Stupidity *Can* Be Fatal...

Commenter 8notch sends in this story of pretty much everything that can go wrong actually going wrong...

Man Shot At Detroit Gas Station, Reportedly Over Price Of Condoms

DETROIT (WWJ) - A man was shot and killed Friday night after an apparent dispute over the price of condoms at a Detroit gas station.

WWJ’s Beth Fisher spoke to an employee at the BP gas station on Fenkell and Meyers, where the shooting took place on the city’s westside overnight. The employee said the argument was apparently over the price of a box of condoms.

There's a certain escalation of FAIL that's just unreal here. Customer comes in, buys condoms, apparently without regard to the price. Sees price after he pays for them, then decides he doesn't want them, so he asks for his money back. Clerk refuses, so he goes nuts and starts trashing the store. Another clerk comes out and shoots him, claims a warning shot, and he winds up dying.

Folks, you couldn't write this as a TV show plot - no one would ever believe it.

Now, I'm willing to give the customer the benefit of the doubt - maybe there was no price on the condoms. But to buy it without checking, and only getting angry after the transaction? I mean, it's pretty universal that things at a gas station convenience store are going to be priced higher than WalMart - you're paying extra for the convenience of only making one stop. And of course, he responds in the classic and time honored manner of trashing the place, which of course is the hallmark of civilized society.

Not to be outdone, the convenience store clerk has to ratchet up the stupid. Rather than call the police, they go straight to the RoboCop ending and blow the dude away - and please, a warning shot that just happens to hit in a vital area? I'm guessing that since this is Detroit, the police response to a "man trashing a convenience store" call will be measured via calendar, but at the very least they'd have the 911 call to back up their actions. And even at the worst, if the dude trashes the store, it's not worth killing him over.

It's the remainder of the story that really turns the stupid up to 11. There's a city councilman proposing that convenience stores hire security guards to "protect the public". Gee, the last time I looked, there WAS an organization that was supposed to "protect the public" - the Detroit PD. If the convenience store hires a guard, it should be to protect the store and the people in it. They are under no obligation to protect folks outside of their borders - and would open themselves up to a world of liability if their security guard were to shoot some aspiring rap artist on the brink of redemption...

This takes things to a whole new level. The city is admitting that the police are useless, that the streets of Detroit are lawless and dangerous to the general public, and the fault of this is deemed to be convenience stores not being part of the community? What planet are these people from? It's the fault of convenience store owners that the local community places more value on "respect" than "the law"? It's the responsibility of the local stab-n-rob to make the community safe? Tell you what - let the guys behind the counter of the Quik-E-Mart buy short barreled shotguns and submachine guns, in that case.

I know this is a crazy idea, but how about if we start holding people responsible for their actions, treating them as adults who should know better than to riot in the streets over the price of condoms. Rather than slap them on the wrist and let them back out on the street, how about putting them in jail and actually keeping them there? The crime rate in Boston plummeted when repeat offenders were kept in jail - because the majority of crimes are committed by a core group of thugs. Keep the thugs in jail, crime goes down. Everybody wins.

But then we couldn't talk about "respect" and the importance to the community, could we?

That is all.