Anthropology Modern Savagery Policing

In Name Only

October 4, 2026 by David 164 Comments

Via Mr Muldoon in the comments, a grimly educational tale from the Windy City:

Victoria Mesarina, a [police] dispatcher… was driving home in uniform when another vehicle slammed into the driver’s side of her car in the 3300 block of West Douglas Boulevard around 2:30 p.m… The other driver ran away, leaving Mesarina trapped in the damaged vehicle.

Ah, a quality human being. Would make a mother proud.

But wait, there’s more.

A bystander let [Ms Mesarina] use his phone to call 911, but the wreckage and her injuries kept her from getting out, according to court records.

Injuries including nine broken ribs and two fractured vertebrae. Still, at least an offer of help.

And then two more participants joined the drama.

While Mesarina remained trapped, waiting for first responders… 25-year-old James Nelson climbed into the back seat, opened her purse and took… her driver’s license and various debit, credit and gift cards. When Mesarina asked what he was doing, Nelson’s girlfriend, Mahogany Vann, 24… got into the front passenger seat and began feeling around Mesarina’s waistline as if searching for something.

Valuables, lest there be doubt. Things that could be taken.

Nelson and Vann fled as sirens approached.

Always an indicator of good intentions.

Chicago firefighters extricated Mesarina from the wreckage and took her to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she soon learned that two of her debit cards were being used at a gas station in the 500 block of South California Avenue, according to prosecutors.

Mr Nelson and his charming lady friend were later apprehended, following some indignant yelling of profanity, and both were charged with unlawful vehicular invasion, burglary, and unlawful possession of credit cards.

However,

Judge Luciano Panici Jr. denied prosecutors’ request to detain Nelson while the case proceeds and instead released him on electronic monitoring.

At which point, I’m going to share the words pit and hot concrete for no reason whatsoever.

As illustrated here many times, there are people, generally of a progressive leaning, who struggle to conceive of just how degenerate the degenerate can be. People who somehow remain clueless – one might say wilfully impervious – to the psychology and motives in play, as expressed, often vividly, by the criminals themselves.

And yet, there are creatures walking among us, in significant numbers, for whom the words human being would be a merely technical term and inaptly flattering.

Update, via the comments:

I’ve previously mentioned the evening, on an unlit country road, when the Other Half and I hit a drunk walking obliviously in the middle of the road.

After taking the chap to hospital, what lingered in the mind  – other than learning that he was known to hospital staff and had been in several similar accidents – was an exchange during our reporting of the accident to the police. We were told that we’d “done the right thing” and that “not everyone would.”

I remember being taken aback and trying to imagine hitting someone with a car and just leaving them, with a broken arm, sprawled at the side of the road. As if that were a thing one might do.

And before you ask, no, it didn’t occur to me to start rummaging through his pockets for stuff we could steal while he was dazed and in shock.




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