Moral Scruples

Sorry, but I have to rob you
He also agrees to owner's request that dollar bills be left behind

The Associated Press

WEST DANVILLE, Vt. - A man who held up a general store in Vermont was apologetic — and more — about it.

The owner of Joe's Pond Country Store in West Danville says the man who held him up at knifepoint this week told him, "I'm very sorry I have to do this."

And when owner Jeff Downs asked the thief to leave behind the one-dollar bills, so that the workers on the next shift would have something in the till, he agreed.

A state police spokesman says no arrests have been made. He says the robber may be someone who's "just desperate, but isn't a career criminal."


As for the store owner, he's suggesting money is scarce in the wrong places. Downs says, "Wall Street tycoons can't live on millions and here is this kid willing to be shot or go to jail for a couple of hundred bucks." In his words, "Something is not right."

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27843551/

The link to this story was "Robber apologetic". A lot of people feel that robbers and the baddies out there are a different breed of people, a breed of people with no scruples or morals. They forget that first and foremost, we are all human. Of course!!! robbers feel bad when they rob a place. What, do people honestly believe that people who commit bad deeds don't suffer from their bad deeds, or a feel pangs of guilt? Dangerous offenders have been interviewed countless times and confess that they regret what they did and that they can't stop thinking about the event/misdeed. Post traumatic stress disorder for soldiers. It's hard to shoot someone and not feel guilty afterwards. Remember the NYC police officer that tasered a suspected criminal a few months back. The suspect fell to his death. The NYC went back to the precinct and shot himself in the basement.

People always feel guilty. No one is born a criminal. Yes of course there are those out there who are mentally disturbed to the point that it would appear that they have no qualms about their misdeeds, but I suspect that even the most deranged offender has flashbacks and guilt pangs. After all, we are all human. Our minds and bodies are affected and influenced by the same factors. Happy events = we feel good. Bad events = we feel pain/sadness/remorse.

It's funny. Cause the link to that story, "robber apologetic" tells me that a certain percentage of the population still feel that people who commit bad deeds are bad apples and that they never feel any remorse/regret. We are all human - of course they do. And this is all the more reason to get these people help before they get to this point. Perhaps the robber in the story owed money (gambling problems, foreclosure on his mortgage, etc.) or was a drug addict. We have to provide people with gambling/drug addictions REHABILITATION and apply preventative measures (most important), so that people aren't forced to do such things.

Now the pundits will say, forced to do such things, no one is forced to do such things. Why do people do them then? Of course there are other options, but people who are down and out and who have not had a good upbringing don't always know of the other options. They haven't had the same guidance that us more privileged folk have had.

Now the libertarian in me will say that, well how about just live and let live? Why should our tax dollars go to supporting people who have made poor life decisions? I made good decisions, I shouldn't have to pay for the mistakes of others. Does this sound like you? Well do you enjoy driving downtown without getting carjacked?
Do you enjoy not being forced to have a security system or an armed guard at your residence? If we let the people who make poor decisions suffer all the consequences of their poor decisions, without providing rehabilitation and assistance, we risk seeing our peaceful society turn into one of upturned, flaming cars, armed militias roaming the streets, etc. Let's fix things before such things occur.