Comments by "Theodore Shulman" (@ColonelFredPuntridge) on "Eyewitness News ABC7NY"
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@ML-ro6in I don't think many of the bad-guys would think twice. What kind of person goes into the subway and slashes a stranger? Or, starts shooting strangers? Either a wacko who is not thinking rationally about his self-interests, or, a suicidal person who wants the cops to kill him, or, maybe, someone trying to pass an initiation test to get accepted as a member of a street-gang. None of these guys is gonna be deterred by other strangers having guns.
And think of the cost! Remember how crowded and bewildering the subway-crowds can be, even without the panic caused by a shooting or a conspicuous slashing. If you were carrying a gun, no way would you be able to be sure enough who the bad-guy was or even where he was, in the confusion. You'd have people shooting the wrong people, and also, people would shoot at the bad-guys and miss and hit innocent bystanders. No way would this work. Maybe late at night when the subway is empty?
In any case, the danger is exaggerated. We are protected by statistics. The sheer number of riders makes it unlikely that you or I will be one of the unlucky ones who gets targeted. You know that the homicide rate in NYC is lower (per capita) than in the State of Ohio? NYC is actually one of the safer places to live in USA. People who shout about crime in NYC usually are not aware of how much crime there is elsewhere. The difference is a lot of it is more visible here in NYC.
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@ML-ro6in The statistics are public, somewhere. Of course, there may be more unreported crime in NYC, so one can never be sure.... Do you know the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"? Holmes and Watson are visiting a client outside London, in the country, and Watson remarks how beautiful the landscape is, with the lovely separated houses and barns. Here's Holmes' answer:
“Do you know, Watson,” said he, “that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.”
“Good heavens!” I cried. “Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?”
“They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”
“You horrify me!”
“But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser."
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