Maybe so, but as for myself, I'd rather take my chances while trying to defend myself, than to be trussed up like a hog, and have a bullet put into the back of my head like an animal.Originally Posted by David Armstrong
Maybe so, but as for myself, I'd rather take my chances while trying to defend myself, than to be trussed up like a hog, and have a bullet put into the back of my head like an animal.
If all you have is a hammer the whole world looks like a nail.
You're significantly changing the situation from a simple street robbery in a public location to a bound, probable execution.
There's a HUGE difference in the statistical outcomes between those two scenarios.
The vast majority of simple street robberies are strictly business transactions, and anything more than a bloody nose is unlikely.
Being tied/bound or being taken to the "second crime scene" those are huge escalations in probable violence towards you.
The only way you regularly beat the house is to play the odds and know when to fold and when to go all in.
Going all in on every hand may make you look like a hero every once in a while, but in the long run you will lose badly.
Last edited by JodyH; 06-12-2013 at 02:10 PM.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
I'd rather do most things than have a bullet put into the back of my head like an animal. So we're in agreement.
OTOH, I'd rather turn over the money clip in my pocket with ~$40 in it than get shot, or go to prison for what someone else decides wasn't "justified enough," or pay tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees avoiding same.
I'd humbly suggest that anyone who thinks any of these answers:
- I'd give him the money.
- I'd deal with/fight over/disable the BG's gun.
- I'd draw my own gun.
... is a 100% solution has a very weak imagination and poor grasp of the reality of random street crime.
I guess to me, the whole discussion is ridiculous. Of course there *is* no 100% guarantee no matter what you do, but, I take personal offense to being told that I should just comply, because that'll be safer...
If you are taking "personal offense" then maybe you need to look at how emotion is driving your decision making processes.
The vibe i'm getting from the thread is not that complying is "safer" but that's it's probably the smarter choice.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
I guess you don't get it. Oh well.
You left the encounter unharmed, which is the most important factor. I'm sorry you had the experience, but glad you're ok.
It sounds like the robber had done this multiple times before and that he treated this as a purely economic transaction. He used a minimal amount of force (he kept the muzzle off of you), he asked you for specific items, he gave you clear directions, he appeared relaxed. All of these factors suggest that he was not interested in hurting you, that his interest was only economic, and that he had committed this crime frequently in the past. You were almost certainly more hopped up on adrenaline than him and almost certainly have less experience than him in violent confrontations. Considering how it could have gone, your decisions were rational and appropriate once he pulled the gun on you.
As you've already observed, you had more/better choices before he pulled the gun. One lesson to be observed is that you failed to act to avoid a confrontation when your intuition alerted you to a problem. This is not surprising, since humans have difficulty acting outside our normal parameters. You have to train yourself to act assertively. I recommend Amanda Ripley's The Unthinkable: Who Surives When Disaster Strikes - And Why? She explains why humans fail to act decisively in disasters. Rory Miller is another author that addresses how to psychologically prepare for threat situations.
I don't get why you find the suggestion that compliance may be safer than resistance personally offensive either.
I don't carry a gun to protect my feelings from getting hurt.
That's one of the wisest takeaway points I've seen in a forum posting in a long time. The movement associated with a pocket presentation is completely innocuous to a BG, especially if he’s given you a command to do something. He’s expecting the movement as an expression of your compliance, so he’s already set himself up to be behind the curve. In a situation like yours, any furtive movement associated with “going for a weapon” is learned by street people by the age of 5 and they will likely respond to it quickly.
The path of least resistance will seldom get you where you need to be.
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