Scrapper Smoked

[astongraham]

So if he broke into your home, robbed your family and took your copper pipes, your attitude would be "poor guy, he just trying to provide for his family"?
I guess we should feel some for the guy killed during an armed robbery cause he has hungry kids at home? Forgotten Harvest provides food for the needy every first and third Wednesday at my church, also every first and third Thursday on Woodward in Detroits Boston Edison district. Sorry if I don't have any sympathy for those that die during the commission of a crime when help and assistance is so readily available.

[NickCharles]

I'm saying that the implied "I'M GLAD THAT THE NO-GOOD SON OF A BITCH IS DEAD" attitude is a bit sickening.

if anyone chooses to infer, from that opinion, that I'm defending the guy or painting some falsely-noble picture of him, I'm not responsible for that choice, nor have I expressed any such nonsense.

[Zacha341]

Well stated!

Amen. Breaking into places you do not belong, graffiti, and looting is never right. Nor is it right wing to be against it.

[DetroitPlanner]

I'm saying that the implied "I'M GLAD THAT THE NO-GOOD SON OF A BITCH IS DEAD" attitude is a bit sickening.

if anyone chooses to infer, from that opinion, that I'm defending the guy or painting some falsely-noble picture of him, I'm not responsible for that choice, nor have I expressed any such nonsense.

Many on this board have a tendency to be either poor readers or take what you have said and add assumptions to it that are not factual. In short you need to have some pretty thick skin.

[NickCharles]

Right, I am aware of the shtick; I even may be guilty, of it, on occasion.

A) "Oh, so you think [[insert incorrect inference)..."

B) Thereafter, the incorrect inference is generally regarded as being what you wrote, even while it may be miles away from what you wrote.

Cognitive Impairment, the scourge of "social media."

[piczka]

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire"

[Django]

The most likely scenario is the dead thief was trying to support a drug habit. He was killed in the process but I personally dont think he deserved to die for stealing. Many of you seem to think all that steal should be put to death. I think thats the argument here.

Most likely the guy is in a better place now than he was when alive. Many drug addicts wish and pray for a quick surprise ending because their life doesn't seem worth living with the addiction they have. Most addicts know when they are doing wrong but cant help themselves because they need to feed the monkey. Of course its not right but addiction is a disease.

This guy in particular was obviously not a career criminal with only four convictions, one of them being late on child support.

[NickCharles]

One look at the Philip Seymour Hoffman thread showed me more than I wanted to know about how some folks, right here in DY, see drug addiction & drug addicts.
Because, you know, people who are addicted to drugs are having a great time, and never regret having gotten themselves into such a mess.
Also, an expression of simple human compassion indicates that you-- using the jargon-- are an "enabler."

[astongraham]

Django, all those that steal do not need to die, but if you are stupid enough to try and steal wiring [[that carries electricity) from a warehouse, building, home or from an outdoor street lamp or utility pole or even a utility cabinet), you deserve exactly what is coming to you.

Also, why do u say "most addicts"? How many addicts do you know that you can make a statement that is true of mostly all of them? What is your profession where you know what is in most drug addicts minds when they are committing crimes? Just curious, it isn't a swipe at you. I just find generalized statements like that very curious.

[aj3647]

His death should neither be celebrated nor mourned. He was a career criminal [[look at his rap sheet) who died in the commission of a felony through no fault of anyone else but himself. I take no pleasure in his death, nor should anyone else, but I won't shed any tears for a man based on some false naive bleeding-heart narrative that he was a victim of a society that forced him into a life of crime to put food on the table for his starving children. And anyone who believe that shit is as stupid as the conservatives here beating their chests and crowing over his demise.

[TKshreve]

His death should neither be celebrated nor mourned. He was a career criminal [[look at his rap sheet) who died in the commission of a felony through no fault of anyone else but himself. I take no pleasure in his death, nor should anyone else, but I won't shed any tears for a man based on some false naive bleeding-heart narrative that he was a victim of a society that forced him into a life of crime to put food on the table for his starving children. And anyone who believe that shit is as stupid as the conservatives here beating their chests and crowing over his demise.

Hahhahahaha....... well played sir.

[Wesley Mouch]

His death should neither be celebrated nor mourned. He was a career criminal [[look at his rap sheet) who died in the commission of a felony through no fault of anyone else but himself. I take no pleasure in his death, nor should anyone else, but I won't shed any tears for a man based on some false naive bleeding-heart narrative that he was a victim of a society that forced him into a life of crime to put food on the table for his starving children. And anyone who believe that shit is as stupid as the conservatives here beating their chests and crowing over his demise.

A criminal died in commission of a crime. Some jump to his defense. Why? This continues to perplex me.

We know social ills do create a very difficult environment. Yet we know that most people don't become criminals.

I don't see how blaming society does any good here. Is the argument cause/effect. If everyone were cared for me we wouldn't have crime? It seems to me that today, its more reversed. Society doesn't care much for our urban underclass because they excuse bad behavior [[Kwame, Cushingberry, etc.) rather than condemn it.

A diatribe about social ills might be appropriate here, but a electrical scrapper stealing wire killed by his own hand? Sympathy hard.

[FlyingJ]

I'm saying that the implied "I'M GLAD THAT THE NO-GOOD SON OF A BITCH IS DEAD" attitude is a bit sickening.

Two Words Nick: HOME INVASION. How's this character any different than the guys who pistol-shipped Alfred Glancy's skull in his Albert Kahn Tudor GP mansion? or the ones who raped & tortured David Saul Berkley's family[[who stabs a 9-month old babygirl to death in order to get family jewels from her mother they're busy raping now, really?) Those guys who pulled that off, Glancy lingered in the hospital for what, 7 months? we don't need THEM-they'll always be out there, all we need you & 11 other people who think like you to make this town unliveable & unsaveable. As it is, I knew a scrapper, d-bag ripped me off of some chrome pieces, his record was cleaner than Mr. Vair's, he was into B&E, he was-shockingly-an addict. His wife was a stripper/hooker & they were awful parents. I'll always remember his 3-year old boy moaning in pain as pus dripped from his eyes while his father kept yelling "shut up!" at him. For whatever reason he & a co-defendant were stripping wires from a NASCAR supplier in the same industrial park where he defaulted on rent several years earlier, when 30,000? watts went thru his hands. Thew cops found him, literally smoking. I ran into him a year & a half ago, the interesting thing, he thought it was his fillings[[!) but the shock knocked out all the poor bastard's teeth. He was saying he was on welfare & the State paid his medical bills but I see from our OTIS he got hauled on more felony burglaries this past January. You might find the posts of tired people 'sickening', but the perps just make Detroit the San Fernando Valley of Ruin Porn

[Django]

Come on now, theres a big difference between stealing some copper and cold blooded murder. No one here said they guy was innocent. Rushing to say the guy deserved to die is a bit harsh though. Karma definitely backed right over him though.

[NickCharles]

I'm quite certain that my remarks are being widely, and wildly, misinterpreted, but I guess I just don't care about that sort of thing as much as I once did.

[noise]

Curious, noise. Why do you think he was providing for his family? You jump to this conclusion that there was nobility in his actions, but no evidence that he was a participant at his church, for example. You are outraged by the outrage of others. Others are outraged at this man's actions and his criminal history. Why?

Sorry for bumping, but I forgot I replied to this thread and didn't address the comments to my post. Clearly it was not clear to some of the comprehension-challenged among us.

I have no idea whether or not this guy was providing for his family, which is why I never jumped to that conclusion. I thought it was obvious by my using the words "potentially" and "may".

I know I would resort to desperate measures to provide for my family. I don't automatically suggest desperate people are unworthy of life, which is my point of contention to a widespread assumption about the whole of "scrappers".