Saturday, September 15, 2007

Cal-Berkeley Students Submit To Violent Crime

Think like a criminal for a moment. If you could choose between two types of victim--one that might defend himself from you, and one that might not defend himself from you--whom would you choose to attack?

And if you chose the latter, wouldn't you rather commit that crime in a place that might look for reasons to be sympathetic to you, a place that might actually try to justify and/or excuse your behavior?

That being the case, where would you go to commit your crimes? Berkeley, California.

University of California, Berkeley, students are being kicked, punched and robbed at gunpoint in an alarming wave of violent crime on and around campus.

Armed robberies on campus and in the nearby neighborhood usually increase at the start of the school year, according to police. But this year, the number of robberies has gone way up since school started in August...

Both (Assistant Chief of Police) Celaya and (Police Sergeant) Kusmiss are perplexed by the increase in robberies.

"We're not certain what to attribute it to," Kusmiss said. "We're particularly troubled by some of the recent bold robberies like the one at Cafe Strada. People should just be mindful not to resist a robber. Just give your property up."


Wouldn't you want to commit your crime in a place where law enforcement is too stupid to figure out why you chose to commit your crime in their particular jurisdiction? Sergeant Kusmiss answered her own question in the last sentence.

I'm reminded of those famous words: You reap what you sow.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Darren

Come on, these are geniuses who thought of this new fangled “don’t resist” philosophy. We’re talking Berkley here.

I mean, you ban guns and crime goes down right? Why look at Washington DC...no safer place on earth!

Anonymous said...

Dude, you need to take a logic course.

If the idea you're trying to get across is that Berkeley is a hotbed of lie-down-&-take-it pacifists, then explain why the crime rate has worsened just in the past year. Was Berkeley more conservative in 2005 and suddenly invaded by "lefties" in 2006?

Or are you making a racist point? Berkeley's famous for having a student body with a high percentage of Asian Americans. Are you saying that they're all wimps and because petty criminals pay attention to enrollment stats at the various UC campuses, they know this and head to Berkeley to rob the Asians?

Anonymous said...

One is reminded of the shock and disbelief of the UN when they tried to set up shop in Iraq early in the war, only to have their building reduced to rubble by a terrorist bomb.

I can only imagine a UN bureaucrat complaining to his colleagues: "But I don't understand it. We're on their side! We give them everything they want! Don't they see that we love them? Don't they understand that we feel their pain? It must be the fault of the fascist Bushites!"

Oh well. At least the student's don't have guns. Can you imagine the devastation that would result if that was the case? Why, the self-esteem of criminals might become bruised.

Darren said...

Considering that I said nothing about, or even implied, race in general and Asians in particular, perhaps you, "anonymous", should take the logic course, focusing specifically on "straw man" arguments.

Anonymous said...

Darren,

This quote doesn't answer itself:
Both (Assistant Chief of Police) Celaya and (Police Sergeant) Kusmiss are perplexed by the increase in robberies.

"We're not certain what to attribute it to," Kusmiss said.


Kusmiss is wondering why things are higher this year compared to next. More crime makes sense for the reasons you mention. But this made sense last year, too. Assume that last year, the Berkeley crime rate was 2x the California average. If this year it is 3x, it is reasonable to wonder why it has gone up.

-Mark Roulo

Darren said...

Good point.