Visitors In The Night
Time for some thoughts on crime. From the pages of the Guardian:
Being a Guardian contributor, the author, Ms Anna Spargo-Ryan, a resident of Melbourne, is of course conflicted. Her feelings, it turns out, are something of a tangle. We’re told of the uncontrollable shaking, the shattered sense of safety, the fear for a missing cat, and the experience of subsequently finding items of stolen clothing discarded in the street. “I am so frightened,” says our columnist:
All understandable, and far too commonplace. And yet, simultaneously, the experience is dismissed by the author as one of being merely “inconvenienced for a few days.” “The relative impact of this one night on the whole of my life is nothing compared to setting up a child to reoffend,” says she.
Messages, I think, that are ever so slightly mixed.
Before we go any further, I should point out that the words child and children, used throughout the piece, may be a tad misleading, as the identities of the burglars – who stole, among other items, knives, keys, jewellery, a wallet, and a car – have, at the time of writing, not been shared, or, one assumes, determined. The culprits, who presumably still roam free, are assumed to be teenagers, out for an invigorating spree of robbery and joyriding.
And the word child is so much fluffier. Ah, bless those rosy cheeks.
Likewise, the fretting about “setting up a child to reoffend” may be somewhat misplaced. Not least because people who choose to violate other people’s homes, in the middle of the night, in order to steal their possessions, and while armed with carving knives, have notoriously high rates of recidivism, and it is highly unlikely that the people who robbed our Guardian contributor were on their debut outing. Just as it is unlikely that the nocturnal adventure in question will be their last, whether apprehended or not. In reports of such crimes and belated arrests, the words multiple counts appear reliably. Which makes Ms Spargo-Ryan’s chosen framing seem a little perverse. The reoffending she speaks of is almost certainly underway. Achievement unlocked.
Still, there’s hand-wringing to be done and piety to signal:
And gushing with pretentious sympathy for criminals is so much easier when you have the means to replace any wrecked or stolen items, and when you can afford a therapist to listen to your contradictory outpourings. And when you know your peers will hail you as a “beautiful person” for being so understanding.
Those who have none of the above – and who find the idea of being robbed in their homes by people armed with carving knives somewhat objectionable – are mentioned only in passing.
We’re told that when a local politician noted other incidents of similar predation in the area, dozens in recent months, Ms Spargo-Ryan felt a need to take to social media and air her dissent:
A position that resulted in several replies from people less lofty in their moral complications:
Fair points, I’d say.
Indeed. And it occurs to me that a person breaking into someone’s home in the middle of the night and stealing their possessions is sending a pretty strong signal about who they are. And about how much concern, or how little, the rest of us should have for that person’s wellbeing.
Our Guardian columnist has of course taken a higher path, one much more sophisticated and statusful, and is seemingly relieved that the budding sociopaths are unimpeded by physical consequences. Plus, she’s had her locks changed and has bought a new car. So, everything is fine:
And just when things couldn’t get rosier, another upside is revealed:
So there’s that.
Update, via the comments:
Readers may wish to ponder how someone can tell us, vividly and at length, about how distressing the experience of being burgled is – the anger, the shaking, the persistent sleep loss, the sense of violation – and who can simultaneously dismiss that same experience as a minor inconvenience, a mere bagatelle. As if it were “nothing” compared to the imagined woes of the monsters who treated her with utter, unequivocal contempt, by violating her home and thieving her belongings. Monsters who, statistically, have almost certainly done it before and will likely do it again. And who, with practice, will get bolder.
Readers may also wish to ponder the implicit conceit that the burglars – the ones brandishing carving knives – are the real victims and should therefore be spared any meaningful consequence of their own chosen actions, their own sociopathy. Because, apparently, one should sympathise with the people breaking into one’s home and driving off with one’s stuff. In one’s own car.
Perhaps these are skills only available to Guardian columnists.
Update 2:
In the comments, I Was Burgled Last Year adds,
Well, indeed. It does seem rather selfish. But as Darleen discovered in the thread below, pointing out the possible corrosive effects of sympathy for criminals – rather than for their numerous victims (and future victims), who are very often poor – is precisely the kind of thing that will get you blocked by Ms Spargo-Ryan. Because, obviously, she cares so very much.
As Theodore Dalrymple put it,
Pretentious leniency can be taken as a sign that one doesn’t take the lives of the preyed-upon seriously. They, it seems, are as nothing compared to having oneself applauded as a Higher Being, gushing with forgiveness and moral sophistication. “A beautiful person,” as one of Ms Spargo-Ryan’s many admirers put it. And the extent to which this pretension can be taken – its remarkable perversity – is illustrated quite vividly in the last two paragraphs here.
What sort of person without a real problem even has a therapist?
Without production of any solid evidence, actual police report number, etc. (which I’m sure cannot be supplied due to privacy concerns, I submit that she is lying about the whole thing. Something doesn’t smell right about the story.
Whiteness is a weakness.
Her Twitter bio:
“writes. also: cries.”
“If you feel bad about it,” said one, “visit them in prison.”
That.
Well, as actual compassion is a finite resource, I’d suggest directing it to where it’s warranted. Rather than pissing it away on creatures whose behaviour confirms only utter, unequivocal contempt for you and your feelings.
Pretend compassion, of course, may well be inexhaustible.
Somewhat related:
For some reason, the highlighted sentence came to mind.
Chester Draws: The sort of person with real problems, including stupidity so deep she does not recognize her problems including er deep stupidity
Those who burgle may well just shoot or rape you if you are home. Does her insurance cover that? Her reasoning about recidivism reflects the belief that it is getting arrested that causes crime, a rather time-traveling view of causation.
That.
Being burgled should, I think, be regarded as an existential danger. To assume otherwise seems foolish in the extreme. In the instance above, the intruders – the ones with carving knives – are described as being “a few metres” from our columnist’s sleeping children.
See also this.
“I can afford to talk to my therapist about how it’s made me feel. I can replace my stolen car. I will sleep again.”
The audacity – and that’s not the right word, but the right word is failing me at the moment – the chutzpa, maybe? – of this woman! Self-centered cow. Not everyone is able to easily replace things that are stolen. These well-fed bleeding heart Guardiansta’s and their “it’s only easily replaceable stuff” BS really piss me off. I’ve been robbed, and had valuable (to me) and irreplaceable things taken, but this city is such a shithole that theft is ignored – heck even murder is half the time. I didn’t even bother reporting it – waste of time.
This attitude isn’t limited to Guardian writers, though. Just finished this article: https://ricochet.com/1385280/california-baker-who-died-in-robbery-wouldnt-have-wanted-killer-locked-up-family-says/ then clicked over here to see David’s new post, and got hit with deja vous. The rot is pervasive.
I had more time to read through to her twitter feed, etc. It’s all BS. She’s pushing her book(s) for one. Her followers are at a very modest level for someone with Guardian exposure. Retweets rather low as well. The knife thing I find very suspicious. Yes, teenagers joyriding.
My niece had her car stolen out of her driveway the Sunday after her first child was born. Hubs had just left the house for a diaper run and my sister had just gone inside. Someone stole the car in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon. She didn’t have the “privilege” of having eight cops show up. Just two. They did the yadda-yadda. There was some Ring camera footage from a neighbor that I’m pretty sure she and hubs had to retrieve for themselves. Of course this is not Oz but US. But I still doubt this story.
I’m a member of the alleged wave of Bayside victims of aggravated home invasion and I don’t want those children to be locked up.
I’m reminded of all those 1950’s “B” sci-fi movies where some scientist or another is busy hiding the monster and making excuses for it … right up to the time he is destroyed by it.
So 8 police showed up shortly after midnight for a home burglary. Really?
On the plus side it sounds as if her cat (only one cat?) has finally seen sense and legged it.
Kids but no husband/father mentioned.
You don’t have to you silly b1tch. Read your own article, the police found it 24 hours later – locked (very considerate thieves) with an empty tank.
I’m now having second thoughts about the cat and consider it equally likely that she sat on the back step, head in hands, calling out her cars name.
Went to a big-box grocer in a rough neighborhood–2 big cops doing security. The store pays for that so groceries cost more, which costs local (poor) residents. Or the store closes.
There are places I won’t go, so those shops don’t get my business. Lots of burglaries? Insurance goes up for everyone. These are not victimless crimes.
This is a thing they are selling now. For the last week or so my FB feed has had, as the first or second advertisement, something from a organization, a corporation I’m sure, called Better Help. The idea seems to be that EVERYONE needs a therapist. Even, of course, the therapists. Though I could have told them that latter part free of charge. I’m not sure that they’ve run the math on that but since the overwhelming number of nod-along, rah-rah therapy comments are from women my even mentioning ‘math’ is a sign of my patriarchal objectivity hater hate hate H8…well something.
Ooh, good catch. I missed that rather obvious point though in my defense I had pretty much given up at ‘knife’. So just another lying, attention seeking (self-centered cow as CLR says) b**** seeking clicks and tweets at the expense of the reputation of the “children” in her neighborhood. Wonder if she imagines any of the “children” being girls. The kinds with vaginas I mean. Gotta specify this crap now.
Ah, but think of the jobs created. The two cops got jobs, everyone associated with Amazon and Jeff Bozos gets jobs. See? It’s all for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
I kid (of course?) but even many conservative…”conservative” people whom I know actually ‘think’ this way.
Being burgled should, I think, be regarded as an existential danger.
Ancient Roman law was quite clear on this. Given that most residences were at least partially “public”, at least socially, finding an intruder on your property during daylight hours was not grounds for self-defense. They might have a legitimate purpose for being there.
At night, though, if you found someone on/in your property uninvited you could kill them out of hand with no penalty whatsoever, regardless of whether they were armed or acting in a threatening manner. Simply being there at night was enough to presume evil intent.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
One who is deeply self-absorbed & fundamentally unserious.
All of that.
The barbarians who sacked Rome would be jealous.
Not entirely unrelated.
In particular, note the pronouncements of lawyer and activist Clive Stafford Smith, a Guardian favourite, who believes that the wellbeing of burglars is more important than the wellbeing of their numerous victims.
Meh. If we wreck this one we can just go to the Western Civilization store and have Mummy and Daddy buy us a new one.
…who believes that the wellbeing of burglars is more important than the wellbeing of their numerous victims.
What I continue to struggle with is how “these people” choose to get their morals from marxism; an ideology that believes their is no objective morality. Marxism says that indivdually held wealth/capital is corrupt and that anyone who holds private wealth cannot be redeemed. Meanwhile, people who steal, rob, even murder are victims of a corrupt system of repression. Once the corrupt system is usurped the “criminals” will be model comrades.
“These people” don’t seem to be prepared to give up their wealth, which is of course, a prerequiste of redeeming the “criminals”. As a result, they seem clueless to the fact that under their own belief system crime will never be resolved because they are selfishly perpetuating repression.
Also, you can’t argue with a marxist/communist because lying to achieve an ends is baked right into the system. When I encounter a marxist now, I ask them if they are lying after every statement they make. Heads explode. But, they need to be held to their beliefs.
For his birthday, I plan to get WTP an extra large box of quotation marks.
The met and racist art: Such ranting requires neither talent nor an understanding of history. To claim that abolitionist art was actually part of oppression has an alice-in-wonderland feel to it. Say anything!
Art museums are working hard to get rid of all the best art from our history. The museum-goers do not know but would object if they knew.
Such ranting requires neither talent nor an understanding of history.
Well, sure, because those aren’t the point. The point is to pretend that blacks “auto-emancipated” themselves (see also Juneteenth), thus absolving them of having to give any credit to whitey for it.
My wife, while a single mother, had her house broken into while she slept. The scumbag stole her purse (thank heaven her car keys were not in them) and some other objects. That was decades ago, and she is very careful to lock the doors. She will not walk in our very safe neighborhood at night without a dog or me. In short, it has aggravated her latent desire to isolate herself from others.
Anna Spargo-Ryan can go fucque herself.
what an ungodly whacko viewpoint. hard core liberalism. NO concept of the bigger issues.
Yes, it is coming up. Did a little bird tell you? I’ve been trying to conserve by using single quotes whenever possible. Thanks in advance. Industrial size please if you can afford it.
You’re trying too hard but yes. The great appeal I believe is in the simplicity of what needs to be understood. If someone has much, they are obviously wrong. If someone has not much, they must obviously have been exploited.
And to ‘fix’ that (see how I try?) they must cobble together the most convoluted, complex, intricate economic system imaginable. Because as Lenin commands, “Study, study, study”.
Of course it’s Victoria – The Criminal State.
The worst government at any level in my lifetime, and it just got re-elected, which shows you that Spargo-Ryan’s phenomenal stupidity is common here. Explains how a crypto-Green got elected in her district.
To think this was the same place that was once run by Henry Bolte. He knew how to deal with criminals.
What sort of person without a real problem even has a therapist?
A New York liberal.
And, of course, there’s the obligatory minimising waffle about “the root problems” – which are never quite specified or causally explained, but which apparently don’t include bewilderingly bad choices, pathological selfishness, and choosing to rob your neighbours again and again and again.
Another root problem: Liberals protecting bad people from the consequences of their criminality.
Had a near-argument with my sister, who seems to think that violent criminals can be reformed through work-release programs. No awareness that antisocial behavior can rarely be changed, and that violence is a particular red flag. Oh well, she lives safely far away from the excrement that is so common in my neck of the woods.
I’m a member of the alleged wave of Bayside victims of aggravated home invasion
The UK has more home invasions than the United States, because in the UK criminals do not fear being met by armed home owners. By “more” I mean “larger fraction of burglaries”.
It really is a pity that Guardian writers and editors are burgled and mugged more often.
setting up a child to reoffend
If we executed miscreants like this, we wouldn’t have to worry about them reoffending.
Wife is reading some book of fiction that involves people going into the witness protection program. My curiosity in the past regarding how the mob and similar really works (more real Donnie Brasco than phony Goodfellas) combined with some minimal experience with FBI identity issues led to some discussion about what she herself had looked up overnight. One common point we had was how thick the recidivism is with people in the program. Think of that. People who have gotten themselves so messed up that they must put themselves and their family through such an extreme resolution to the consequences of their previous bad deeds. These people in order to save themselves from being murdered, when given a fresh start, where the system put them back on an even keel with a better (re-)start at life than the truly underprivileged have, they STILL cannot live decently.
they STILL cannot live decently
Their bad cognitive habits are too ingrained, and they have no good habits.
My curiosity in the past regarding how the mob and similar really works (more real Donnie Brasco than phony Goodfellas) combined with some minimal experience with FBI identity issues led to some discussion [ … ] Think of that. People who have gotten themselves so messed up that they must put themselves and their family through such an extreme resolution to the consequences of their previous bad deeds.
“You’re trying too hard…”
https://twitter.com/annaspargoryan/status/1625289023676887041
Is she referring to you? It’s hilarious that she thinks writing a column for the Granuad is as private as her personal journal. Even more pathetic she’s more creeped out about you writing your opinion about her column than, oh say, the people who actually broke into her house.
It’s hilarious that she thinks writing a column for the Granuad is as private as her personal journal.
and holy moly she’s getting sympathy and tongue bathing in response.
Well, that didn’t last long .:::snort:::
Morning, all.
Heh. I have no idea. Is the post above “creepy” and “very intense”? Also, the words trawling and thousands are a bit of a stretch. The tweets in question, those contradictory messages, weren’t exactly hard to find. They were linked to in the author’s own article.
If it is about the post above, Ms Spargo-Ryan seems to struggle with simple comprehension. Says she, “His primary gotcha is that in the hours after my car was stolen, I tweeted about how scared it made me.” But that isn’t a gotcha, quite the opposite. I actually say, “All understandable and far too commonplace.”
The post above is more about the mismatch of, on the one hand, feelings that are genuine and comprehensible – the horror and upset of being a victim of aggravated burglary – and, on the other, the subsequent contrivance, according to which criminals are the real victims and should therefore be spared any meaningful consequence. Oh, and the implicit notion that one should sympathise with the people breaking into one’s home and driving off with one’s stuff.
And it occurs to me that if Ms Spargo-Ryan were so sure about how beastly and unfair I’d been, she could have included a link to the thing so that others might see and damn me accordingly.
Still, I am a man. So clearly, any view I have is invalid by default.
“What sort of person without a real problem even has a therapist?”
It seems to be a mainly American fad, but clearly, Australia’s not far behind…
I see Darleen has been A Very Bad Girl.