In a testament to the ghetto-ness of my neighbourhood, my house mate Hattie was mugged today on her way home from class. Hattie was walking down Wallness Lane, a road on campus that I also walk to and from university every day. It was 3:30 pm as Hattie came across two young men, she guesses, between 17 and 20-years-old. She describes them as chavs, what I would liken to the Canadian equivelent of skids. One of these punks--a most suitable word--approached Hattie on the sidewalk, asking her for the time. As she glanced down at the cell phone she was carrying in her hand, he grabbed for it.
What ensued really amounts to something that sounds like an awkward exchange between first graders. He held a tree branch, or a stick of some description, in one hand and told Hattie that she had better not force him to use it against her. Hattie eventually let go of her phone as he grabbed for the bag she had slung over her shoulder, and the two muggers took off running down the street.
Hattie said the entire incident lasted no more than a minute. She describes it calmly, and laughs when repeating the painfully unimaginative and immature threat of her mugger:
Don't make me use this.
Use what? Your twig? I won't let this digress into a diatribe about boys and their only too obvious inferiority complexes--but the temptation is there.
Of course, the situation was fortunately minor. The end result was better than other alternatives. And we are all just thankful that Hattie is safe.
But niceties aside. They don't operate with any decency, so why accord any to them--even indirectly--by being thankful that they were only amateurs?
What's most aggravating about this story is that hundreds of students walk along Wallness Lane every day. Had the situation gone on another ten seconds, I'm assured of the fact that someone would have come along the road-on foot, by car or riding a bike.
The amateur nature in which the whole thing was carried out makes the fact that useless members of society like these boys are making perfectly safe situations unsafe for thousands of students. People like these boys affect my personal safety, yes; but more frustrating for me is how people like these boys affect my personal independence, freedom and quality of life.
What is unfair about the situation is a moot point, but I'll make it anyway: How unfair and disappointing is the situation that has a paying university student preparing for a future of contributing to society giving up personal posessions to other members of society with no thought for the future, except perhaps, who to inconvenience next?
And it really is only an inconvenience. Replacing a cell phone will only inconvenience Hattie by measures of time, and possibly a small monetary value--such rationalizations our muggers today use in their defence, I'm sure. But the pettiness of the crime doesn't make it any less infuriating.
Anyone who engages in petty crimes--be it theft, vandalism or abuse--are nearly as despicable as the most violent, deranged mastermind criminals of society. If only for the sole purpose that their crimes do not require any thought; their crimes are not driven by complex or psychologically entangled motives; their crimes are without purpose, and truly even without personal gain. This is in no way a defence of serious crimes. But petty thieves: young, bored, ignorant and disrespectful criminals are wholly unworthy of any sympathy, any understanding and any reprieve for their "inconvenient" actions.
Appropriately, George Thoroughgood said it as splainly as Hattie's muggers deserve: get a haircut and get a real job.
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1 comment:
Forestry just took on a new meaning with the use of a tree branch to threaten for theft.Perhaps juvenile spacing would be appropriate - space for the juveniles to work for their goods as well as performing a useful job in forest management!
N&P/Home Front.
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