Life in the Utopian City of Cambridge

You've heard the expression, "A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged", but what do you call a naive liberal who gets mugged and continues to think and act like a naive liberal? Read here about "Brian's First Mugging". Here are some highlights:

They started towards my walking trajectory. One faster than the other, as to get on either side of my path. My instincts at that point sounded the alarm. That's not right. My liberal side kicked in "Don't stop walking because they're black. They're dressed cleanly, although very urban, that doesn't mean they're going to do anything. Lots of people mindlessly walk into people's path."

Yep, nothing like allowing your politically correct, leftist upbringing to override your body's own natural, instinctive self-defense mechanisms, and getting your ass mugged because of it.

I get out of there promptly. Honestly surprised. Not so bad for being "violated." Is this the feeling of violation? Why did they do this?

Why the scare quotes around "violated"? Granted, it was a violation of a much smaller scale than violent rape, or a brutal beating, but yes, you were violated. Wanna know why? Because they knew they could get away with it. They did it because it's the People's Republik of Cambridge, one of the hardest places outside Washington DC or Chicago in which to obtain a permit to carry a firearm to defend one's self from scum like this. They knew that two guys with a knife will trump one guy with no gun any day.

They didn't look like typical thieves.

Which would look like what exactly? Was it because they weren't wearing black ninja suits with ski masks?

They were dressed cleanly. They probably wore those clothes to school. They weren't thorough, and almost polite. I must have been lucky with a couple of rookies. Their whole life of crime ahead of them. They were probably a little scared, too. But as the street would teach, they hid it well. You never show weakness.

You want to know a good way to not show weakness? Draw down on these kids with a .38 and tell 'em to fuck off.

I walk quickly to the train, and get on with little delay. I didn't call the cops, rather back to the store so they could alert mall security. I wasn't concerned too much with the police, as I was with preventing this from happening again that night to someone else.

By NOT calling the police? How exactly is that going to prevent this from happening to someone else?

Security could do that. Their presence alone deters. People, attention deters. But, the cops would likely not catch them, unless they were really stupid and hung around there.

Ah, yes, of course. By alerting mall security, you're ridding the neighboring streets of violent crime. Brilliant. They did such a fabulous job of deterring this crime once already.

When I got home, there was a message from the store that the police responded to their call instead of Mall Security. The cops usually have a presence in the mall. They want me to call them directly a file a report, because despite my description has passed along by the store, they can't file a report with anything less than a first hand description. I haven't called yet. I'm debating as to whether its even worth it.

Yeah, you're probably right. Better to let these kids continue assaulting people at their whim. It's one thing to be OK with your government telling you that you have no right to defend yourself from armed criminals, but it's just asinine to roll up in a ball and do absolutely nothing about it after the fact. You think the problem's gonna go away if you close your eyes and sing "Hands Across America"?

Mugging seems like such a nice word. Armed robbery with a deadly weapon is pretty fearsome. It turns out that this is one of the most common offenses in this area of Cambridge, in fact the biggest other than vandalism. But the analysis doesn't make me feel any better, because I and some many others have to walk that path twice daily.

So you get mugged by some knife-wielding thugs and do NOTHING about it, except to ask yourself why these nicely dressed young men would do such a thing. Don't be too surprised when it happens to you again. Maybe you'll want to bring them a snack next time so the three of you can sit down and discuss there societal woes over a couple croissants.