speedsix wrote:M2K wrote:speedsix wrote:
...no, he was absolutely correct...it WAS theft rather than robbery by law...you only quoted PART of what the act of robbery is...when you read the REST of the definition, then you have the explanation for why the charges were upgraded to aggravated robbery...which it WASN'T before she got stupid and climbed their car...the rest of the definition is part of the definition...and can't be ignored, if you want to understand what happened and why a theft turned into a robbery...after she intervened...
It doesn’t really matter as their actions are taken as a whole. Plus, it is now a felony charge instead of just petty theft. Yippee!
Opinions may vary on what actions should have been taken by any person in any situation. A crime was apparently committed and only 1 honorable person took some type of action in this situation. There may have been more people willing to help but they may not have understood the situation. Without some type of verbal acknowledgment of rape, thieves, etc., one could easily assume it is a domestic dispute where the lady is taking it out on the husbands/friends car.
From the thieves’ calm demeanor and actions, I would not be surprised if they had not done this deed before and went unchallenged.
...it DOES really matter that at the time, it was only a theft...then when she lost all her good sense, it escalated to a felony...where the yippee is in that...will be your little secret...she made the situation worse, not better, by being stupid...they played along with her and got in much more trouble than the theft charge they were facing...as to their prior history and accomplishments, we can only guess...
It appears to me that the enraged citizen acted with the best of intentions but very poor judgment and tactics, and the BG's followed her example with their subsequent ill advised actions. The result was the escalation of a shoplifting to a robbery by the boneheaded actions of 3 people.
The upshot is that a couple of knuckleheads are facing a much more serious charge than they would have otherwise, and the lady with the Batman complex came away unscathed.
This appears to be one of those rare cases where two major failures in judgment that compound each other yields a good result.
I wouldn't recommend adopting the tactics she used. Luck that good is a rarity.
However, this lady has a good heart and a selfless willingness to act, neither of which is especially common these days. With a little training, she could be both much safer and much more effective. There's lots of good raw material to work with there.