I Was Mugged, and I Understand Why
"Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as “thugs?” It’s precisely this kind of “otherization” that fuels the problem.
Young people who willingly or unwillingly go down this road have been dealt a bad hand. While speaking with a D.C. police officer after the incident, he explained that he too had come from difficult circumstances, and yet had made the decision not to get involved in crime. This is a very fair point — we all make decisions. Yet I’ve never had to decide whether or not to steal from people. We’re all capable of good and bad, but it’s a whole lot easier for me to choose good than it may be for them to.
If we ever want opportunistic crime to end, we should look at ourselves first. Simply amplifying police presence will not solve the issue. Police protect us by keeping those “bad people” out of our neighborhood, and I’m grateful for it. And yet, I realize it’s self-serving and doesn’t actually fix anything."
A perfect thought-experiment response from his comment section:
"Progressive thinking vs conservative thinkingThe only problem with the conservative answer is that if the attacker is in a Designated Victimhood Group; if so, then you, the shooter, will be hounded into either an indictment or into a protection program where you must never contact your family again so that the Progressives can't find you and kill you for revenge. And here's the thing: all attackers are now consider part of a Victimhood Group. So you, on the other hand, are the aggressor (especially being armed and all, why would you do that? You obviously wanted to kill somebody, and planned to do it).
The answer can be found by posing the following question:
You’re walking down a
deserted street with your wife
and two small children.
Suddenly, a Terrorist with a huge knife
comes around the corner,
locks eyes with you,
screams obscenities,
raises the knife, and charges at you…
You are carrying a
Kimber 1911 cal. 45 ACP, and you are an expert shot.
You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do?
Progressive Answer:
* Well, that’s not enough information to answer the question!
* What is a Kimber 1911 cal. 45 ACP?
* Does the man look poor or oppressed?
* Is he really a terrorist? Am I guilty of profiling?
* Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
* Could we run away?
* What does my wife think?
* What about the kids?
* Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?
* What does the law say about this situation?
* Does the pistol have appropriate safety built into it?
* Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?
* Is it possible he’d be happy with just killing me?
* Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?
* If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?
* Should I call 9-1-1?
* Why is this street so deserted?
* We need to raise taxes, have paint & weed day.
* Can we make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior?
* I need to debate this with some friends for a few days and try to come to a consensus.
* This is all so confusing!
Conservative Answer:
Bang"
OTOH, there is this:
Thug Invades Home, Gets Shot By Multiple Family Members
"Earlier this morning: the Pena family awoke shortly before 7 a.m. to the sound of somebody rattling the back doors of their house.: Luis A. Pena: went to check on that and found somebody attempting to break in to the : french doors leading off a back porch area. He pulled out a gun and fired a shot trying to scare off the intruder but the burglar didn’t stop.
The young man went back to the kitchen where his mother and father were, both armed. Police say the intruder continued to charge at the residents and the three of them all shot at the intruder when they saw him.
Detectives haven’t confirmed how many times the Penas pulled the triggers, but the: intruder was dead: when the law enforcement arrived.
Seems like they used exactly the amount of ammo they needed."
2 comments:
It may have escaped some of you, but this is not simple Victim-blaming. The writer, by blaming himself for the attack, deliberately assumes control over the event and by extension removes the issue of choice from the mugger - who, after all, could not help doing what he did. This is at once supreme arrogance and rationalization in the same breath. The assumption at bottom is that the writer has complete control over his reality, and that only he decides what happens through his choices. None of the rest of us rise to the level of choice unless he says so, and then only if our decisions please him.
What an arrogant individual. Of course, this arrogance, as many have noted, has been taken to its logical conclusion and the writer of this piece reads as though he has been knocking back stupid pills. But trust me when I say that, in the world of the egoist, this all makes perfect sense. That it might lead to the writer's own eventual extinction is just part of the price a swollen ego will pay - better to rule in hell than serve in heaven, as Milton wrote.
Concerning the Penas: When it comes to home invasion, violence is not the answer. Violence is the question. The answer is 'yes'.
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