The Hodgetwins didn’t mince words in a recent podcast episode where they warned white resellers to stop meeting buyers in dangerous neighborhoods to sell sought-after Jordans and other sneakers. Their blunt safety advice tapped into a real and growing problem: what starts as a side hustle can end in robbery or worse when strangers arrange face-to-face meetups.
This is not hypothetical. Across the country there have been heartbreaking incidents tied directly to sneaker transactions, including a fatal shooting reported in Chicago after a man went to meet a buyer for a pair of Air Jordans and other cases where sellers were robbed at gunpoint. When a $200 pair of shoes can fetch many times that online, it becomes a target, and criminal opportunists don’t care about color lines—only easy scores.
Local police departments are increasingly warning the public about the dangers of meeting anonymous buyers and are promoting safe-exchange locations, even designating police-station parking lots for online transactions. Simple, commonsense precautions—bring a friend, meet in daylight, use a public, cameraed spot—would prevent most of these tragedies, yet the lesson keeps being ignored until someone pays the ultimate price.
Conservative readers should be furious at two things: lawlessness that puts honest citizens at risk and the media culture that reflexively racializes every headline while failing to focus on victim protection. This isn’t about scolding a particular race; it’s about the collapse of basic public safety in too many neighborhoods and the need for strong local policing and community accountability to stop lucrative petty crime before it escalates.
At the same time, there’s a lesson for entrepreneurs and weekend hustlers who think an online sale is a quick buck: prioritize your safety over profit. The marketplace economy is great for hardworking Americans, but it requires responsibility—use safe exchange zones, insist on public meetups, and refuse to be bait for criminals who prey on trusting people trying to earn honest money.
Patriots who care about family and community should demand common-sense policing, push local leaders to fund safe-exchange programs, and reject any narrative that excuses violent theft as inevitable. Protecting your neighbor and your own livelihood is not political correctness; it’s common sense and the kind of civic duty that keeps neighborhoods free and prosperous for everyone who works for a living.
