It took 20 years to catch the unabomber, and he was only caught because his brother recognized his writing and turned him in. That was a high profile case with a repeat offender so had way more resources thrown at it than would be thrown at a case of "I lost my fingers to a firecracker in a decoy wallet that I stole."

Eh. The person who makes the porch pirate videos hasn't gotten in trouble yet.

Prove it. Police response time for non-emergancy issues could easily be 30+ minutes after which i would have moved on. Also investigatory resources for cases that aren't gift wrapped or murders are about nil.

Civil cases for any meaningful non-small claims affair are going to start at 5000-10,000 and are basically unavailable for poor people. You aren't entitled to a free lawyer.

Small claims is going to be for actual damages which are going to be about nil and are going to get you near no money and 15 minutes of fame.

Here is what actually happens. Thief endures a small amount of pain and humiliation and fucks off.

The actual risk isn't a hypothetical lawsuit it's that it leads to a fight where you might be injured.

It's weird moving to places where the relative danger of different crimes vary.

I grew up in a place where I was mugged at knife point a couple of times. It was a pretty socioeconomically deprived area where this wasn't normal, but it wasn't super abnormal either. One of the times I was mugged, I was in a pretty bad place with my mental health, and I said "if you want my phone, then just fucking stab me for it, because I don't give a fuck anymore". The guy mugging me seemed to recognise me as someone going through some shit, and became super sympathetic. He even asked me if there was anything he could do to help. A friend who was mugged (at knifepoint) in the same rough area one responded by saying "oh come off it, mate" and continuing walking. It's like there was a weird sense of solidarity, because we all knew we lived in a shit hole place with no prospects.

I later moved to a much safer city, where being out at night felt tremendously safe. Now, I live in a larger city, and none of my previously cultivated instincts for safety are the right fit. I know that I must be more cautious here than I was in the small, posh city I lived in, but also I feel that the kind of caution I need here is quite different to what was necessary in my home town. Without a calibrated sense of risk in this new city, I often find myself being overly cautious. I suppose that's a safer side of caution to err on.

You caught a man with his hand in your girlfriend's purse, and his punishment was a "hey, not cool" and 15 seconds of awkward escalator?

No fucking wonder that happens CONSTANTLY when an awkward 15 second escalator ride is the punishment for getting caught.

I've been in a situation like that. Street perfomance, many a people. Some guy bumped behind me. I somehow quickly noticed a lack of phone. I told my dad, soon as I realised. He went up to the guy, the guy was all like "eh, he dropped it" or whatever. Feels like they just be awkward

It usually isn't worth the time to call the police and wait for them while trying to retain the person(s). If the stolen value is under 400 euros they can only get a fine.

I think you destroyed him emotionally.

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Yep. Don't ever bother with de-escalation when you know no safety net will save you. You have to go all in, or you are left behind, or dead.

Not the world I like living in, but that's the world I'm currently living in. Hell, my father was robbed several times growing up, so he made sure to teach my sibling and I how to be wary and catch people in the act.

In the US, we have a phrase for the mindset you're describing:

"Fuck you, I got mine."

Whole lee shit this is good! I've always heard the adage "when seconds count, the police are only minutes away."

And that's true for both where I'm from(Miami) and where I moved to(the corner of bum fucked & nowhere)

Did he think that gave him a legal precedent? Like isn't owning weed and a gun a felony in and of itself?

Edit: currently depends which federal court circuit's jurisdiction you fall under. Might get brought to the supreme court at some point? Either way there's legal precedent that makes that iffy. Which is fair. Weed should be legal, and despite this asshole, I trust stoners more than habitual drinkers or the GOP and their constituents.

Either way the guy was obviously a fuckin' issue, and was committing several other federal offenses lol.

As an (expat) American I have always felt a desire to connect with my heritage and experience the old world, despite never having the chance to. It feels crazy to me that people are overseas living where so much history played out, walking old streets past ancient walls and buildings, and often within a short journey to Neolithic sites and old ruins. There are quiet men herding sheep in a windswept field with mossy rock formations just chilling over there beside their prized lamb, Ollie. Americans removed themselves from all of that and over a couple of centuries it became something mythical and out of reach. We are essentially cut off from our own heritage, and are strangers to our own people, but we've been brought up in a culture that makes us quite alien to them when we do make the pilgrimage.

It's kind of a sad thing, but I've been away from America long enough to understand why Europeans are so put off. Even the most left-leaning Americans need a lot of de-programming. I know I did. Now when my mother visits I am hyper-aware of how different we have become.

Yeah that's why crime has plummeted /s

That is entirely dependent on the state you live in, and not all states have the same kind of interpretation.

...and that's why they start with maximum violence out of the bat. If for you as a criminal the outcome is the same, why risk it and start with random pickpocket, when you will be tried as if you assaulted a person, start with an assault, safer for you, same risk.