If Ronni Chasen’s murder was a “robbery gone bad,” then robbery is not bad

I left out a key point in yesterday’s entry about the non-judgmental language used by the Beverly Hills Police Department concerning the murder of Ronni Chasen. I’ve now added it to the entry:

Furthermore, the expression, “a robbery gone bad,” implies that an act of armed robbery, in and of itself, is not bad. It’s only bad if it turns into murder. But of course a person who commits armed robbery is a person who is prepared to commit murder. The threat of murder is intrinsic in the very act of armed robbery, in which the perpeprator points a weapon at the victim and says, implicitly or explicitly, “Your money or your life.” So, when police describe a murder as a “robbery gone bad,” they are saying that pointing a deadly weapon at a person and threatening to kill him if he doesn’t hand over his money is not bad; it’s only bad if the perpetrator actually kills the victim. But if that were true, if robbery were not bad, why would robbery be a serious felony in every state of the Union?

- end of initial entry -

Bill W. writes (this comment was received before the entry was posted):

Robbery gone bad? Robbery gone bad?!! I think I speak for everyone in saying that no one objects to a little robbery here and there. But, I’ll tell you, it REALLY boils my blood when they go bad! So let’s put a stop to this right now—let’s go get em! Kill the robberies! Death to every single one!!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 10, 2010 10:30 AM | Send