Bank Robbery Intervention, Good Or Bad?

[Fatman]

There  are two minds on this.

1) Leave them alone, give them what they want, hope they Play Nice. But, as Chamberlain found out,  they want more, demand more, and stop caring how they get to that end.

2) Let them know we won't tolerate you sticking guns in our faces, beating clerks, terrorizing good people and profit from them.

In a nut shell, criminals are at a minimum sociopaths (sorry, PC is 'have a social disorder'), possibly psychopaths.  They are a cancer. They stop doing what they are doing only when it adversely affects them. Many get off on the fear they cause. What happens to others doesn't matter, and sooner or later the guy will hurt someone. Talking to them doesn't help, letting the violent ones out of jail is a mistake.

Interviewing criminals n a NJ prison, a journalist was told over and over again (paraphrase, I'll see if I can get the exact quote)." I take what I want. If you're man enough to stop me, you might." Bottom line was they all felt entitled to your possessions.


Stop any violent felony you are capable of stopping competently.  Let the misdemeanors alone for later investigation.

Time to act like civilized men again, not the doormats we are constantly told we must be in the face of evil.

[tombogan03884]

Fatman, that psycho crap may work on some types of crime but bank robbery is a chump crime, usually committed by some loser who does not have an employer to embezzle from.

[Solus]

In any case, if every time a looser tried to rob a bank, every other person in there piled on and beat the crap out of them, we'd find gas station and convenience store robberies would increase and bank robberies would decrease.

There would be the risk that good guys could get hurt, but if the bad guy always got creamed, the lesson would be taught.

Sort of like those monkeys in that cage. 

[tombogan03884]

Thing is this, Banks are relatively large corporations that, rather than risk any type of liability, instruct their employees to just give up the money, and get the robber the heck out as quickly as possible.
Having a CCW does not make you a cop, it also does not make you a bank guard.

[TAB]

90% of bank robberys that take place, you could be standing right next to them the robber and not even know it.

The take over robbery is very rare. 

[Sponsor]

[Fatman]

Fatman, that psycho crap may work on some types of crime but bank robbery is a chump crime, usually committed by some loser who does not have an employer to embezzle from.

Sorry Tom. Left out a category that is synonymous with criminal activity, Antisocial Personality Disorder. My bad, having a Psych degree and quite a few CJ courses there's no excuse for omitting this:

On the other hand, the field of criminology tends to treat APD as so synonymous, in fact, with criminal behavior that practically all convicted criminals (65-75%) have it, with criminologists often referring to it as a "wastebasket" category.  Antisocials come is all shapes and sizes, and psychologists consider the juvenile version of it to be a juvenile conduct disorder. The main characteristic of it is a complete and utter disregard for the rights of others and the rules of society. They seldom show anxiety and don't feel guilt. Although many people would hope that there's an effective treatment, there's really no effective treatment for them other than locking them up in a secure facility with such rigid rules that they cannot talk their way out. A full list of APD traits would include:

List of Antisocial Personality Disorder Traits
Sense of entitlement; Unremorseful; Apathetic to others; Unconscionable behavior; Blameful of others; Manipulative and conning; Affectively cold; Disparate understanding; Socially irresponsible; Disregardful of obligations; Nonconforming to norms; Irresponsible

    whereas the DSM-IV "clinical" features of Antisocial Personality Disorder (with a person having at least three of these characteristics) are:

Clinical Symptoms for an Antisocial Personality Disorder Diagnosis
1. Failure to conform to social norms; 2. Deceitfulness, manipulativeness; 3. Impulsivity, failure to plan ahead; 4. Irritability, aggressiveness; 5. Reckless disregard for the safety of self or others; 6. Consistent irresponsibility; 7. Lack of remorse after having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another person

[tombogan03884]

Sorry Tom. Left out a category that is synonymous with criminal activity, Antisocial Personality Disorder. My bad, having a Psych degree and quite a few CJ courses there's no excuse for omitting this:

That's kind of like hearing that a friend has secretly been a lawyer or politician all along.
I feel violated   

[Solus]

Sorry Tom. Left out a category that is synonymous with criminal activity, Antisocial Personality Disorder. My bad, having a Psych degree and quite a few CJ courses there's no excuse for omitting this:

List of Antisocial Personality Disorder Traits
Sense of entitlement; Unremorseful; Apathetic to others; Unconscionable behavior; Blameful of others; Manipulative and conning; Affectively cold; Disparate understanding; Socially irresponsible; Disregardful of obligations; Nonconforming to norms; Irresponsible

Clinical Symptoms for an Antisocial Personality Disorder Diagnosis
1. Failure to conform to social norms; 2. Deceitfulness, manipulativeness; 3. Impulsivity, failure to plan ahead; 4. Irritability, aggressiveness; 5. Reckless disregard for the safety of self or others; 6. Consistent irresponsibility; 7. Lack of remorse after having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another person

You are right, Tom, it does sound like the majority of Congress is described here.

Also some states do have an effective treatment option other than incarceration as do many citizens in Castle Doctrine states.

[LittleRed]

I know there are a lot of different angles on this one, but the bottom line is this guy did something. Was it the best move both strategically and tactically?—probably not.

Asking the what-if's doesn't ever get anywhere.

What if someone was hurt/killed?
What if after the teller this guy demanded wallets/purses waving his weapon all over the place?
What if the guy fled and took a hostage somewhere else?

I do think in this situation, luck was on his side. Most criminals work in pairs and if another was present, he could have ended up dead real quickly.

[pioneer]

It didn't look like a real gun to me.

Whether it was a real gun, or not, it was a very stupid, dangerous thing to do.