William Robb wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "E.R.N. Reed"
Subject: Re: Today I Was Stopped by the Police While Photographing
Odds are that any pizza delivery guy isn't dangerous, or a pervert,
or a dangerous pervert. A small chance exists that he is. (And IF he
is ... insert my "dangerous pervert" remarks here. They don't apply
to the vast majority of harmless, law-abiding citizens, even the ones
who deliver pizza and attend football games.)
Odds are any guy pulled over for a missing licence plate isn't a mass
murderer. But at least one was.
Odds are any quiet fellow who keeps his apartment so messy it smells
bad, isn't a serial killer and cannibal. But at least one was.
Odds are any strangely-dressed characters walking down the street
don't have a kidnapped teen girl in their group. But at least one did.
Are you going to disbelieve that these situations actually occurred,
just because they're rare?
It sounds as though you prepared to arrest every one of them on the
offchance that they are.
William Robb
Nonsense.
It sounded to me as if some people commenting in this thread would never
have believed any of them could have been a problem just because most
people in the same circumstances are not. I'm pointing out that
exceptions do exist.
I did not say, and I do *not* think, that they should all be arrested
because one in a few million people in the same situation happened to be
a very dangerous criminal. Graywolf was ridiculing the idea that a
pizza-delivery person could be a problem because in his experience they
are usually harmless, pimply-faced teenagers. I am saying that just
because most are OK doesn't mean it can't be true that one was found who
isn't harmless. (In fact, IF this particular individual in fact delivers
pizza, he already doesn't fit Graywolf's description because he's not a
teenager, he's 35.)
