The Monday Herald editorial, “Would-be heroes don’t always end up that way,” is a sad statement about the state of our society. We should never give criminals what they want, in the hope that they won’t hurt us. That view is cowardly and damages our society.
The editorial states: “There are people willing to kill you for even a few dollars.” Yes, there are, and they don’t care if you resist or not. They will sometimes hurt you just because they like doing it.
Of those recovering from violent crime, the psychological state of victims who resisted, is nearly always more healthy than those who did not resist. Their physical recovery also seems to be quicker.
I submit that it is our moral duty to society to resist criminal action by any means we have. We may indeed be hurt or even killed, but we will have accomplished a greater good. It will reduce the probability that additional people, after us, will also be robbed/assaulted/raped by that same criminal.
Every time a citizen fails to resist it sends a message to the criminal. That message says: “This is easy, no one is willing to fight, there is little to no risk to me if I do this again.” We must stop providing positive reinforcement for criminals to commit crime. Criminals know that they stand a low probability of being arrested. They also know that there is even less a chance of actually serving any meaningful time in prison. The biggest fear of burglars is not of being caught by the law, but of being shot by a home owner.
I say resist! We do not have to be heroic, just good citizens. Criminals need to fear citizens more than they fear the police.
William Simons
Oak Harbor
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