Now *this* is a drama...
Jul. 24th, 2003 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreJu invited us over for dinner tonight as a housewarming thingy for her.
I drove to the address and drove right past because the house looked like it was still being built. Technically it was still being finished off but people were living there.
Ju was home late because she had been out getting new keys and general new house admin work, she was also sick. She hadn't yet done the shopping for the dinner yet because she'd waited around half the day for the gas man to install the gas hot plates, in the end he didn't install them anyway. So we went shopping in search of quick, oven cookable stuff. Pizzas we decided. So we got all our pizza stuff and came home and started preparing... the oven wouldn't start. Apparently the guy who was meant to the install the hotplates must have done something with the oven so it was unusable. Bad gasman.
So we decided to go down the road and get Chicken Treat. Matt, Joel and I went down to get that. We hemmed and hawed over what would be best to order and finally ordered. While waiting for our food we heard two "rowdy youths" enter the store (you know the kind, generic little shits, baggy dark trakkies etc, they think they are so cool but are anything but). We're like yeah whatever. Then one jumps on the counter. I'm thinking "oh kaay" still just thinking thier two drunk kids being morons. Then one of them yelled at us to get down and people started getting down and I noticed points protruding from their hands (WHY they were holding knives such a stupid way I have no idea). Anyway, I realised that this was for real and got down. Yep, we got held up at Chicken Treat. *sigh* While they were behind the counter I quietly moved my bag from off my back to under my stomach. No WAY in hell they were stealing that, I didn't mind losing the $20 in my wallet (although that would suck royally because I can't afford to lose that) but the loss of 2 cameras and replacing all of my cards is just too much of a pain in the ass. If they had tried to steal it they would have been royally thumped by Matt and I. But they just ran out of the store.
Apparently one had 2 knives and the other had a syringe of blood. How un-original. We were kept there for 2+ hours while we waited for the cops then waited for them to get to us for statements, took forever. But apparently they caught two sus looking people further down the road and they pretty much fitted the description. I really wanted to see them to point and laugh (and tar and feather and strip and tie to a phone pole on Albany Highway...) But yeah, eventually we were able to go home.
The manager knocked on the car window and said "Sorry about all this, here's my card if there's anything I can do for you." That made me sad. That some customers are assholes enough that they feel that THEY have to apologise when some little shits hold them up. If I could have afforded it I would have given HIM money.
Bastard petty criminals. People really need to stand up to them and beat the crap out of them then they might stop their pathetic forays.
*sigh*
It's late, I have to be up early tomorrow, I have a headache. *goes cross eyed*
I drove to the address and drove right past because the house looked like it was still being built. Technically it was still being finished off but people were living there.
Ju was home late because she had been out getting new keys and general new house admin work, she was also sick. She hadn't yet done the shopping for the dinner yet because she'd waited around half the day for the gas man to install the gas hot plates, in the end he didn't install them anyway. So we went shopping in search of quick, oven cookable stuff. Pizzas we decided. So we got all our pizza stuff and came home and started preparing... the oven wouldn't start. Apparently the guy who was meant to the install the hotplates must have done something with the oven so it was unusable. Bad gasman.
So we decided to go down the road and get Chicken Treat. Matt, Joel and I went down to get that. We hemmed and hawed over what would be best to order and finally ordered. While waiting for our food we heard two "rowdy youths" enter the store (you know the kind, generic little shits, baggy dark trakkies etc, they think they are so cool but are anything but). We're like yeah whatever. Then one jumps on the counter. I'm thinking "oh kaay" still just thinking thier two drunk kids being morons. Then one of them yelled at us to get down and people started getting down and I noticed points protruding from their hands (WHY they were holding knives such a stupid way I have no idea). Anyway, I realised that this was for real and got down. Yep, we got held up at Chicken Treat. *sigh* While they were behind the counter I quietly moved my bag from off my back to under my stomach. No WAY in hell they were stealing that, I didn't mind losing the $20 in my wallet (although that would suck royally because I can't afford to lose that) but the loss of 2 cameras and replacing all of my cards is just too much of a pain in the ass. If they had tried to steal it they would have been royally thumped by Matt and I. But they just ran out of the store.
Apparently one had 2 knives and the other had a syringe of blood. How un-original. We were kept there for 2+ hours while we waited for the cops then waited for them to get to us for statements, took forever. But apparently they caught two sus looking people further down the road and they pretty much fitted the description. I really wanted to see them to point and laugh (and tar and feather and strip and tie to a phone pole on Albany Highway...) But yeah, eventually we were able to go home.
The manager knocked on the car window and said "Sorry about all this, here's my card if there's anything I can do for you." That made me sad. That some customers are assholes enough that they feel that THEY have to apologise when some little shits hold them up. If I could have afforded it I would have given HIM money.
Bastard petty criminals. People really need to stand up to them and beat the crap out of them then they might stop their pathetic forays.
*sigh*
It's late, I have to be up early tomorrow, I have a headache. *goes cross eyed*
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perspective
Date: 2003-07-26 10:37 pm (UTC)I haven't been held up by anyone, so I don't know how I'd react. I've had beggars get violent when I've refused them, and my reaction to that was to try and calm them down, go on my way, and then talk about what I 'should have done' afterwards [and I won't pretend I didn't think about throttling the scrawny bugger!].
Thing is, we all come from this from a different perspective. Maybe I should try to clarify some things. For me, aggravated hold-ups (i.e. involving weapons) are not petty crime, but are quite serious considering the violence they threaten and evoke. I consider that crimes against property are far less serious than crimes against humanity - and hold-ups are a combination of both.
Having said that, I don't really believe that punishment like humiliation, infliction of physical pain, or imprisonment, is a deterrent, especially if there are other reasons that people are committing these crimes. Also, 'punishing' people in this way comes at a cost to us as a society. It makes acts of violence acceptable, as long as the person on the receiving end 'deserved it' (i.e. they are a criminal, or just a no good layabout kid, or black, or gay, or be a peace protestor, or anything else the perpetrator of violence may not like), not to mention the economic costs of keeping kids like that in juvy detention centres.
I guess I just hope for a future where the motivation to commit crimes like that is reduced. Maybe some day the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' will start getting smaller. Maybe another government will see fit to restore the social security net, and fix up the public health system. Maybe one day people will start to acknowledge that there's not alot of satisfaction in growth fetishism anyways.
There are probably shades of red, green and black in this post. I embrace them. But I'm always trying to be [and admitting that it's really hard to be sometimes] open to dialogue, to reading, to learning, to experience. I'm still trying to get hold of the concept of 'playful world travelling', which is putting yourself in spaces that are not your own, that operate under different rules, where you are not the centre, and just watching, acknowledging, understanding. Unfortunately sometimes I can be a bit of a walking house-sized ego!
Re: perspective
Date: 2003-07-26 11:18 pm (UTC)Band-aid measures don't work in the long run true. And the challenge is to get the haves (read politicians mainly) to actually realise that yes, to put and end to this once and for all you will initially need A LOT of time and money. And most are two short-sighted and narrow-minded to bother. :(