Who here has ever been mugged?

[asthmaticeog]

This came to mind after I read kysrsoze's comment in this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2334018

To wit, that conservatives come to favor liberal policies once something bad happens to them personally. It struck me as the flipside of the old canard that "a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged."

Which is horsetwaddle, IMO, since I was robbed at gunpoint a little over a year ago, and I haven't become any more conservative or even moderate in my beliefs. So I'm curious, has anyone here been a crime victim, and if so, did your views on crime policy shift as a result?

[Misunderestimator]

1. I have been mugged once and physically assaulted by a stranger once

And my car (when I lived in NYC) was broken into and vandalized five times (after the fifth time I got rid of the car).

Never was there even a thought of turning republican. :puke:

[Hubert Flottz]

2. By the IRS?

Yes I have!

EDIT} I prolly paid more taxes than Kenny Boy!

[htuttle]

3. A couple of times when I drove a taxi in Milwaukee

I've also had a half-dozen colleagues killed by muggers, and got cleaned out by a burgler, too.

No, my political stances didn't change a bit as a result. The muggings/violence always seemed to be due to poverty and hopelessness more than anything else (that, and the massive amount of cocaine the CIA brought into the country).

I think it's only the weak-minded who are drastically changed by experiences like that.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[htuttle]

7. Spend a few years driving a cab in the city

Get to know the people there -- even in the 'bad' neighborhoods (you know, even 'regular' people live in bad neighborhoods -- their children too).

You might come to a different conclusion.

[Name removed]

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[htuttle]

17. Ergo, what?

Sure, I know lots of poor people who don't commit crimes -- in fact MOST of them don't commit crimes. What the hell does that prove?

Did you skip out on logic class?

:eyes:

[skygazer]

18. Well, of course

Nobody is saying that ALL poor people are going to break the law. But the desperation of being poor is a great catalyst for it. When you look at an inner city neighborhood and you realize that the only "successful" people a kid growing up there is going to see are the drug dealers and the like who are the ones who have nice cars and gold chains and pocket money and who strut around looking "cool", you realize that their role models are few and far between. They can choose to be honest and poor like their parents or dishonest and solvent. It's no fun to be hungry or homeless. And a choice between eating as a result of a criminal act or going hungry because you're honest - well, the line blurs after a while.

[asthmaticeog]

8. Poverty and hoplessness

Exactly my experience. After the mugging was all over, I was left thinking how safe that neighborhood was before the Bush economy.

[jtb33]

20. That's a load of crap...

...and it pisses me off (frankly) that PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY seems to have gone out the window in this day and age. "Poverty and hopelessness" are NOT the cause of muggings and violence. Violence (or the decision to mug/rob someone) is a personal and individual decision that is dictated by ones morals.

[htuttle]

21. Didn't say it wasn't 'their fault' they mugged me

But it was clear that they were in distress when they did so, the causes of which I've mentioned.

If someone is starving, while it is still their personal responsibility to not steal food, I wouldn't be surprised if they did so. It's that kind of thinking that ignores casual relationships that's going to doom this planet. Mark my words.

[asthmaticeog]

23. Agreed.

In fact, I don't even get why this is an argument. Yes, the decision to commit a crime is a concious one and in making that choice one must accept responsibility for the consequences. It is equally true that the social pathologies that accompany poverty tend to catalyze criminal behavior. These aren't opposite propositions, yet people often argue as though they were. Thanks for the sanity injection, htuttle.

[Warpy]

4. Lefties know that mugger probably just got out of jail

on early release to make room for a peaceful pot smoker.

[papau]

5. Yes - indeed in New York City!

:-)

And still a liberal - amazing!

:-)

[medeak]

9. held up at gunpoint

sorry to hear that you were as well....and no...it hasn't changed liberal views..Did have a gun for awhile tho until nearly killing old man collecting for heart association who opened front door (old rancher...that's what they do..open door and say howdy I found out later)

[calico1]

10. Actually I believe in that statement.

You can be selfish and uncaring until something happens to you. This is why the argument doesn't really work in reverse.

I had my pocket picked when I was about 11 and Christmas shopping with my sister and a neighbor. Oh, and one time the IRS sent my refund to someone else and it took me 3 years to get my money.

[regularguy]

11. Nope. Been harrassed, threatened, kicked, and had my car

broken into countless times,but never mugged. Anyway, I heard that a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested.

[asthmaticeog]

12. Ha!

"a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested"

That's great - I've never heard that. File that one with "a libertarian is a conservative who likes drugs."

[webjamn]

13. On the flip side

Many liberals used to be conxervatives until they had been subjected unfairly to our criminal justice system.

[SoCalDem]

15. I had a gun pointed at my head...

Went back and forth to court for 18 months..put the guy away for 7-12 yrs..

it did not make me conservative :)

[PittLib]

16. Funny, this guy uses the term ...

in reference to the high Pro-Kerry turnout for Pittsburgh's Labor Day parade:

"I'm biting my tongue. I don't want to get mugged," said Bill Kirk of Franklin Park, a Republican who came to watch his son, Ryan, captain of the drum corps, and the rest of the North Allegheny High School Band.

How do you suppose he meant it?

For the full article:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04251/374729.stm

PS. One of the "Teresa for first lady" signs mentioned was mine.

[Beausoleil]

19. Yes, about 28 years ago

On a San Francisco bus in the bad part of South San Fran. And I was in the service then. Did it change my political beliefs? Not one iota.

[joanski01]

22. Yes, I was mugged and

robbed of my purse. Nine stitches in the back of my head. Nope, it didn't change my politics whatsoever.

[asthmaticeog]

26. Nine stitches - that's awful.

I'm really sorry to hear that. Your story (and some of the others posted here) are making me realize that as awful as it was having a gun in my sternum, in a way, I got off light.

[RebelOne]

24. Came close to it once.

A guy tried to grab my purse as I was getting out of my car at the grocery store. It's a good thing that I can scream loudly because he took off.

[waywest]

25. Held up at gunpoint...

Fortunately, I'm alive and well, and he got everything I had. (zip)

[kayell]

27. My brother was mugged a few years ago in a Boston subway

He's still a wild eyed liberal.

It may depend on how the person involved chooses to see the event. He was annoyed and angry (and a bit bruised), but saw it as the act of an individual, rather than as the downfall of society. He lived in Boston for several years after and continued to use the subway and did not live in fear.

This may go back to the idea that conservatives are people who choose to see the world as mostly evil and in need of control, and liberals are people who choose to see their fellow humans as mostly good and in need only of the chance to explore that goodness. Ie. adequate living conditions, health care, education etc.

[ronnykmarshall]

28. I've been mugged/gay bashed.

and I'm still a liberal.

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Me. No Robbery. Just A Beating

15 years old. 6 guys decided to pound on my friend and i, waiting for a ride after our basketball game.

Fractured his skull. Broke 2 of my ribs and sprained my wrist rolling down steps to get to an open door and yell for help. Also, kicked me in the groin hard enough that there was blood in my urine for 2 days.

I wasn't even kept overnight, but my friend spent 3 days in the hospital with a severe concussion.

No reason. No robbery. Just wrong place at the wrong time. We didn't get mad. We got even. (No details on that. I'm not proud of the getting even part. But, it is the truth.)
The Professor

[DrWeird]

30. A liberal is just a conservative who never mugged somebody.

nt

[livinginphotographs]

31. Yep. Me and my friend.

In the middle of a 7-11 by a crackhead (I'm not stereotyping, the guy was arrested with a couple of rocks on him).

Then the police officer that helped us put him away for three years (after which he got out, and was arrested a year later for robbing convenience stores) got gunned down about a year ago by a suspected drug dealer.

And I've found myself becoming even more liberal.