is stolen and the person is poor enough to not have access to a replacement, it’s a major obstacle. But in terms of the emotions we build up, the story we tell ourselves about the event, we still have some choice. The car is still just a tool, an object, not actually part of the individual’s personhood.
I’m far from their income bracket. In my many years, I’ve had my car stolen (once), and I’ve had it broken into. The worst time was when the window was smashed. Then the stereo was stolen (separately, so I got to pay the deductible twice). Other times, I’ve had things stolen (expensive and not so expensive). That was upsetting, because I couldn’t afford to replace them. And yeah, I felt resentment that I worked for the money to pay for those things, and someone just came and stole them. But I decided to let that feeling go, because it wasn’t fixing anything, and was actively making me feel like crap. Other times, nothing was stolen, and things were just rifled through. There are probably times it was gone through and I just didn’t notice because they closed the glove compartment.
But ultimately, these kinds of events really are just bumps on the road. And why invest a lot of emotional energy into them, prolonging my misery, if I don’t have to?
I love Seth but this is tone deaf af. “Whatever, I didn’t care when it happened to me! Get over it!” Isn’t the correct response to someone who has just been the victim of a crime. It’s especially lame coming from a multi multi millionaire who can replace anything stolen (and the car for that matter) without blinking.
The rest of us may have to deal with the financial and logistical consequences of having to replace items, fight insurance companies, and have our car repaired/replaced. God forbid this happened to one of the literally millions of people in SoCal who are just a few hundred dollars away from being homeless.
I lived in Vancouver for years and was very poor, living in dodgy apartments who was always bordering on homelessness. My truck got broken into a few times so I learned to leave it unlocked with the glove box open and a beefy Club on the steering wheel. My goal was to not have them smash windows and cost me money or steal it and it worked. I don’t think he’s being tone deaf just pragmatic.
You’re not wrong, he is being pragmatic. I think you can be both tone deaf and pragmatic, especially when you’re trying to be pragmatic with someone who is emotional and feeling violated. When my friends BF cheated on her and she called me crying, I didnt say “well hes a POS and you shouldn’t have dated him” ya know?
I dont think its appropriate to tell the victim of a crime how they should have behaved/dressed/etc in any situation, including this one, especially in the moment. I extra dont love the shade/sarcasm of “I dont make my car a part of my identity” “Its called living in a big city”…it’s just tactless.
@Stripe, I feel like what some on this thread are missing though is that Seth intentionally said these things to a privileged influencer. If you follow Seth at all you know he’s wildly progressive. He didn’t say this to a middle school teacher.
Also, while “victim of a crime” technically applies to Casey, his glaring dog whistles are all I can see. I generally want to kill both sidesism arguments, including in this instance. There’s one clear asshole here, and it’s not Seth.
YES, thank you! He didn’t say this to some poor kid who survives by delivering pizzas or living out of his car. He literally was clapping back at a guy who is a multimillionaire YouTuber. Casey’s huge reaction to having his car broken into just makes me want to roll my eyes, because if that’s the biggest violation he’s ever sufffered, I’d say he’s a pretty lucky guy.
Casey’s comment is so hugely problematic in every possible way. It wasn’t so long ago that our former flaming hot cheeto of a president said some words like these about “s@#t hole third world countries”. The comment was as racist, ignorant, and divisive then as it is now.
Exactly. Why are we accusing Seth if being tone deaf while failing to acknowledge the racist dog whistles of a dude who is taking a page out of the “Dem cities are overrun with crime because no one respects law enforcement” playbook?
And I’ve been the victim of both someone breaking into my car (they got my ID) and later, having my house broken into and our things stolen. It totally felt like a violation. But the violation was doubled in the second instance when the officer stood on my doorstep and told my white husband he doesn’t come down to our neighborhood after dark because it’s really gone downhill since he was a child (it was a largely white neighborhood then. It isn’t anymore. And also, I’m Black).
“ Why are we accusing Seth if being tone deaf while failing to acknowledge the racist dog whistles of a dude who is taking a page out of the “Dem cities are overrun with crime because no one respects law enforcement” playbook?”
Because people are all too willing to tell on themselves. Lots of people are not-so-lowkey racist and support this message.
I’m born and raised in LA. My family didn’t always live in the more affluent areas (barely middle class now), so we’ve had cars stolen, been burglarised, and my parents were beaten senseless while walking with me in a baby buggy. I still don’t have the bollocks to call the place a “3rd world shithole.” Number one, I know that all cities and towns have their ups and downs. Two, I’m not a racist. Three, I’m not arrogant enough to put my pain above that of others.
I’m sorry the Youtuber was robbed. His attitude, however, stinks. Seth may have been a little out of perspective, but I’m sure he’s struggled before being where he’s at now. And there’s nothing wrong with talking real. At least he didn’t say what I did in a thread- “Casey who?” Boy, did his fanbase pounce on me for that one!
Team Seth. Casey’s comments are troublingly tone deaf. Invoking the “third world” is so problematic. Also, Seth is right to critique cars as an extension of yourself. Property crimes suck, but they’re not the end of the world. At the end of the day, it’s just stuff, *especially* for people like Casey.
Team Seth all the way. The guy who tweeted that is an idiot and anyone that leaves something valuable in their damn car overnight is a moron. That’s true in every state and probably most countries. My parents lived in Silverlake for 50 years and their house was broken into twice. It was upsetting but they coped and got better locks and went about their business. 3rd world shithole is the biggest loudest douchiest dog whistle of all time.
Can see both sides, but the two of them came across spoilt and insensitive.
I had my car stolen when I was younger and it was devastating. My car wasn’t so much an extension of myself as a vital tool to my very survival. I needed that car to get to work as there were no buses that went to my job location. I live in a winter city and can’t very well bike a hour and a half in 2 feet of snow. I was living pay check to pay check it wasn’t like I could just get a taxi or buy a new car. I couldn’t cover the insurance deductble when I did get it back, and if it weren’t for my mom I would have been screwed.
I understand where he is coming from, but I think Seth is showing his privilege here.
I’m with Seth. I live in a small town with a city vibe and homelessness and drug addicts. It’s annoying when people act like they don’t have this in their town. The neighboring town talks about this to diss my area. When I know for a fact they have the same thing going on, it’s just done more discreetly. And the guy talking about a LA being a 3rd world country is rude af! He must be a Republican. I live in Florida and they act like CA is the armpit of the US. I was stationed in California, I loved it! Team Seth
I don’t mind Seth’s response to this particular guy’s reaction. Had an ordinary LA resident tweeted that her car was stolen and now she can’t get to work and had mistakenly left her laptop inside and she’s screwed, it would be one thing and I don’t think Seth would have responded this way. But this is someone with a profile and platform using obvious dog whistle terms. It’s different.
I live in a nice neighborhood in Houston. Our neighbors had their car stolen from the street right in front of their house. One friend had all of her tires removed and taken in the middle of the night from her driveway while she slept in her room that overlooks it. It sucks, but it happens and it happens all over. When my father was alive he kept his car (which was always a mess and no prize) on the street in NYC. It got stolen about five times. He never called NY a “s**thole city”.
I’m also sure this Casey individual is well-insured. He’d be a fool not to, considering it’s his livelihood. Doesn’t solve the immediate problem of delays in filming. But he will be made whole again. Especially after his rabid fanbase probably pours more money in his coffers out of sympathy. So, naw. My compassion knows quite a few bounds, in this case.
I grew up in the Bronx and my dad got so fed up with having his windows smashed that he started leaving his doors unlocked because the car itself wasn’t worth stealing. Surprisingly, it worked! Car wasn’t stolen and things would just be occasionally rifled through.
Seth can afford to have his car broken into. He can just go buy another one like it’s nothing. His wealth makes him able to feel how he does.
So can multi-millionaire Casey Neistat.
Whose fans probably sent what little money they had in sympathy. *eye roll*
I can believe the 15 times story. There are a lot of car break ins at night in my neighbourhood. I leave nothing valuable in my car ever as a result.
I agree that he wouldn’t have been so flippant if the guy hadn’t been so over the top. I’d be more sympathetic to a house break in or if someone tried to break in your car while you were in it.
I enjoy Seth Rogen.
Casey’s comments have a weird racist edge. LA is a predominantly people of color filled city, that is facing a housing crisis because rich white youtubers like Casey are moving in and driving up the prices. It does suck to have your car broken into, but calling a place a third world shit hole and praising a police that historically oppressing people of color is gross. So out of touch. I love Seth for standing up for LA and calling out Casey’s weird language choices.
*mic drop*
I think I’m sort of seeing both sides. When we lived downtown (baltimore), our car was broken into a few times and I did feel violated. Once they broke the window (to get our GPS), and another time I left the door unlocked and someone went through the glovebox etc (I cant remember if there was anything they took that time.) We were in law school and having to get the window fixed or replace the GPS was a big expense that was hard for us at the time.
My car was also broken into at my parents suburban house and that was worse, they took my ipod (when they were a new-ish thing) and all my CDs for listening to in the car, and like 10 DVDs that I had in the car for some reason. Clearly this really bothered me bc I can remember it more than 15 years later.
So that said, I think dismissing it as not being a violation or not being a big deal and just something you need to “accept” is pretty tone-deaf.
but I also think using this as evidence of LA being a horrible city or whatever is tone deaf as well and I can see why Seth Rogen reacted the way he did to a certain extent. I get very defensive of Baltimore when people shit-talk it, and there is a lot people can say negative about it, lol.
I can so relate to this! I lived in Baltimore while attending law school too and I could never leave anything visible in my car, or risk having a window broken. And it didn’t even have to be things of value for some jackass to break in for! One of my school friends actually had his passenger window smashed in for a half-eaten package of Sweet Tarts for fuck sake.
Becks1: I’m dying to ask you since you mentioned law school! I went to the University of Maryland (law school is downtown Baltimore). Did you go there too? Or University of Baltimore?
Tone deaf with good intentions or racist dog whistles? Not even dog whistles. Trump parroting. Anyway, the side is super easy to choose here.
Eh, Seth’s from Vancouver where car thefts are rampant. Maybe he’s just used to it.
I live in a suburb outside of a larger city and every time there is an increase in property crime, certain people start saying “oh no city values are invading/destroying our neighborhood” or “this is what happens when you defund the police (it’s not defunded)” and we all know what that’s about. So team Seth.
I am a big Seth Rogen fan. He really does not give AF when he speaks. As far as feeling violated when somebody breaks into your car I get that too. My ex-wife and I used to live next to each other when we started dating and one night I heard somebody trying to steal her mustang. Fortunately for us, the car is loud as hell and does not start up right away so I was able to get out there and the would-be thief ran away leaving a cool jean jacket with $20 in the pocket. I took my girlfriend to the rifle range and she shot the jean jacket full of bullet holes and put it back in her car in case he came back for it. I miss Seattle
Umm I don’t know, sure, just accepting crime leads us nowhere, but this really is a big city thing — if you are dumb enough to have valuables in your car (that actually includes having an expensive car you can’t afford), that’s a risk you are apparently willing to take…
I appreciate Seth’s push back on this. I live in SF and people are using any excuse to play up any crime and paint the city as lawless 🙄 to help the recall effort on our progressive DA. I believe our former DA, not as progressive, just avoided a recall in LA. The over the top hysterics about crime, along with the racist undertones of the freak outs, help fuel the fire for these regressive efforts. We know what the old way of more and more and more police and old school policing does—can we actually really try something different and give it some time and effort to possibly work?
Sounds like my hometown, there are so many vehicle break ins its disgusting. The police’s motto here is “Lock it or Lose it” .. like there is a whole advertising campaign with this motto.
In my town of around 33,000 in Montana, the likelihood of being a victim of either property or violent crime is listed as 1 in 21. And I believe it. We have car break-ins, car theft, tools stolen from construction sites, entire trailers with ATVs hauled off under cover of the night. My cousin’s garage was burned down by a mentally ill woman. I was home for lunch one day and caught the tail end of a swat team conducting business at the house at the bottom of my block. (Parole violation with a safe full of money, heroin, cocaine, meth and guns) I thought something fishy was going on there. Too many grown men hanging around during the day. Do I condone crime? Hell no. Do I think I live in a shit-hole? No. Do I know what to do about it? Nope. Do the precautions I take mean I’ll never have my car broken into? Doubtful.
I agree that Seth was pushing back as one rich person to another rich person. I think he was being dismissive intentionally to highlight that the guy was being an asshole. The original guy lives in Venice – my take on what Seth was saying in context was like “…you’ll be fine.” I know I lot of people in LA like this guy. If you can afford to move or replace what is lost, and you’re speaking in general terms about how an “issue” is impacting you (thieves are rampant!) without any reflection of your role in it (you live on a 2-lot parcel worth millions in Venice where every other street is lined with displaced people) and you aren’t equally public about rectifying the root cause….it’s about something else….
I live in a relatively safe area of California and just this morning we got someone on camera opening the tailgate of our truck then trying the driver door. The only thing in the bed was cat food and water, apparently they didn’t need them as they left them alone. It looked like they were going up and down the street trying the doors of all the cars.
This seems to go in cycles and gets worse around the holidays, but the mob thefts of Nordstrom and Louis Vuitton in SF are a bit frightening.
I like Seth but he sounds very privileged in this scenario. Having your car broken into is a major inconvenience when you arent rich. You need to replace the window and have another car in the interim. Seth probably has multiple cars in a gated house so he wouldn’t realize this.
The thing is that Casey’s also pretty rich. Apparently lives on a two parcel lot in Venice, where there’s been a homeless issue for a little while now. He has the space to take his stuff inside and his insurance company will probably make him whole. Complaining is all well and good. But there’s nothing more tone deaf and worse than being one of the rich white gentrifiers coming into a melting pot city with residents of colour and calling it a “3rd world shithole.” Remember who else called these sorts of cities that?
I’m team Seth with this one too. This youtuber seems out of touch and his comments are problematic. I live in Oakland and my car gets broken into at least twice a year. Does it suck? Yes. Is this a “shithole town? No. Maybe think about the reasons why people are desperate enough to break into cars or loot stores. This year hasn’t exactly been easy.
I mean someone was killed by Lake Merritt at during the day just this week when they interrupted a car theft. It’s disgusting. My former boss was shot at riding a scooter after work, hence why I stopped working in Oakland (my job moved from SF to Oakland but found a much better job in sf).
These crimes are a slippery slope, if we go like – it’s not big deal, when does it stop? Criminals know nothing happens and escalate.
Team Seth 100%
This guys dog whistles and copaghanda are the real problem. If he doesn’t like LA, he has two options- work to improve it or move.
My guess is he’s not willing to do either.
I mentioned dog whistles down-thread too, Elo, and I like the word copaganda (new one for me!) – these are big standouts to me as well. This Casey guy sounds like a douche.
I prefer his wanna-be “celebrity” self takes the “move” option. Gentrifiers like him are part of why crime and prices are so high.
I live in a city with high crime and car theft and break ins (at one time my city was the top of the list for stolen cars). My ex husband had his car stolen when he was in the hospital recovering from surgery. Crime sucks and yes a lot of it is poverty, broken homes, drugs, poor education and I have sympathy for that but at the same time it sucks to be a victim. Seth is a wealthy privileged white dude (guessing this other guy is too) so a car break in isn’t a big deal to them but for people struggling it could be a huge blow. Many people can’t pay to fix their car windows or replace the items taken and it could cost them a job or even not being able to make rent. So car theft and break ins can be very devastating for low income people and families and that’s one reason I think it needs to be taken seriously and prosecuted. What’s an annoyance for some people could be the difference between losing their home or job for others.
Knowing what I do about Seth Rogan, I don’t think he would have come out with these types of comments if it had been a regular person who this happened too. The fact that this was a rich, white, heavily insured, Youtube pseudo-celebrity using dogwhistle and whambulancing it on Twitter was likely the prompter.
I’m a big Seth fan, and I’m Team Seth on this one. Casey’s tweet was over the top, Trumpian (as others have pointed out), and dog-whistle-y. Seth is super progressive and, if you read his book/listen to him in interviews/have followed him at all you know this about him. He’s one of the only white males in Hollywood who has spoken correctly about “cancel culture” (as in, don’t say problematic shit and if you do, you deserve consequences).
Yes, getting your car broken into is a huge inconvenience at best if you’re not wealthy. But Seth isn’t going after a middle- or lower-income person here, he’s going after a privileged influencer. So yeah, Seth is right on this one.
I live in a small rural town and nearly every day someone is posting on the county Facebook pages about their cars being broken into. I don’t leave valuable items in the car or allow my kids to, because your car can get broken into anywhere. I had all of my identity information stolen when I forgot to bring it into the hotel in New Mexico when I was moving cross country years ago and just happened to have the car broken into that night. It’s not an LA specific problem and I can see why he took offense in that aspect, but he definitely took it a different direction.
This reminds me of when Tom Hanks assured us we’d be all right after T-rump was elected. Yep, we sure are, huh?
Or when my now-former boss told me to “calm down” when I was attempting to notify him of some problems with a contractor.
Team Nobody.
Casey is, without a doubt, racist, problematic, and privileged. That doesn’t mean it’s ok his car was broken into.
Fundamentally I agree with Seth. However, I feel like a lot of people in the comments are saying “it could happen anywhere,” which is true, but I think statistics would show that certain populous cities are more dangerous crime-wise, than small towns. It is not all the same. Not all places experience the same crime rates- and I say this as someone who has lived in Houston, Baltimore, Raleigh, and D.C.
If Casey has such an issue with his concerns, valid or not, he should move. He has the resources and job flexibility to do so. I don’t bristle at people who live in places they don’t like but can’t move because of their circumstances. But he can get out if he wants to.
No one here has said it’s ok to have their car burgled. Most comments on here are taking issue with his problematic remarks and clear genuine belief in them. Plus the LAPD bootlicking. I do agree that he needs to move post-haste. Perhaps his precious things will be safer in Montana or Kentucky.
“I think statistics would show that certain populous cities are more dangerous crime-wise, than small towns.”
I come from a town of less than 25,000 people, and my town was the murder capital of the US my senior year because so many people were murdered. A classmate was murdered (in addition to other murders that year). Another classmate was robbed at gun point and sliced with razors.
Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Chicago (largest cities) aren’t on the list of the most dangerous cities in the US. Those are actually smaller cities:
Detroit, MI
Memphis, TN
Birmingham, AL
Baltimore, MD
St. Louis, MO
Kansas City, MO
Cleveland, OH
Little Rock, AR
Milwaukee, WI
Stockton, CA
When I lived in the Midwest, people talked all the time about how we were the “heartland” and how salt-of-the-earth the people were, and how we were “nice”….and yet crime was happening all around me. It’s a myth that Americans cling to over and over.
That YouTuber’s sh*thole comment raised my hackles. I love LA and am glad Seth stood up for it. Bad stuff happens everywhere.
If you’ve been a victim of a crime then you
should speak up. That way our elected officials will be forced to do something about it. Staying quiet doesn’t help any of us. I don’t want to live in a Mad Max world. Our elected officials should look into these crimes and see how we can resolve them. More housing and job options so people won’t have to resort to crime.
Keep an eye out for a new technology device call “The Knight” which is set for release next year. It’s an affordable interior car surveillance device / alarm system and fits securely in your cup holder. I think it could be a game changer.
Both Casey and Seth are multimillionaires. Crimes like car theft do not affect them in the same way that they affect other LA residents. Los Angeles, along with SF and other California cities, has had a massive problem for decades with NIMBYism and zoning nonsense. When my dad was growing up he went to Venice High School. It was an incredibly diverse school, he said. Armenians, Black people, Latinos, Persian people, Asian-Americans, white people, etc–reflecting the neighborhood demographics of Venice and Culver City. Now it’s very white. This is in part because beginning in the 1970s and 80s, they decided to zone most of it just for single family homes instead of apartments. Property developers are not allowed to build high density housing there–they can’t even build duplexes most of the time. So now you have a situation where Venice is a neighborhood with multi-million dollar homes and dozens of homeless people living right outside them on the sidewalk. It used to be a blue-collar, diverse area. Now it’s not.
Venice is more or less a microcosm of what’s going on in the entire city. People who are not from the LA area, or who don’t have the historical perspective my parents or grandparents do (my grandpa was born in LA in 1926), they don’t understand how profound the housing crisis has become in this city. Los Angeles has also been de-facto segregated in a lot of areas for a while now. It started out as a segregated city, but people tend to forget that. Zoning for only giant single-family homes is a sneaky but effective way to perpetuate these divisions. Even with this history, all my dad will talk about when he’s in the city is how different it has become from the city of his youth. Homelessness is pervasive in Los Angeles. It is impossible to ignore. It is visible everywhere.
There is a serious housing shortage in this state and local/state officials (no matter their political party) don’t have the political will to get anything done to fix it. If they try, rich white people will shut them down. That is likely why crime is rising; desperate homeless people who think they have nothing to lose are looking for anything that can help them. Then we have the opioid crisis which is a whole separate problem. The irony is that while Seth is out here fronting like petty crime is just the price you pay to live in a big city, I’ll bet he’s a NIMBY type of dude just like Casey is. He may support ‘progressive policies’ like decriminalizing weed and stuff. But so do a lot of other complacent rich white people who would also rather protect their own property values than allow a homeless shelter or low-income housing in their neighborhood. He thinks it’s cool to be blase about your car being broken into, whatever. But maybe he’s not really paying attention to the poverty, pain, and injustice running rampant in his own city. I think both men’s comments were pretty tone deaf.
The only comment I can agree with. A lot of Seth fans here apparently, he comes across as a huge d-bag though. Shrug.
Woops, replied in wrong place.
I live in SF and I love this city and get super defensive about it but we do have a big problem with brazen thefts and attacks, it’s just ridiculous. There’s an extreme group of people here (in SF) that think complaining about not feeling safe is somehow racist and republican (??!!), and they’re usually super extreme left white people telling POC it’s racist to complain, how ironic.
I loathe trump and republicans but I also want to feel safe and not have my property vandalized or worse.
I know what you mean about that, too. I lived in SF for one summer, and though I didn’t have a car or anything worth stealing I remember feeling unsafe walking home and not trusting the police to do anything about it (of course that is hardly unique to SF).
I haven’t been there for a while, but my husband sometimes goes for work. He said a woman was basically attacked by someone on the sidewalk right near his hotel, but she just kept walking and shrugged it off. When he went to tell the manager of the Starbucks in the lobby what had just happened, the manager said ”OH, did they already let that guy out?” Don’t shoot the messenger because I am just reporting what happened.
Having your car looted is one thing. Being physically assaulted while minding your own business on a crowded street, and just having to tolerate it, is another.
I loveeeeee Seth rogen so much BUT must disagree with his comments here- if someone broke into my car I’d feel so violated. I’ve had my license plates stolen and even that shook me
I am sorry but Casey has a right to feel upset. I have been robbed before and I also felt violated by it. I had in the past also been assaulted and when I was robbed I shit down for a couple days just trying to process and go through the motions and different feelings. I felt at the time my reaction to both things was very similar.