Consider this, also:
Criminal attacks with respect to robberies/theft have shifted a bit in recent times. In days past, the primary object of a robbery theft was the material aspect of the act. "Get the goods", as it were. Violence may have been threatened, but was generally to be avoided for a variety of reasons such as taking extra time which increases the odds of getting caught or increasing the penalty if one does get caught.
To be sure, there have always been a portion of such individuals who were prone to violence. And an even smaller portion who are true psychopaths.
But there has been a shift towards more such acts including violence
for the sake of violence these days.
I have yet to read the book "Facing Violence", by Rory Miller, but I did run across an article (link at the end) which talks some about it. In his book, he categorizes predators into two basic types:
Resource predators: These are people pretty much looking only to steal material items. You watch, the stuff in your car/house, merchandise in stores. These people typically take up the largest portion of predators as a whole.
Process predators: These are the fruitcakes who revel in victimization, causing pain, misery, and even death of their victims. The don't care about getting your compliance, they care about causing you physical harm. These people make up a much smaller portion of predators as a whole.
But there seems to be a growing portion of the predator population who want both your stuff AND to physically harm/kill people in the process.
WHY?
My non-authoritative opinion is that this is an outgrowth of the whole "race card" mentality that has been on the upswing in the last decade. I used quotes here because it's more than just that...it's the increased politicization we've been seeing, the Social Justice Warrior attitudes prevalent on the internet, and a number of other issues.
These acts are creating intentional schizms in society. Racial divisions, sexual divisions, political divisions, etc., with each of the sides encouraged to view others as "the enemy" and dehumanizing them through various means.
When people start viewing others as less-than-human in their own eyes, acts of violence become both justified AND easier to commit.
This is EXACTLY the same kind of training you have to put people through in order to get them to the point of being able to kill the enemy in combat. Disassociate the enemy from humanity, make them a statistic, and suddenly it's easier to kill the enemy.
And therein lies the problem.
In a flash mob of a store, PRESUMABLY the people involved are resource predators. But you can't count on ALL of them simply being in it for the material goods. Odds are SOME of those people at least have a significant leaning towards the Process Predatory side. How many, and how significant we can't know. In a mob action, it wouldn't take much to swing a mass store robbery into a very massive violent encounter, especially with more and more people being groomed towards those ends.
When a flash mob happens like hypothesized, you CAN'T RELIABLY PREDICT how the mob will act from one instant to the next. The mob may be a frenzied act of mass theft in one instant, then break and evaporate the next. It could turn into a violent destructive event tearing the store apart. It might involve arson. They may suddenly turn on store security...or customers. You might be the "one straight white male white supremacist" in sight of some very angry individual and suddenly you're under mob assault.
You. Can't. Know.
Avoid the mob as much as possible. Move to a better position of safety, a more defensible one. Get that cell phone out and call 911. Make preparations to defend yourself if required.
Avoid, to the best of your ability, the need to actually use deadly force. Not only because taking a life is a very serious thing, but because that could, in itself, be the trigger for a mob response you cannot hope to survive unscathed.
I recently saw this video and it caused me to think about how common criminal attacks are fundamentally changing. Take a few seconds and watch the clip. Surveillance video shows brutal attack on cashier
www.activeresponsetraining.net
youtu.be
