Marko nails another one.

Over at The Munchkin Wrangler, Marko Kloos has delivered another winner.  This one examines the mindset of the armed individual, and does it well.

You’re not the better human by not fighting back. You’re not the better human for choosing to have no claws or teeth. You’re not the better human for delegating responsibility your personal safety to some underpaid guy or girl with a tin badge. And you damn sure don’t get to claim a halo for your attitude.

Amen, brother.  As with many things that he does, this is a useful resource to share with others.

And yet I remain a pain in the ass on some things.  In the context of the real value the article may have for an individual, this may be simple prurience, but one thing that stuck out at me was this passage:

All they care about is the thing they want from you–your wallet, your car, your body, whatever–and they want it now and with the least amount of fuss. And if they feel that the transaction is taking too long, puts them at risk in any way, they have no compunction about hurting you badly or killing you on the spot. This is not paranoid hyperbole, or some sort of effort to dehumanize muggers and rapists. It’s observed reality, and if you doubt that, all you have to do is to open the “Crime” section of any newspaper. (Better yet, talk to a beat cop.)

Now I think Marko has the very best of intentions here, but over the last coupla generations those idealized "beat cops" he speaks of have started to look more and more like the demographic he's discussing in the main part of the paragraph.  That's not paranoid hyperbole either.  Not anymore.

I admit, it's a nit in an otherwise excellent work.  But many of us have grown even more weary and wary of badged, legitimate predators than we are of the freelance kind.  At least with the latter, you don't have to add official impunity to the list of problems you have to solve when you fail to avoid a fight.