Quote Originally Posted by Wolfscout View Post
ToS, glad you stole over there and not in my yard.
edited to add that if that was the only option you saw .. you are basically telling us that you understand the criminal mind and you think it's ok.
That won't fly here very weel.


Thanks WB for that post.
I don't think it's ok. I think stealing is wrong. You and WB are creating a mythical monster that doesn't exist. I stole because 1) I needed money and 2) I felt somehow justified. I also felt extremely sorry for myself and used that emotion to cover up any other emotion I might have felt about doing damage to others. I don't defend what I did or think it was justified. It was down to simple survival. When one is out of options morals erode.

I'm sure that it's the same kind of dynamics among every criminal group in the entire world. The important thing to remember is that guns would not have stopped me or my friends. We would still have stolen stuff, only adapted it to incorporate guns. Never forget that just because you can see options they can take in their life, doesn't mean they see it.

The people in my gang either grew out of it, (like me) or they moved onto hard drugs and died. I can't think of a single person of them who's still into crime....or scratch that. I don't know a single person from my old gang who's into crime where there's victims.

To quote an old friend of mine, "I think everybody should go to jail for a while so they stop being so fucking scared of it". I don't agree with him at all but can you imagine the mentality of the man saying it? Can you imagine the shift in morals required to reach that mental space? That guy is a lunatic though. Crazy mofo.

edit: my point is that guns are irrelevant. If you want to stop criminals stealing you have to remove the underlying reasons. Which usually are extreme poverty.

edit: I was also incredibly lucky in that I was never caught. There's a huge difference in the options available to the people who get caught for their youthful transgressions. Anybody who's done jail time is effectively shut out from getting any legit job. No matter why they ended up commiting crime to begin with. One of my closest friend back then is a high boss at IBM rational. He was 1) heavily into heroin and any drugs he could find. 2) a career criminal doing everything he could. But he grew out of it. He never got caught so he had options in life. And now he's clean and responsible. Another friend but who got caught, and now he's got some loser job within the porn industry. Another friend who went to jail had to start an IT company of his own because there was no way he could get hired. He's raking in the big bucks now. But it was all but obvious he would make it for years.

I'm ranting now. But don't judge peoples character too harshly because they find themselves on the other side of the fence. Extreme situations will create extreme measures no matter who you are.