03-10-2008, 03:19 AM
Back when I was in college, we had a former police chief speak to some of the residents. They explained in addition to locking your door, its important to always close your door when you're not in it - even if its just for a moment.
He cited at the time some statistics (which he admitted were a bit fuzzy), which charted 'opportunistic crimes'. These were crimes where usually law abiding citizens see an opportunity and commit a crime they otherwise wouldn't. In the case of the dorms, this was usually taking laptop computers out of rooms that were left out in the open.
This 'sting' operation reeks of the same type of opportunistic crime. Baiting people to commit crimes, and then jumping out of the bushes yelling 'Gotcha!'. The whole thing is an absurd waste of time. People do 'strange' things when they think they're not being watched - just think of the things you do when you have the house to yourself. The fact is, these strange things aren't really all that strange - they're the things we do when we don't need to worry about others, about civilization and civil rules.
Cheers,
Munk
He cited at the time some statistics (which he admitted were a bit fuzzy), which charted 'opportunistic crimes'. These were crimes where usually law abiding citizens see an opportunity and commit a crime they otherwise wouldn't. In the case of the dorms, this was usually taking laptop computers out of rooms that were left out in the open.
This 'sting' operation reeks of the same type of opportunistic crime. Baiting people to commit crimes, and then jumping out of the bushes yelling 'Gotcha!'. The whole thing is an absurd waste of time. People do 'strange' things when they think they're not being watched - just think of the things you do when you have the house to yourself. The fact is, these strange things aren't really all that strange - they're the things we do when we don't need to worry about others, about civilization and civil rules.
Cheers,
Munk