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stepsandladders t1_iu0gwjm wrote

Reply to comment by Saywhat50 in Jersey City ATM robber left behind his Hudson jail inmate ID by SoundMachineJC

He stole money from a bank, that rules. Knowing what we do about our financial system would you really root for a bank over an individual? Just wish he'd gotten way more.

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wnhrv t1_iu1b910 wrote

The article states it’s an atm customer, not the atm itself. He robbed a person.

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stepsandladders t1_iu2urc2 wrote

Ah, I missed the word customer in the post. I am rooting for him slightly less enthusiastically now, but tbh it's a lot harder for me to feel sorry for someone who casually takes $800 out of an atm than someone who was recently incarcerated. Think of the potential fallout of this action for each person involved: one lost $800, which is a fair chunk of money but if you're pulling that out of an atm in one go it's hard to imagine that was your last bit of cash you're trying to stretch to make ends meet. Meanwhile, if that guy gets arrested he's back in jail and likely prison for robbery and assault. That's a lot of years of his life taken away, definitely a harsher consequence than losing $800.

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wnhrv t1_iu33p4q wrote

Unfortunately we don’t know the details of the exchange at the ATM. However, I do know that in similar situations to this one, the person at the ATM is essentially threatened at the machine while still interacting with it, and forced to withdraw as much as they can. It’s entirely plausible that the $800 stolen was the maximum amount the person could withdraw in a day. I know lots of checking accounts have daily ATM withdrawal limits. Just something to consider.

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JCYimby t1_iu37o70 wrote

That’s a bunch of BS. You want money? Get a job like the rest of us.

You also don’t know why someone would take $800 out of an ATM. It doesn’t mean they are wealthy.

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stepsandladders t1_iu6idbk wrote

Do you know what the job market looks like for people who have been incarcerated? And even if a job was readily available you don't think it's unjust that you need money to afford basic amenities like shelter, food, and healthcare? In the wealthiest country in the world?

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HobokenJ t1_iu4dyi0 wrote

Rooting for the recidivist?

Those years aren't being "taken away." He willingly risked them by committing a crime.

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stepsandladders t1_iu6jzx2 wrote

I think it's pretty fucked up that you're willing to condemn someone to lose years of their life based on a single incident you have absolutely no context for. Here's a thought experiment:

Imagine the worst thing you've ever done, ever. Now imagine that's all anyone knows about you and the only thing they think about when they think about you. Now imagine that because of doing that thing you are forced to spend months or years of your life in an institution well-known to be a site of physical, emotional, and sexual violence. Then you're released with no access to resources because you've been condemned by society to be a "criminal", and anything you do that might be seen unfavorably by the state has people foaming at the mouth to send you right back and call you a "recidivist". Pretty bleak existence!

I think the idea that "committing a crime" means risking "years of your life" is pretty fucked, especially for people who have no other options for meeting basic survival needs.

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HobokenJ t1_iu99zxy wrote

While I appreciate your empathy for the person in your scenario above, you know absolutely nothing about the actual perpetrator of this actual crime. You know nothing of their life, nothing of the crimes they've committed in the past. You don't know if they're violent; you don't know if they served time for assault or rape. It might be nice to think they're a Dickensian street urchin just trying to scrape by, but we just don't know.

He's a former inmate, according to the story. Left his ID at the scene. In other words, a repeat offender. But let's feel worse for him than the person he robbed.

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stepsandladders t1_iua5zyj wrote

You don't know anything about him either, and what difference does it make if they served time for assault or rape (unlikely, as those crimes are rarely convicted) vs carrying weed or excessive failure to pay fines (extremely likely)? Either way putting someone in jail or prison does nothing to address systemic issues of violence, inequality and deprivation that lead to actions deemed "criminal" by the state. Meanwhile, direct redistribution of money actually does exactly that. So yeah in general I'm on the side of people who have greater need and against dehumanizing people for having been put in jail or prison.

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HobokenJ t1_iuav71m wrote

Let's try another thought experiment:

Someone comes up to you from behind at an ATM, shoves you to the ground and steals $800. The police somehow catch the assailant.

Do you press charges?

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stepsandladders t1_iubq8pb wrote

Nope! Absolutely not. I wouldn't ever call the cops for any reason since data shows they are vastly more likely to escalate a situation and get someone hurt than defuse it and/or solve the problem. And besides, $800 would not impact my quality of life or the wellbeing of my family. You seem to be coming from a position of great ignorance about how prisons and police actually function in our society, so I'll stop replying now and suggest you read a book on the topic. A great accessible place to start is "Are Prisons Obsolete" by Angela Davis, but you can also just google "history of policing in America" and read a little bit about why police exist in the form they do. Best of luck!

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