NJ is fighting back — and I completely understand why

There is a 1993 Michael Douglas film called Falling Down that I think about more than I probably should.

Douglas plays William Foster — a frustrated, unemployed defense worker who one day abandons his car in a Los Angeles traffic jam and starts walking across the city. Along the way he encounters one societal frustration after another and responds to each one with escalating force. A convenience store overcharging for a soda. A fast food restaurant that stopped serving breakfast two minutes early. Each grievance met with a response that goes further than it should.

I do not condone vigilantism. I want to be clear about that. The film is a cautionary tale, not a blueprint.

But I understand the feeling underneath it. The slow accumulation of a world that seems to keep getting bolder about taking things that do not belong to it — and the very human frustration of watching it happen while being told to just call the police and wait.

Two recent New Jersey stories brought all of that back.

The porch pirate who picked the wrong stoop

April 5th. 12:08 in the afternoon. Drift Avenue in New Brunswick.

A man on a bike spotted a package on the front stairs of a residence and reached for it. He started to walk away with it. And then the front door flew open.

The homeowner came out pointing a gun. He told the thief in Spanish to stop moving. The thief dropped the package. The homeowner pushed the gun closer to the man's face.

No charges have been filed. Authorities are still investigating. The video posted on social media — and the graphic language that came with it — went everywhere.

Now — the legal complexities here are real. Drawing a firearm on a package thief is not something anyone should do casually. New Jersey has strict weapons laws and the circumstances of every situation matter enormously. This is not a legal endorsement of what happened on Drift Avenue.

But the emotional truth of it? I understand it completely. New Jersey made porch piracy a felony offense — a third degree crime — because legislators recognized that the theft of delivered packages hits vulnerable people hardest. Elderly residents. Disabled residents. People waiting on medication. The law got tougher. The porch pirates kept coming anyway. At some point a homeowner decides his front steps are not going to be violated without consequence.

The mother and daughter in Perth Amboy

This one stopped me completely.

SD Jewelry on Madison Avenue in Perth Amboy was hit by four masked thieves who smashed through the display cases and cleared out the store in under two minutes. Owner Stephanie Duran had invested everything she had into protecting that business. She paid $17,500 for local security. She installed bulletproof glass rated to withstand 15 to 20 shots. None of it mattered.

As the robbers fled with garbage bags full of jewelry, Stephanie and her mother ran after them. Stephanie grabbed a suspect's hoodie through the car window as the getaway BMW backed up and sideswiped a parked SUV. Her mother fell to the ground during the struggle — bruised, shaken, but alive.

A neighbor who watched the whole thing from across the street said simply: "She fought with them like a man. She's a brave woman."

They fought back because they had no choice. The store had no insurance — they could not afford the premium to cover a million dollars in inventory. Everything they had built was in those display cases. When the masked men smashed through the glass, Stephanie and her mother did the only thing left to do.

They ran after them.

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What this says about where we are

There is a police substation directly across the street from SD Jewelry. Officers arrived within 25 seconds of the 911 call. The robbers were already gone. Two minutes was all it took.

That is the math that keeps repeating in New Jersey right now. Criminals are faster than the response time. Brazen enough to hit a store in broad daylight with a police substation watching. Organized enough to disappear before anyone can stop them. Bold enough to ride a bike up to a stranger's front steps at noon on a Tuesday and reach for whatever is sitting there.

I am not saying people should grab moving getaway cars. I am not saying homeowners should draw weapons on package thieves. Both carry real risk and real legal consequences.

But I understand Stephanie Duran running into that street. I understand the man on Drift Avenue who decided his front porch was not going to be violated without consequence. When the systems that are supposed to protect people keep arriving 25 seconds too late, people stop waiting.

William Foster abandoned his car in a traffic jam and started walking. Most of us just sit there in traffic. But we understand exactly why he got out.