Someone tried to rob me at gunpoint tonight...unsuccessfully

[Bat-S-Crazy]

Glad you are okay! Glad you have learned something from this and shared it with us so we could learn as well.

 

[WaWoody]

Does nationally compiled crime data for the last 10 years which clearly allow for a certain degree of accurate profiling offend you?

I prefer to judge people based on the content of their character, but when dealing with strangers, prevailing, winning and living is more important than being naively polite or hopeful.

Working under the assumption that your question is sincere: The simple answer to your question is no, that does not offend me. I believe that information is power. The more data points to work with from a decision making standpoint the better.

But before I delve into this, I wanted to say I appreciate your acknowledgement of known bias in police practices of profiling and misreporting of facts. I am from a LEO & military family but the history of our country is what it is. The first step to fixing any problem is admitting you have a problem.

I personally believe there's nothing wrong with stereotyping/profiling people to create a frame of reference to begin. Always allowing room for adjustment as new information presents itself. The problem arises when people lazily cast aspersions on an entire group of people, no longer attempting to absorb additional information whilst leaving no room for any alternative narrative.

I hope that answers your question for you. But to be clear, that is NOT what happened in the original comment I commented on. The assailant's race was NOT mentioned in the context of the decision making process. The "victim" had already made the decision to proceed with the deal, race is obviously not an issue at this point. Race is ONLY interjected at the end of the account and in a disparaging way. And about a kid no less (what did y'all do at 16? What stories you got?!) He could have gone to so many other places to pick a random bubbleguming black dude that fit the stereotype. But he decided to go there, something controversial and pointed. So my question is simply why? I hope we all understand the nuance.

 

[Certaindeaf]

This is why I always have a steaming bowl of nachos in my hand.

 

[ATCclears]

@Bushman glad you came out OK. That could have gone terribly wrong for you.

 

[Stomper]

This is why I always have a steaming bowl of nachos in my hand.

Yeahbutt he got a free jar of Vaseline out of the deal..... sounds like the vacation with the girlfriend just got more.... promising.

 

[Basedgreaser]

Hey just a thought.. could his fingerprints possibly be lifted from the box/Vaseline by the police? Might save someone else's bubblegum in the future

 

[Koolk203]

What exact gas station? I would like to see the footage.

 

[AMT]

Funny to go through the effort to dupe someone into meeting to rob them, why bother putting vaseline in the box, it could have been empty.

Petty thugs are never smart. The smart criminals get into politics.

I think it was the would-be robbers attempt at humor to say "You're screwed, and I'm at least going to use Vaseline with you...."

 

[American123]

Working under the assumption that your question is sincere: The simple answer to your question is no, that does not offend me. I believe that information is power. The more data points to work with from a decision making standpoint the better.

But before I delve into this, I wanted to say I appreciate your acknowledgement of known bias in police practices of profiling and misreporting of facts. I am from a LEO & military family but the history of our country is what it is. The first step to fixing any problem is admitting you have a problem.

I personally believe there's nothing wrong with stereotyping/profiling people to create a frame of reference to begin. Always allowing room for adjustment as new information presents itself. The problem arises when people lazily cast aspersions on an entire group of people, no longer attempting to absorb additional information whilst leaving no room for any alternative narrative.

I hope that answers your question for you. But to be clear, that is NOT what happened in the original comment I commented on. The assailant's race was NOT mentioned in the context of the decision making process. The "victim" had already made the decision to proceed with the deal, race is obviously not an issue at this point. Race is ONLY interjected at the end of the account and in a disparaging way. And about a kid no less (what did y'all do at 16? What stories you got?!) He could have gone to so many other places to pick a random bubbleguming black dude that fit the stereotype. But he decided to go there, something controversial and pointed. So my question is simply why? I hope we all understand the nuance.

Seems to me the OP literally went through the process of, "this is sketchy as hell but I'm not trying to stereotype this person" and then realized that his PC thought process could have easily got him killed and in reflection (because that is what telling stories of the past is) he references the skin tone of his assailant and tried to do it in an alluding way rather than just saying, "it was a black guy," because that may have seemed to him as more pointed than he wanted to be. Mentioning skin tone of his assailant is no more disparaging than saying he was tall. It is a descriptor of the person who assaulted him.

Here's some other descriptors for you thst also aren't racist.

When I went through school. I played basketball and football with mostly black kids. In fact, in middle school, every kid on the basketball team was black except for me. When I played football in high school, most the players were black, when I played soccer in high school most of the players were Mexican or Ethiopian. When I played baseball most of the players were white. If I so choose I could describe the skin tone of every person in every interaction that I can remember. That would not be racist, those would simply be facts. That doesn't describe their character at all, but you'd probably not want to read how long the post would be if I did that.

No one here is saying "all people of (insert any) skin tone," are criminals, are bad, etc. but it would be naively stupid to also ignore real data we have on crime that shows trends. For example, I'm not looking at 70 year old women (of any skin tone) as major suspects initially in violent crime. Why? Because the data shows that males between (I'm guessing) 16-26 are responsible for the vast majority of violence.

Applying some simple logic/math here. If a large percentage of crime is perpetrated by a small percentage of the population. That means that there is a higher probability that members of that that segment of the population will be of that criminal element. Math isn't racist.

I understand your emphasis, but what it reminds me of is University of Washington sending UW Police alerts to students and purposely leaving out the skin tone of the suspect because they don't want the trend over and over again to be the same so instead they say.

"Police are looking for a male suspect. He was wearing blue jeans and a red shirt heading north on 41st after robbing several students at knifepoint."

Politically correctness is a cancer of the mind. Allowing others to suppress your speech therefore requires you to think about how to say things, and at that point, they are also controlling literally how you think.

We need a lot more plain speaking in this country and a lot less "tiptoeing" around saying plain facts. Throwing out the "race" issue to try to and suppress arguments or statements might be cool in some circles, but intellectually it's not valuable outside of those echo chambers.

 

[69 Jim]

Bringing a significant other in a shady and dangerous situation is not too bright.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Bringing a significant other in a shady and dangerous situation is not too bright.

Unless that significant other is Chuquita Norris.

kerpow!

 

[WaWoody]

Seems to me the OP literally went through the process of, "this is sketchy as hell but I'm not trying to stereotype this person" and then realized that his PC thought process could have easily got him killed and in reflection (because that is what telling stories of the past is) he references the skin tone of his assailant and tried to do it in an alluding way rather than just saying, "it was a black guy," because that may have seemed to him as more pointed than he wanted to be. Mentioning skin tone of his assailant is no more disparaging than saying he was tall. It is a descriptor of the person who assaulted him.

Here's some other descriptors for you thst also aren't racist.

When I went through school. I played basketball and football with mostly black kids. In fact, in middle school, every kid on the basketball team was black except for me. When I played football in high school, most the players were black, when I played soccer in high school most of the players were Mexican or Ethiopian. When I played baseball most of the players were white. If I so choose I could describe the skin tone of every person in every interaction that I can remember. That would not be racist, those would simply be facts. That doesn't describe their character at all, but you'd probably not want to read how long the post would be if I did that.

No one here is saying "all people of (insert any) skin tone," are criminals, are bad, etc. but it would be naively stupid to also ignore real data we have on crime that shows trends. For example, I'm not looking at 70 year old women (of any skin tone) as major suspects initially in violent crime. Why? Because the data shows that males between (I'm guessing) 16-26 are responsible for the vast majority of violence.

Applying some simple logic/math here. If a large percentage of crime is perpetrated by a small percentage of the population. That means that there is a higher probability that members of that that segment of the population will be of that criminal element. Math isn't racist.

I understand your emphasis, but what it reminds me of is University of Washington sending UW Police alerts to students and purposely leaving out the skin tone of the suspect because they don't want the trend over and over again to be the same so instead they say.

"Police are looking for a male suspect. He was wearing blue jeans and a red shirt heading north on 41st after robbing several students at knifepoint."

Politically correctness is a cancer of the mind. Allowing others to suppress your speech therefore requires you to think about how to say things, and at that point, they are also controlling literally how you think.

We need a lot more plain speaking in this country and a lot less "tiptoeing" around saying plain facts. Throwing out the "race" issue to try to and suppress arguments or statements might be cool in some circles, but intellectually it's not valuable outside of those echo chambers.

 

[Kruel J]

Did you put the vaseline in your Altoids box with the rubbers at least?

 

[Xaevian]

You can always regift that vaseline to @sagia308 for his next shooting vid.

 

[FourTeeFive]

Suggesting to meet at the local police station parking lot can be a good way to weed out the criminals. Some police departments have areas setup to meet people for Craigslist deals, etc. and have cameras in the area.

SafeTrade Stations - Increase Craigslist Safety

Craigslist killings, thefts, and other crimes can be prevented by meeting at your local SafeTrade Station.

www.safetradestations.com

 

[Certaindeaf]

You can always regift that vaseline to @sagia308 for his next shooting vid.

He always shoots in front of a security cam too so it's legit

 

[bolus]

I'm way too pessimistic. I would have assumed that everyone on the classified ads was going to rip me off or kill me anyway so would have not even looked for something in the first place. I dont sell anything, If I dont want something I give it away to friends.

 

[Certaindeaf]

I'm way too pessimistic. I would have assumed that everyone on the classified ads was going to rip me off or kill me anyway so would have not even looked for something in the first place. I dont sell anything, If I dont want something I give it away to friends.

Yeabut this Vaseline had Elvis pubes in it.



lol, not really

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

Damn man. Glad you are ok.
Its amazing that spider sense people get right before something bad is about to happen.

 

[HaveGun]

Just curious if the camera at the gas station was actually functioning and recording.

Not going MMQB the OP's account. I'm too much of a mess to judge others, lol.