So apparenly two of my friends got mugged yesterday

[shadowknows69]

Right outside the mall, not sure of their conditions yet. The robber apparently had a pellet/BB gun or one report even said it might have been a .22 but I think that was erroneously reported because my friend was apparently shot with it several times including in the face and there weren't any reports of the injuries being in any way life threatening, but they were both taken to the hospital I think. Details sketchy. Merry fucking Xmas eh?

[lapfog_1]

1. Crime like this is going to skyrocket.

It's the economy...

[AngryAmish]

3. Link between crime and economic conditions is very weak, at best.

Look up the stats.

[AllentownJake]

7. When towns and cities cut police funding and overtime

to be able to make their budgets I believe that crime will increase.

[Mojorabbit]

13. I find that hard to believe

We had an increase in crime here in the 80's and it is spiking again.

[AngryAmish]

16. In the 80s the USA learned how great crack was

I would have to dig out the facts which I am too lazy to do but the main driver of crime is the number of males between 15 and 30. Young men do the vast majority of crimes, especially violent crimes. So crime boomed along with the baby boom generation and declined when they aged -- except as you noted in the 80s. That criminologists attribute to crack, both crazed people smoking it and gangs fighting over selling it.

(Actually young poor men do most of the crime. One reason NY had the big drops in crime during Guliani administration was 1. aging of the population 2. gentrification but to be fair the computerization of the police department does have an effect.

Causation of criminality is a fascinating subject.

[Mike Daniels]

6. Sometimes a parasite is just a parasite.....

Feeding off others instead of making an effort to provide for itself.

If the economy was the motivating factor in this they should have had the balls to rob a bank instead of attacking a bystander.

[-..__...]

8. As a general rule...

Previously law abiding people aren't going to resort to armed robbery or violent crime due to a change in the economy.

Petty crimes like shoplifting, bouncing checks, credit card fraud, etc are more likely to increase as unemployment rises.

If a thug resorts to shooting someone in the face (BB gun or not), chances are they have a prior criminal history and even in a good economy they'd still be robbing people.

[lapfog_1]

9. Yes, I meant to say petty crimes will rise.

Crimes like petty theft (especially office theft) will go up as there is more pressure.

I did some quick research and confirmed that, in fact, petty crimes do rise with hardening economic conditions.

Interestingly, the authors of one study believe that as young people are economically stressed they move in with their parents and their opportunity to commit crimes goes down.

Of course, a depression is not a recession. A depression may not follow the "rules" established by looking at previous recessions.

[MineralMan]

2. Bummer...

I do believe, however, that if someone tried to mug me with a pellet gun, he'd be having it removed from his nether regions when I got done.

[shadowknows69]

5. Probably didn't look like a pellet gun at first glance

Have no clue on the details yet. I wager my one friend probably did struggle though and that's probably why the guy shot him and then ran. I got robbed once from behind, turned around in time to see the guy cocking a glock so I wasn't going to question whether there were real bullets in it or not.

[slackmaster]

4. That's messed up

I hope there weren't any serious injuries.

[Billy Burnett]

10. The entire working middle class has been mugged.

[surrealAmerican]

11. I wish your friends a speedy recovery.

Shot in the face at close range, even if it was "just bbs" has got to hurt.

[rrneck]

12. Desperate times makes for

desperate people. The fewer resources you have balanced against your expectations and your actual needs can make people do a lot of stupid stuff.

Thats why squeezing the poor and middle class too much is so risky. You never know exactly when the pitchforks and torches will come out - or who will be carrying them.

[ThomWV]

14. Scary Question: Did the thief get away with enough money to buy a real gun?

[applegrove]

15. Sorry for them. Vibes.

[shadowknows69]

17. Ok I'm a dunce

Thankfully it wasn't my friends I thought it was that got mugged. It was some local judge and his wife. No less lame obviously but it was no one I knew. Thanks for all your kind thoughts anyway.