I grew up in a bad neighborhood, and violence was part of the culture. It is hard to go back and decide whether or not this random violence rose to the level of criminal. I do still have the Italian switchblade that someone tried to stab me with. I was a bit faster than the knife wielder. this was one icident out of many, none of which do I consider myself to be a victim. It was just the way life was in the neighborhood.
The OP needs to define “violent crime” for this poll to make sense.
Does a school bully beating you up to steal your lunch money count? (several dozen times)
Does being stopped on the street and your wallet demanded by two toughs count? Even with no violence inflicted, just…available? (4 times)
Does being stopped on the street and your wallet demanded by two toughs count? When you end up with multiple punches to the body and face? (1 time)
Does being stopped on the street and your wallet demanded by one tough count? When you end up with a knife cut on the buttock while running away? (1 time)
P.S. I’m male, 5’11", and able-bodied. Not the classic mugging victim profile, but i’m no rambo. Glasses even.
Does having your house burgled while you are away count? (3 times)
Does having your house burgled while you are in the house, asleep, and do not notice anything due to sleeping count? (1 time)
Does having your house burgled while you are in the house, and waking up to a guy pointing a shotgun at your head count? (0 time, but happened to TWO of my neighbors)
Does having your house burgled while you are in the house, and sleeping through it because they used some sort of gas to knock you out? You wake in the morning with a massive headache, a dead dog, and nothing not even the bed you were sleeping on? (1 time)
Does having your car stolen from its overnight parking count? (1 time)
Does having your car hijacked by a very polite and apparently unarmed group of 5 count? (1 time)
Does having your car hijacked, and still being shot at even as you comply and are getting out count? (1 time)
Advice: Don’t tell a south african that personal violence crimes are rare and negligible.
None for actual victim I once had a hate crime happen to me that could have escalated to serious violence.
Basically back when I lived in a shitty neighborhood I had a neighbor who literally threw a bunch of garbage onto my lawn (old furniture, mainly half-broken chairs) and when I confronted him he claimed that somebody else had thrown garbage onto his lawn and he thought I had done it for whatever reason (I strongly suspect he was just being a lazy piece of shit since I had literally seen those exact half-broken chairs in front of his house for garbage pickup which they refused to pick-up because they were oversized) . So I just threw the trash back onto his lawn and called it a day. The next day he confronts me in front of my house when some friends and/or family of his and he suddenly decided to make this racial (both him and I are different minorities) and started yelling hardcore racial slurs at me and told me to “Go back to your country fucker” while his friends backed him up. I told him to fuck off and then one of them pulls a knife and threatened to cut my throat. I simply walked back into my house, got my gun and called 9-1-1. Cops arrived and the neighbors scattered so with nobody on his side to interview the cops just took my statement and left. Then right after the cops left the neighbors regrouped and stood in front of my house throwing rocks and shouting racial slurs loudly. I again called the cops, they scattered and the same thing happened where they left when they couldn’t find the neighbors (though at least this time they turned on their floodlight and scanned the neighborhood for 20 minutes) . Finally again after the cops left the neighbors reconvened and this time one of them actually tried to kick my door down. I did the logical thing and sat down near my door with a gun in my lap and shouted if they broke down my door I was just going to open fire on whoever barged in. This seemed to somehow bring them to their senses and whoever was at my door stopped, ran back to his friends and again they all scattered. Called cops one last time and 5 squad cars showed up and hung around my area for 30 minutes before they all left but this time at least the neighbors stopped. Cops told me to just get a camera in front of my house to record them in the act to prosecute but I never did.
The neighbors stopped bugging me after that for whatever reason, I didn’t intrude on his property and he didn’t on mine and things were seemingly settled until I moved from that dump.
I agree. ~70% non-victims (including myself, excluding fights when a kid) would be a weak argument IMO to take away people’s right to make the decision for themselves about gun ownership in their own situations (within limits which have, are and will be debated endlessly in the details). Even if the non-victim % might be biased to the low side by the thread being more attractive to people with stories to tell. But even ‘scientific’ studies share with this definitely unscientific poll the problem of defining what counts, especially if the implied context is gun laws or moreover a particular type of gun law (carrying guns, having guns at home, handguns, long guns, magazine fed semi-automatic rifles?, etc.)
I almost didn’t choose ‘1’ because of the situation but in the end, it totally was assault and I should have called the police. Basically got attacked at the movie theater by a mentally err challenged? man. Just was walking by him and he just started screaming and grabbed me and started just hitting me over and over. His sister was trying to pull him off and in the end my dad had to basically throw him off me.
Technically, none. However I’ve personally seen a murder victim on the street with my own 2 eyes, and that was close enough for me.
I’m 63 years old, three exwives, two childs, two stepchilds, never once has me or mine ever been the victim of a violent crime - unless you count the crime of having to endure Donald Trump’s face and voice on TV 24/7.
Rather than reply to any specific, I’ll just post something in general. There seem to be a lot of assumptions with respect to my intent with this poll.
1 - “Is this poll related to having a firearm for self defense?” No, it isn’t. While it was inspired by a thread on that subject, my interest was in seeing what the modality is for being the victim of a violent crime, especially with respect to USA citizens (only because this board is USA citizen dominated, I would be interested too in seeing it for other countries).
2 - “You didn’t define violent crime.” That’s right, I didn’t. I intentionally left it open-ended.
3 - “This poll isn’t scientifically valid.” Umm, yeah, no kidding. I promise not to publish any papers on the results.
Moderator Note
There are numerous threads for you to vent about politics. Don’t bring that in here.
I worked in a pharmacy behind the counter and twice I was staring down the barrel of a gun when being robbed. And walking late at night in the French Quarter a guy jumped out with a gun and demanded our wallets. My quick thinking friend started jumping up and down saying, “There’s a cop! There’s a cop!” and the mugger ran off (without our wallets).
Interesting that the urban myth about robbers driving trucks of anesthesia gases up to houses to rob them has made a return in this thread…
Walking down the street from Los Angeles at about 730 in the morning on a Saturday with my mother and my sister. A large mumbling man shambling down the street, he passed everybody else but when he passed me he punched me in the mouth and split my lip-and didn’t even break stride doing it.
Zero for me, I’m happy to say. My personal experiences with crime have been blessedly few: my college dorm room was once broken into and vandalized, I saw a woman assaulted on a London street but ran with others to her aid, I had my life threatened by a guy who didn’t like what my law firm had done, and our garage was broken into about a year ago and a bicycle stolen. Could’ve been much, much worse.
Only once. I made the right suggestion to the right woman, but at the wrong time and her boyfriend took offense. I got beat up a little, so did he, and his friends backed off when it became clear that not all the traffic was going to be one-way. Whereupon I made like a bunny. Nobody got hurt, but it was, I suppose, technically assault and battery.
Regards,
Shodan
UK; aside from occasional scraps as a kid, in which no-one got hurt -and being groped I guess- nope.
I mean, I lived in one of the dodgiest bits of Bristol for most of a decade; multiple friends got mugged, there were armed home invasions on my street, riots and drive-by shootings a few streets away, so it was hardly some peaceful utopia, it just missed me. This despite me working as a bouncer for a year and a half; even at work I never got in a fight. Got threatened (with fists), my male co-workers got into fights (frankly some of 'em started fights sometimes) but I never got so much as shoved myself.
Watch me manage to get somehow mugged in rural Cornwall now…
Dozens of physical assaults, many of them preceded by death threats by a man holding a hunting rifle.
:eek: