At 00:14 12/08/2001 +1300, Russell McMahon wrote:
>These people got into boats and travelled out to a yacht at anchor with the
>express intention of (at least) robbing the occupants at gun-point. They
>killed a man who may well have substantially bettered their lot in the long
>term.
>
>This may make *sense* when one considers their circumstances but is not
>justifiable by any reasonable understanding. (Liberation theology and its
>children notwithstanding).

I didn't mean to say that this killing (or any killing) did make sense, but
that the way they live and how they come to do it starts to make sense when
you look at the circumstances they live in. This has nothing to do with
justifying it.

For example, I don't think that criminal tendencies are less present in
Germans than in Brazilians. Yet in Brazil, killings happen much more often.
German criminals seem to carefully take into account the difference between
an (unarmed) robbery and (armed) assault, often going on robberies unarmed,
because the risk involved is much higher when caught armed. In Brazil, this
is no necessarily so; the risk involved may even be higher if you're not
armed (as robber). Additionally, many Brazilian criminals seem to feel that
they have little to lose if any, to the contrary probably of most German
criminals (who mostly seem to do quite well). Which accounts for some
differences in behavior, and may bring some "sense" into why some things
happen the way they do.

ge


> > > It's not unheard of that rather unorganized and
> > > often illiterate people do some things that seem
> > > not to follow common sense. It starts to make
> > > some sense when one considers the circumstances
> > > these people often live in. So while I think that the
> > > "conspiration theory" seems to have some merit, it
> > > is not impossible that it was simply a not very well
> > > organized robbery attempt and they just exchanged
> > > some shots while they tried to get away.

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