People Who Shoplift Regularly Explain Why They Do It
"Reddit user WineOhCanada asked: 'People who shoplift on the regular: why do you do it?'"
Shoplifting is a prevalent issue, but why do people do it?
Some reasons can be as banal as boredom, but other are far more intruiging.
Redditor WineOhCanada wanted to understand why people steal, so they asked:
"People who shoplift on the regular: why do you do it?"
I loved shoplifting.
Until I was caught, that is. I was a price tag switcher.
I apologize.
So Excited
Happy Thomas Lennon GIF by ABC NetworkGiphy"It makes me feel alive. Jk I don't any more but as a kid, it was for sure a thrill thing."
silly-billy-goat
The Need
"I’m going to give an actual honest answer as someone who has not done this in many years… it becomes addicting."
anewchapteroflife
"Came here to say this. Back in my high school days, I would do it all the time. It's like a rush. Now my shoplifting days are when I forgot the can of soup on the bottom of the grocery cart and don't realize til I'm loading it in the car."
TheRumpleForesk1n
"I used to work in loss prevention. A lot of times we would let you go; especially teenagers. We knew you would be back and have pictures on the wall of you. We focused on shoplifting rings with a higher dollar amount and employees. Employees rob you blind."
taco_cop
The Hit
"I was greedy and had poor impulse control. While shoplifting was terrifying... having the shiny new thing after gave me a dopamine hit. I got caught three or four times and I thank Christ I was under 18 each and every time."
happyele
"It was less about greed for me I think, I've never been addicted to any drugs, whenever I got caught I would always test negative for anything, the custody sergeant who would take my fingerprints/DNA/drug swab would say 'Sean you're the only one that comes in regular that's not on any drugs, what's going on?' I explained that I was homeless, lost my job because the company I worked for folded, and life just kicked me in the butt."
"Flirty Chez I called her, and she would always give me extra food whenever I was brought in, I just thought that was how she was, then one day she said I need a girlfriend and I shot her down, no more flirty Chez. She was shooting her shot and I rejected her without even knowing it."
hardcoresean84
Exchanges
"Much to my mom’s embarrassment, I was a serial shoplifter as a baby. At least I had the presence of mind to take off my socks and shoes and leave them scattered around the store in exchange."
UsualFrogFriendship
"I was once on a camping trip with my parents. We left the campsite for a day and when we got back our soap had been stolen from the tent. Just our soap, nothing else was taken, but we did find the shoes of the perpetrator!"
"This kid left them right at the entrance of our tent, so it was not difficult to find out who did it. When we went to get the soap back and give him back his shoes, sadly the kid threw it over a fence, so we never got it back."
ptbroeke
Influences
Breaking Bad Crying GIFGiphy"My easily influenced mind was corrupted by TV. If it's good enough for Marie Schrader then it's good enough for me."
DavosLostFingers
TV rots your brains and decision making capabilities.
Do the opposite of your favorite characters.
End of Times
Nbc Shoplifting GIF by SuperstoreGiphy"When I was bedridden due to Covid, I had a friend who shoplifted a whole damn box worth of medicine from different drugstores."
"I was very impressed and confused, as I didn't ask for it. Great friend though!"
pepper-blu
Criminals
"As a former loss prevention officer, most of the people I stopped were stealing to resell the items. Many people were clearly drug addicts and many people I stopped had meth and other drugs on them. Not every shoplifter is stealing to buy drugs, but a ton of them are."
"A lot of other people just stole items they wanted, and some people just have a stealing problem and would take whatever random BS they came across and thought would be easy to steal. If I ever saw someone stealing food I'd usually look the other way, but that was pretty rare to see someone taking food, it was usually clothes, electronics, makeup, or tools."
BigBudZombie
The Rush
"Addiction. And that's addiction to shoplifting, not drugs. It's a rush. Confidence grows with each success. It becomes an obsession. It brings an amount of power when stealing from giant corporations. For me, this question is similar to asking an addict why they are addicted to drugs or alcohol."
"I haven't shoplifted in three years. I attended Shoplifters Anonymous and continue to go to therapy which are both very helpful. I'm very lucky I didn't lose everything."
tacoterrarium
Self-Control
"In high school, I dated this guy who would shoplift and I got influenced to start doing it. After we broke up I kept doing it all throughout college since I was a broke college student who had no self-control. I only shoplifted from big retail stores and told myself it was 'okay.' Post college I stopped because the possible consequences as an adult and to my career were not worth it."
isatacobelle
There was no good in it
"I used to do it as a means to support my drug habit. I wouldn't call what I was doing shoplifting though. I moved the volume and high-end merchandise. Honda generators from Home Depot or Lowe's. Shopping carts full of Tide pods, and Similac baby formula. I'd hit Nordstrom during the holidays for their perfumes and colognes. COACH, Burberry for purses."
"I made a good chunk of change from it, yet I was still homeless. Most of my money went to drugs, and hotel rooms at shi**y hotels. I'm no longer like this. I reached out and went to rehab this past July. I now have 132 days clean and sober, and work an honest job. My life's boring as hell now and I love it. Even though people on the street complimented and applauded my skills."
"I was never proud of myself for any of the stealing I was doing. There was no good in it. Now I feel good about myself and can be proud of what I do. It's a nice feeling to go into a store and not have to be aware of my surroundings and not tighten up when the greeters ask for a receipt. Because now, I can happily show them one. Lol."
Crotch-Monster
Think First
Steve Austin Wrestling GIF by WWEGiphy"I work for a 3-letter retail store in NV and we have a ton of theft. I see a lot of random products for sale on the FB marketplace. If it adds up to over $1,200 it’s grand larceny and you get arrested."
"Walmart also allows up to a certain amount to be returned with no receipt and you get cash back."
samisalwaysmad
What have we learned kids?
Theft never really pays.
Do you have any experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
Though we learn about criminals when they're caught, it doesn't mean they're not brilliant.
It takes a lot of planning and patience to pull off the bigger ideas.
That's why there is such a hefty penalty for pre-meditation.
Maybe that's why we're obsessed with the true crime stories that roll out over time and aren't a quick news blip.
We're fascinated by the genius and the almost near cover-ups.
Redditor ItzTacoTimee wanted cops to tell us about the masterminds they've taken into custody.
So they asked:
"Police officers of Reddit, who’s the smartest criminal you’ve ever encountered?"
Most of these murderers on these Dateline shows are smart.
Which is what is most scary.
Deposits
happy work GIF by Soul TrainGiphy"My favorite was the guy who stole a post office mailbox off the street, repainted it, and then put it next to the night deposit box at a bank. And hung an out-of-order sign on the deposit box. All the businesses came along and dropped off their deposits in the mailbox."
pinewind108
"release to police"
"I worked with this one guy who had a lengthy record. He had a system for getting released if he got caught. After committing a crime, if the police were in pursuit and he knew he was about to be cornered, he would act insane. His girl would play along with it telling the police that he was off his medication."
"The police would arrest him but then send him to a mental ward with papers instructing the ward to release to police once he was cleared. Once he was in the mental ward, he would cause a distraction that would make the person attending the desk with the file cabinet to leave said cabinet. He would then crawl to the file cabinet, look for his 'release to police' papers, and then would literally eat the papers."
"When the psych evaluators decided that he was stable enough to be released, there would be no instructions to send him to the police, and he would be released to the general public. He did this about 10 times until police officers noticed him back on the streets. This stunt forced the state to change their procedure for detaining mentally unstable suspects."
g_baker
When in Walmart...
"A guy I went to high school had been stealing from Walmart in a pretty clever way. He would grab video games, mp3 players, beer etc. and throw them away in a trashcan in the garden section. The workers never checked the trash contents and he would just wait, sometimes 5 hours until they emptied the trash in the back dumpster and hop in to get his items."
"Once he took a cardboard box from a display inside, filled it with video games, a PS3, and extra controllers. He grabbed some tape and pens and drew all over the box and taped it up to make it look used and tossed it. An hour later he had a whole new PS3 and stack of games."
taylorink8
"I walked in with this"
"I heard about one person that pulled a shoplifting scam on a large, popular and well known U.S. retail store. They walked in with some cheap nylon product to get one of those 'I walked in with this' stickers they used to put on returning merchandise. The sticker easily peeled off the product undamaged. They walked to the electronics department, grabbed an expensive box off the shelf and went to Customer Service."
"They placed the sticker on the big box and asked if they could return the item without a receipt. 'Unfortunately, no. Not without the original receipt.' Dang it, and they walk out. Customer service even gave the door man the thumbs up having just interacted with the customer. This took place before widespread inventory controls and cameras absolutely everywhere."
nivenfan
The Follower
Location Gps GIF by AboutMedia Internetmarketing GmbHGiphy"I'm not a cop but I worked crime scene. This guy had attached GPS to the bottom of peoples cars who owned houses, he wanted to rob. He did it to ensure they wouldn't be showing up while he was ransacking the place."
Rachcake93
GPS Genius.
Enjoy the meal...
Food Eating GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"There's a golf course/country club in my town that has a PGA tournament scheduled in the next couple years. They have a guy repeatedly breaking in overnight and just lounging around and eating food, all on camera. The club refuses to report it so they don't hurt their chances of the tournament coming."
somejap
Drugs & Keggers
"This was in the late 90s-early 00s."
"A guy in my dorm came to school solely to deal drugs. He took out student loans, registered for a bunch of 300-person freshman survey courses where he would never be missed, then literally never went to class. All he did was go to raves and concerts and keggers and sell party drugs."
"After the first semester, he was suspended. He wrote the usual ‘I was young and dumb and in over my head’ sob story, and got put on probation for a semester. So he had a repeat of the fall. At the end of the year, he was kicked out, and didn’t care."
"He made something on the order of $150k, in return for about $8k in student loans to cover a year of housing and tuition."
"So far as I know, he was never caught. It may have been a short-sighted maneuver in the long run, but in the short run it seemed fairly genius to effectively use federal loans to start your drug business."
whistleridge
Into the car...
"Working in a home improvement store when younger. This guy came in, went to the snow blowers, took one and went to the return desk. Said he wanted to return it but had no receipt. They told him you need a receipt so he says ok I’ll be back and wheels it off to car through the front door. He did this a few times apparently. Couple places even helped him load it 'back' into his car."
ethan-bubblegum-tate
TRANSFORMS
"A french thief who spent 10 years in prison became a comedian when he got out. One of his stories... Finds a building, goes in, chooses a floor and TRANSFORMS the exit door into an extra apartment. Puts the apartment number, fake lock, welcome rug, etc..."
"Puts an iPhone for sale. The person comes to buy it, he opens the door in a shower robe and says give me one second, im just gonna count the money... and poof!"
"He's gone from the exit stairs."
ismango
So Hungry
block out no GIF by Heute-ShowGiphy"Definitely this guy who ate the bank robbery note right off the hood of the police car when they were emptying his pockets. Although I'm fairly sure he was still convicted."
Bonesnapcall
Even with smarts, crime still doesn't sound like it pays.
Who would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.
With more and more unfortunate stories about misconduct in the news, there is an understandably low opinion of police officers in the United States.
Though we should always remember that the corrupt or ill-suited cops we read about in the news do not represent all police officers.
For law enforcement is by all means necessary, and can be an extremely taxing job, both physically and emotionally.
With many police officers coming in contact with people who have gone through experiences no one deserves to go through.
Redditor Fish_f*cker12300 was curious to hear some of the most unfortunate things police officers have been told by convicts they've come in contact with, leading them to ask:
"Cops of Reddit what is the saddest thing a criminal has said?"
Cold Comfort At It's Worst
"I nicked a guy for attempted murder once."
"I had met him before a few times, usually when he was a suspect."
"He just said 'even now, you're still the closest thing I've got to a proper friend'."- ConsTisi
They Learn At A Young Age, For Better Or Worse
"Work security in a town's retail supermarket."
"Watched the local drug dealer force his son of about 8 to shoplift some pastries."
"Nothing about this boy would have made him stand out as this man's son, just an ordinary looking kid but his father wanted to make him into a man by teaching him how to steal."
"Four years later and this boy is clearly his fathers son."- Seoirse82
Their Fate Is Already In the Cards
"Ex cop."
"Speaking to a juvenile in the cells with a butt load of warrants for stealing cars and armed robberies."
"Told me the only way he could get toys is if he stole them, and his parents would never help him with his homework but showed him what to say to get free McDonald's and how to avoid getting caught shop lifting."
"Some kids have no hope and are just going to end up in the system."- Terror_Tanuki
Some Rob Out Of Necessity
"A lot of stores were looted, and people were walking off with multiple TVs, appliances etc."
"Some citizen journalist was out on the streets, stopping looters, and interviewing them."
"It's winter, it's dark, and suddenly this little kid appears, holding a single bag."
"All alone."
"Couldn't have been more than 8."
"The citizen journalist stops him, and demands to see what's in the bag."
"He opens it up."
"One t-shirt."
"One jersey."
"One pair of pants."
"One pair of shoes."
"A three pack of underwear."
"This little kid had followed a group of adults into a chaotic situation and taken what he needed, and only what he needed."
"I can't watch the clip without sobbing."
"The interviewer sent the kid off with his little bag of one single, looted outfit."
"The final shot is of this tiny little thing, walking into the darkness, barefoot and alone."
"It was absolutely heartbreaking."- GCB78
Victims Of Circumstance
"Afghan in 2011-2012."
"Was on patrol pretty much doing cop work sometimes."
"We’d go door to door or compound to compound and our Lieutenant would talk to locals with our translator."
"During one of the meetings I was inside working as a sort of guard for my Lt."
"The guy he was talking to came up positive for gun trace residue and was a confirmed Taliban in the eye scanner thing we had."
"When my Lt questioned him before we detained him, he told my Lt that he didn’t want to fight us, but if he didn’t the Taliban would kill his family."
"I was 18-19 and my Lt was 24-25, now I’m 29 and I realize that war was all f*cked."- surf0302
Desperate To Change Their Circumstance
"I worked in a day program and a prevocational program."
"My clients came from institutions and were doing program as part of their conditions of release."
"One of my groups ran a hotdogs cart and they profit shared, after cart expenses."
"They made very little, they were on assistance so it wasn't an income supplement it was more of a perk."
"Anyways I had this one woman, she had been a sex worker since she 12, she was in her 40s."
"Her first week was a nightmare."
"She was late."
"Struggled to cut the onions."
"Spilt everything."
"But she showed up each day late, frantic and crying to not be fired."
"She worked for 1 hour each day."
"The following week when she came to pick up her pay, a whole whopping $11.50, she burst into tears."
"I thought it was because it was it was so little money."
"She acted as if I had given her a thousand dollars and an Oscar."
"She clutched the little envelope and cried."
"She said 'it's the first money I ever made not on my back'."
"'Never thought I could'."
"We hugged she skipped off happily."
"Then I sobbed in the bathroom for 5 minutes."- MoxieAndSass
A Warning For Others...
"Sex worker asked if I had a daughter & likely could tell by my face that I did before I could answer."
"Tell her she's two bad choices away."- jjreason
Truth And Lies At School
"I know someone who was shadowing an investigator for child welfare."
"One kid was said to being being beat up and down the school by a teacher but the kid hadn't a bruise on him."
"That was until the investigator, called out even if it turns into a hoax or lie, turned off the lights and used a black light on the kids skin."
"The kids skin tone was so deep, bruises didn't show."
"He was mottled with them once they got the light on him and eventually confirmed by a Dr."
"Another kid said a teacher attacked him."
"They investigate and through looking in the cctv they see the teacher leading the kid into the prayer room, the only place besides toilets where there's no cameras."
"Also had a kid say a teacher hit her."
"She'd a bruise and they had to investigate."
"Teacher claimed they didn't and only had scolded her for being late to class that day."
"Then after lunch this all started."
" They ask her friends and they all say it was the teacher."
"The investigator gets a hunch and asks the school nurse."
"She says the student came in with a sore arm because she walked awkwardly into a door or something innocent."
"Teacher got proven innocent but his reputation was damaged."- isaidyothnkubttrgo
Remorse?
"I'm not a cop, but I remember when the AME church shooter told the arresting officer, 'I almost didn't do it, because they were so nice to me'."- notthesedays
Distraught Parents
"Bro's a cop."
"He came home crying and told us a few years later."
"He pulled someone over for speeding and saw a devastated couple."
"'I'm so sorry, my daughter, she died, she's dead'."
"He asked 'What?'"
"'Car crash. We must see her, one last time'."
"My brother was crying at this point."
"There happened to be a car crash a few miles up the road."
"A girl was killed."
"She was hit by a drunken driver."
"He was crying and showed up to comfort everyone."
"Everyone involved was dead."
"He showed up to all the funerals and memorials for them."
"DON'T DRIVE DRUNK PEOPLE!"- Lonely_Person_1670
Wanting To Get Caught
"Not a cop, but I worked for a private security company a while back."
"We'd drive around town inspecting client sites for vagrant activity, and log or report what we found."
"Some of them were for the city, like the public library."
"The library always had homeless people sleeping in the bushes that we had to tell to leave."
"There was one guy, I remember him distinctly because he had a red sleeping bag, he was there every night."
"We'd roll up around 3am to clear people out, and he'd just walk across the street, wait for us to leave, and then go back into the bushes to sleep until we came around again at 6am."
"Finally I asked him why he slept there, knowing he was going to get rudely awakened twice a night."
"He said the library was the safest place in town to sleep, because it had nightly security patrols and it was right down the road from the police station."
"He'd been sleeping there for four years."- No_Improvement7573
One Simple Request
"Not a cop, but my dad is a defense attorney and he had a client who was sentenced to 20 years in prison."
"As his final request, he asked my dad to get him a Quizno's sub before he was sent to the main prison."
"He said that he had always heard how good Quizno's was but had never tried one and wanted to try one before going to prison."
"Unfortunately, the prison security would not allow my dad to bring the sub through screening and he wasn't able to try Quizno's :(."- Rodby
Day in and day out, cops and others working in criminal justice are forced to come face to face with the fact that not everyone is dealt an equal hand in life.
And learn that some people break the law, not for self-gain, but because they truly and utterly feel that they have no other choice.
Making the need for programs to help them find a better path forward all the more important.
The nation remains polarized over calls for stricter gun legislation in the wake of yet another shooting, this time at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 19 students and two teachers in what turned out to be the third deadliest shooting in the United States.
And while those in the community closest to the families who've suffered tragic losses are still in mourning, others have castigated the officers who waited for 78-minutes on-site before breaching the classroom to de-escalate the situation.
Curious to hear from other law enforcers, Reddit stupsssss15 asked:
"To police officers, how are you feeling seeing how the situation was handled in Texas?"
A Desired Place For Them
"My city had a mass shooting where 10 people died 3 years ago, it took six responding officers 32 seconds to kill the active shooter."
"My coworker is a relative of one of the officers who responded that night. She told us that he thinks these cops 'deserve to burn in Hell for abandoning those children.'”
– TheOldOak
It's What We Do
"Not a cop but did do fire for a bit."
"I'm not a brave person at all, and I'm not going to pretend to be some hairy a**ed hero. But what we do is a service."
"We're here for them."
"When it's time to go then it's time to go."
"No sh*t you're scared. So is everyone else going interior. That doesn't mean you don't do it. Because as scared as you are, the person trapped inside is f'king terrified, and has none of the protection that you do."
"I honestly consider their response not just to be incompetence, since that assumes good intent and just being a f'k up. In my eyes this was dereliction of duty. Especially if the bit about cops going in to save their own kids and leaving the rest is true. Or the part about Border Patrol going inside in defiance of orders."
"I don't think it's unfair at all to say people should be going to prison over this."
– Guilty_Assignment_25
Cowards
"Military Police here: I am angry beyond words at the tragedy that has taken place. MP training is direct to threat and even without hearing gunshots we are required to breach the building and begin securing it so if people are shot inside we can create a clear corridor for casualties to be collected and treated."
"These cowardly pieces of sh*t should turn in their badges and be held accountable for their inaction."
– theknights-whosay-Ni
"It's Our Job"
"I literally never comment on anything but felt like I should here. I’ve only been on the job for a year and change in the largest department in America and while we’re definitely not perfect I’ve been to a few shootings personally and even with shots ringing out within visual range I’ve never seen any one of my coworkers run away or just wait for ESU cause they 'could get shot' and I know I’ve never run away."
"While I can understand being afraid I can’t understand not doing your job we’re first responders and as such it’s our job to go in there and get it done backup be damned. I hate Monday night quarterbacking but I’ve risked my life on this job for wayyyyy less so when other officers wait idle while kids get gunned down it makes me mad."
– Different_Handle1254
Demand For An Overhaul
"I work for a Sheriff's Department and have gone in to a few active shooter situations, if it's true that officers were standing outside, there needs to be some jobs on the chopping block. Also, it's obvious what departments do active shooter training and which ones don't. Sounds like that whole department needs an overhaul."
– AtwaterKent
Suggested Charges
"Retired LEO: the words 'disbelief' and 'disgusted' hardly scratch the surface. Charge all of them with negligent homicide/involuntary manslaughter."
"To add to the points the others are making: imagine the effect on the children's parents. They already have the horror of their child being killed - knowing that their last moments were filled with terror and pain - but that's now compounded by the thought that their child could have been saved, if it were not for the cowardice of the people they trusted to protect them. These poor souls are now broken."
– anon
"Something Has To Change"
"Was on one of the parents FB pages- whose children survived- and he has massive survivor’s guilt. Says he regrets standing outside, also said 'I was always one of those people that said if it happened at my kids’ school I’d go in… and I didn’t.'"
"Friends and neighbours kids died. He’s posted clips of him driving near the school at all hours of the night. I know he’s not alone, and I’m not sure they’ll ever get over it. Something has to change."
– DucDeBellune
An Awful Thought
"God awful thought - some parents will ask 'was it quick,' with a shake of the head indicating that perhaps their child could have been saved with an actual police response."
"It's hard to see how a community can pull through that without a lot of accountability for inaction being shown."
– TheMania
Like Accomplices
"What's really an extra level of sick on top of it all is that they went in there and got their own kids and they left the other kids. And then they stopped the parents from going to save their own kids. That makes no sense at all. It's almost as if they were on the same side as the killer. It's almost as if they're accomplices."
– Mypantsohno
Objectionable SCOTUS Ruling
"Ashamed of this agency and their so-called chief. If the shooter is isolated, you wait because time is on your side to negotiate. If they are actively shooting people, action must be taken. Just because the SCOTUS says there’s no duty to intervene, I think most LE agencies’ policy and (obviously) public opinion beg to differ."
– AffectionateWalk6101
Over In The UK
"In Britain, there was an attacker with a machete on London Bridge and our unarmed police officers ran towards him with only pepper spray and batons, literally ‘hitty sticks’. In fact, one was an off duty transport police officer with no gear at all."
"I can’t fathom the slowness of the response in Texas."
– lunarpx
Blood On Their Hands
"A doctor, Dr Cheng, literally tackled a gunman in a church recently sacrificing himself for everyone in that church when he died taking him down. I hope these cops look at his story and acknowledge their cowardness every day. The lives of those children are on their hands and it would've been better to have let the parents go in and do their job for them."
– IroningSandwiches
"No Excuse For Police Leadership In Uvalde"
"Federal law enforcement here."
"I took a 1-day active shooter training last year. The the theme they kept hammering into us was 'Stop the killing, so you can stop the dying.' Meaning, you need to find the shooter as fast as possible to kill or incapacitate him. Nothing else matters before then. They had role players with like fake blood/injury kits on screaming for help and we just stepped around/over them in our way towards the sound of gun fire. Once the shooter is dead, then you sprint back and start evacuating and treating people. Also, you go in alone or grab a couple other responders on your way in. You don’t methodically clear rooms, you don’t “secure” stuff, and you certainly don’t try to do crowd control."
"I see a lot of people on reddit say 'standard police procedure is (fill in the blank)' and they are usually wrong. However, almost everyone is exactly right on what I’ve seen about active shooter training. And it’s been that way since f'king columbine! There is no excuse for police leadership in Uvalde to not know this."
"Typically I try to not judge people in these scenarios because there so many different factors and challenges that affect your decision making. However in this case (and in Parkland), f''k these guys. They should be fired and never work in law enforcement again. A lot of people, some police included, sometimes think that valor is like an everyday thing. It’s definitely not (that’s why we hand out medals for it) but to see officers just stand outside that classroom as children were shot and bleeding to death is awful and unforgivable."
– fedman1776
Questioning Law Enforcement Funding
"My dad taught active shooter classes for years before he was retired and I helped out with the exact training scenarios you are talking about. In one, I even roleplayed the shooter when I was about 14 years old. We had kids crying out for help in the hallways as I was shooting blanks down the hallway of my high school."
"It was an insane experience to go through, but we knew what we were doing could potentially save lives if the unthinkable were to happen."
"Looking at this response by police who in theory had this training just a few months ago, I'm not so sure. It's one thing to play out a scenario and say all the right answers in the training and another thing entirely to put your life on the line to save children."
"The argument that the Blue Lives Matter folks have had the whole time in regards to defending the police is that the cops are heros who need resources to save us in the face of tragedy. When I see a video of nearly 20 cops standing outside a slaughter house detaining screaming parents armed with rifles, what exactly is it that we are paying for? This incident has me rethinking a lot of things in regards to how we as a country should be viewing and funding our law enforcement."
–nrain91
Mental Health As An Arguement
"The 40% part is what puts me over the top on this. If one side wants to argue it's all mental health and not a gun issue, then in this situation, half that budget should now be allocated to making mental health available and affordable for the county. Let's see them put their money where their mouth is."
– moriarty70
In addition to the condemnation of the police officers who failed to effectively take action, politicians–particularly Republicans–remain denounced for enabling mass shootings to continue in the U.S.
When will it ever be enough?
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It certainly feels like everything about the world, as of writing, is awful, terrible, and just downright no good. While there's positives out there to be found, don't purposefully overlook the subjectively bad stuff.
There's knowledge to be gained from this practice, so be sure to look at the dark and bleak facts of the world.
Reddit user, RefrigeratorDry495, wanted to hear some truly awful things when they asked:
"What are some simple yet incredibly disturbing/scary facts?"
The Stats Change On How Many Years It Takes To Solve
"1/3 of US murders go unsolved."
– jdward01
"That’s a relief."
– Lazerith22
"On average since 1965, sure, but in 2019 the solve rate was 58%. In 2020 it was 50%."
– ak_doug
*peaks out the window
"If you live in a major city there is a nuke aimed at you"
– Copious-GTea
"I live on the outskirts of a city in the top 100 American targets. Out of morbid curiosity I looked some blast radius maps when Putin said to get them ready. Anything smaller than the largest theoretical nuke ever designed (never built) puts me squarely in the "everything will be on fire but you'll probably survive the initial blast with severe burns if you're inside when it happens" so that was a fun night"
– DontBotherNoResponse
On Your Feet, Soldiers
"Despite literally all war propaganda from every country saying otherwise, you are not going to make an individual impact in glorious battle and die valiantly in a hail of bullets. Statistically, you are overwhelmingly more likely to be killed by an explosive device launched miles away by a vehicle you will never see, long before you ever get a chance to pull the trigger."
– grumpy_hedgehog
"Which, relatively, is such a new human experience. To quote Dan Carlin (Hardcore History) "I am fascinated by the extremes of the human experience."
"It used to be that a single, well trained, well armed soldier on a battlefield, who is physically imposing could single handedly turn the tide of a battle. The Romans used to fear the Gallic tribes to the north, because while the average Roman soldier was around 5'3-5'5, the average Gallic warrior was more like 5'10 to 6'. That used to mean something, EVERYTHING. I mean, I myself am 5'8, and I sure as hell wouldn't want to fight hand-to-hand combat with someone 6 inches taller and at least 30 pounds heavier than me if I was given the choice."
"In the modern era, it means jack sh-t. A 6 foot 200 pound soldier goes down to bullets and artillery all the same as his 5'6 comrades. Infantry combat from the American Civil War onward is just a glorified meat grinder. The winning side is the one with the most expendable soldiers, and no individual can change that anymore, at least not on a battlefield. Today, it's more about the technology than ever before, since the most technologically advanced countries are nearing being able to fight, and win, a war without ever having any actual boots on the ground. It's fascinating how far we've come in just a couple thousand years"
– ItsDrap
In Short Supply Of Iron
"If given access to it, butterflies will happily drink blood."
– Didsterchap11
Meat Is Good. Hard To Argue With That.
"Bored ducklings can become cannibals!"
– nova777666
"The amount of animals that are opportunistic cannibals or even carnivores would shock some people."
– Beezo514
"Yeah, there aren't a whole lot of actual herbivores in nature. Deer, horses, cows, and most other 'herbivores' love eating insects and other small animals when the opportunity presents itself."
– Traditional-Ad3161
Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Back In The Water
"sharks have been around for at least 420 million years, meaning they have survived four of the “big five” mass extinctions. That makes them older than humanity, older than Mount Everest, older than dinosaurs, older even than trees. Yet we could potentially see them extinct in our lifetime"
– LfcOsh
Reading This Late At Night? Go To Sleep.
"Moving back the start time for school in an area resulted in 70% less car accidents."
"Similarly at each daylight saving, heart attacks and accidents decrease with an hour of extra sleep and increase with an hour less of sleep."
"Sleep is crazy important."
– JamieBensteedo
Cotard's syndrome, also called "walking corpse syndrome," is a condition wherein the patient believes they are dead, dying, missing parts of their bodies, or don't exist.
Some people with Cotard's syndrome may stop speaking or eating since they believe they're dead.
– Back2Bach
I would like to add its extremely rare and that most medical professionals will never encounter it.
– SoulParamedic
When You Can't Trust The People In Front Of You
"Capgras Syndrome is a mental delusion where you believe that the people closest to you have been replaced by impostors"
– KikiKiwii
"This will probably get buried in the amogus spam but the theory behind how it works is actually super fascinating, basically it turns out that there are two independent facial recognition processes instead of one, where one is subconscious and emotional and the other is conscious and objective; This is evidenced by research showing that people who developed facial blindness (a really interesting subject in its own right) due to brain damage would still subconsciously react to faces of people they had been familiar with before their condition, so essentially in FB the conscious level of facial recognition breaks down even if the subconscious level doesn't, but Capgras is the inverse of that where the conscious level remains intact but the subconscious level breaks down so you recognize that they're physically indistinguishable from the person you know but that emotional and familial connection with them that tells you that they are who they are just stops firing."
– N0thingtosee
Maybe Humanity Was A Mistake
"Egyptian mummies wouldn’t be so rare today if the Victorian British hadn’t eaten most of them."
– Heikold
"Wow, that was something I never knew or imagined. Thank you. History of Eating Corpses as Medicine"
– NiccoMachi
Mmwah! Good Night, Everybody.
"You have no way of really knowing if everyone experiences reality and consciousness the same way you do."
– catomi01
"You really have no way of knowing if you are experiencing "reality" at all. You could be a brain in a box, a delusional god, an alien's computer science experiment for their 4th grade science fair..."
– Spong_Durnflungle
I Didn't Need To Know That
"There is a chance that you will walk past at least 3 murderers in your life."
– _cloudy_demon_
How Do We Taste?
"Butterflies taste through their feet so if they land on you they're just getting a quick taste test Yaaayyyy.......... "
– SavageKitsune762
I Can't See!
"Your immune system does not know your eyes exist if it ever find out it will just basically attack it as a bacteria or some sort of virus in short you will basically blind yourself"
– kidsforsaleoff
I Dream Of You
"Everyone in your dreams are based of a real person as you are unable to make up a face"
– username087544
This Is Why I Hate Coconuts
"Coconuts kill more people then sharks kill people."
– SelfApprehensive853
Glad The Crabs Are Okay With It
"Crabs are aware that we eat them and even eat each other to prevent over population."
– StableMable8008135
I Will Never Forget This One
"Most laugh tracks were recorded in the 1950s, you’re hearing dead people laugh"
– Greatest-Memelord
Won't We All?
"Rabbits can scream, but will only do so if they think they're about to die."
– guywithnolife69420
Eight Extra Minutes Of Life
"if the sun exploded, you would be unaware of it for 8 minutes"
– Gold_Army_2889
Don't let facts like this get you down. There is, you just have to go find it.