[HN Gopher] The Dresden Job
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The Dresden Job
Author : axiomdata316
Score : 46 points
Date : 2021-08-27 16:52 UTC (6 hours ago)
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| krisoft wrote:
| > ...flashy new generation of young outlaws...
|
| I know i'm fighting a loosing battle but outlaw is not just an
| interestring sounding synonym for criminal. Being an outlaw means
| that the state has declared you to be outside of the protection
| of the law. Have you seen the movie The Purge? Like that, but
| only affecting you. Anyone, the police, your grandma, other
| criminals, that guy on the street can just knock your head in and
| they won't even get a scolding. Being declared an outlaw is a
| terrible fate, and naturally no modern state practices it.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| words often do not retain their original meaning. No modern
| state practices declaring people outlaws therefore if the word
| outlaw retained its original meaning the only reason we would
| have to use it would be in history books as an antiquated term,
| but it is used quite often.
|
| Thus outlaw has new meanings, the most common one is criminal,
| but some people seem to go with a meaning very like that of Tom
| Robbins, from Still Life with Woodpecker:
|
| "The difference between a criminal and an outlaw is that while
| criminals frequently are victims, outlaws never are. Indeed,
| the first step toward becoming a true outlaw is the refusal to
| be victimized. All people who live subject to other people's
| laws are victims. People who break laws out of greed,
| frustration, or vengeance are victims. People who overturn laws
| in order to replace them with their own laws are victims. ( I
| am speaking here of revolutionaries.) We outlaws, however, live
| beyond the law. We don't merely live beyond the letter of the
| law-many businessmen, most politicians, and all cops do that-we
| live beyond the spirit of the law. In a sense, then, we live
| beyond society. Have we a common goal, that goal is to turn the
| tables on the 'nature' of society. When we succeed, we raise
| the exhilaration content of the universe. We even raise it a
| little bit when we fail."
|
| I personally hate that usage, because I knew a guy who would go
| around with a self satisfied smirk declaring that he was an
| outlaw because he sold a bit of weed and believed in freedom
| whereas other people who were doing drugs were just criminals.
| I expect he probably got busted and ratted out all his friends,
| because I have a low opinion of outlaws I guess.
| teddyh wrote:
| That definition still seems to define "outlaw" as a kind of
| revolutionary, albeit with different, more nebulous, goals
| than the traditional kind of revolutionary.
| zdragnar wrote:
| I am of the opinion that words _should_ retain their original
| meaning. Without that, we will forever struggle to understand
| our history.
| stan_rogers wrote:
| That's just being silly. (Feel free to try to figure out
| exactly what _silly_ has meant over the ages.)
| function_seven wrote:
| The term has been literally decimated. Irregardless of original
| meaning, it is now loost.
| ManuelKiessling wrote:
| Considering the original meaning of the term ,,decimated",
| that other term probably has not been decimated, at least not
| literally.
| mikestew wrote:
| I do miss /.'s "whoosh", even if the rest of the place has
| gone to hell. But I'm firmly convinced that the commenter
| you're replying to is all too aware of the definition of
| "decimate", and the word's abuse at the hands of others.
| The rest of the sentence seems to make that clear, but
| could be missed by non-native English speakers.
| ManuelKiessling wrote:
| Got me! I'm indeed not a native speaker, but I didn't
| want that to stop me from giving it a try.
| function_seven wrote:
| Ha. The hill I'm ready to die on is never using the '\s'
| tag. If it's not apparent enough without it, then maybe
| it's not worth writing at all?
| teddyh wrote:
| _No_ sarcasm can be apparent enough for everybody,
| according to Poe's law.
| mmcdermott wrote:
| I can understand that. The only slight distinction I see
| is that if you make a sarcastic statement in real life,
| there are a number of other cues to inform the listeners
| of sarcastic intent. Tone of voice and body language
| would be the main ones, but prior knowledge of the
| speaker is also key. None of those survive into a digital
| space and so I think having some sort of convention to
| replace its loss seems reasonable.
| ithinkso wrote:
| It's not a slight distinction, the smirk is missing and
| is replaced by the '/s'
|
| It awfully similar to humming or 'pretend percussion with
| your fingers' of the song you're hearing in your head.
| It's basically spot on for you but most of the time no
| one else has a clue what the hell are you trying to
| pretend to play
| puchatek wrote:
| Except in this particular case several people picked up
| on the sarcasm without the /s. I would say "omit at your
| own risk".
| mig39 wrote:
| I think you missed the sarcasm. "Irregardless" "Literally"
| "loost" ...
| labster wrote:
| I think I would have gone with "irregardless of what it once
| was, it did loose it's original meaning." But all's swell
| that ends swell.
| [deleted]
| da_chicken wrote:
| That's only _one_ definition for the word. Most dictionaries
| include more than one definition, and those meanings are not
| less correct.
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| > The unit sifted through the physical evidence, reviewed closed-
| circuit-camera footage, and interviewed two unarmed security
| guards who had heard the commotion and locked themselves in the
| basement safe room during the robbery.
|
| I wonder what the job description was for which these security
| guards were hired.
| corty wrote:
| As it says: unarmed.
|
| Your job as an unarmed guard is to complement the alarm system
| with your eyes and ears, and if something is amiss, press the
| alarm button and get out of there. Which is what they did.
|
| The article makes it sound like security was tight, but the
| museum was, according to news articles at the time, too stingy.
| If they had wanted to spend the money, they could have had
| armed guards, physical barriers other than simple glass cases
| and reinforced outer walls. But they were even too stingy for
| an insurance, and the insurer might have told them to up their
| security before taking the contract.
|
| https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp2.handelsblatt.com/politik/d...
| Archelaos wrote:
| Armed guards would increase the risk that someone is killed.
| According to German law, a guard would only be entitled to
| use its weapon in self defense, not in defense of the things
| to be guarded. Using a weapon is only justified when no other
| means is sufficient to ward off the threat to one's own or
| someone else's life. Shooting and killing a thief can result
| in a murder charge against the shooter. It would also make
| the job of the guards far more dangerous, when burglars are
| expecting armed guards and would be tempted to use violence
| first.
| corty wrote:
| Not quite. Weapon use would be possible as
| "Rechtfertigender Notstand",
| https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/34.html . This doesn't just
| include protection of ones own life, but also of property.
| However, the force used has to be suitable and
| proportionate, so shooting someone dead would not be
| justified. Injuring someone would usually be justified, but
| will always land in front of a judge to apply 20/20
| hindsight. And no one wants to accept that risk.
| formerly_proven wrote:
| Armed guards are extremely rare in Germany. Legally possible,
| yes, but I doubt a museum could have them.
| bserge wrote:
| It's a shit job. You can get hurt for close to minimum wage and
| get prison time if you hurt someone. Just play it safe and
| report everything to the police afterwards.
| DemiGuru wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarecrow
| ashton314 wrote:
| I got to tour the Green Vault twice before the heist. Just a
| month before I was going to go for my third trip to take my wife
| for the first time, this heist happened.
|
| It's a shame that so many valuables were stolen. On the upside,
| the thieves did not take the really interesting, unique pieces
| that I personally find more fun to look at. If you ever find
| yourself in Dresden, you need to go to the Green Vault.
| janmo wrote:
| I went to the Green Vault a year before the robbery and I
| remember telling myself how easy it would be to rob this place.
| It is located on the ground floor with a road passing by. The
| windows looked like normal windows, the only protection I could
| see were some old metals bars put outside of the window. The way
| it was secured was already an invitation for a robbery.
| fnord77 wrote:
| > A prison term is considered a badge of honor. "The family says
| that 'jail makes men,' " says Falko Liecke, a Neukolln politician
| who works to dissuade young people from pursuing criminal
| careers. "When the kids get out of prison, they throw them a big
| party and give them their first Rolex watch."
|
| so much for rehabilitation
| snappr021 wrote:
| Ivory vaults?
|
| I'm feeling nauseated.
| axegon_ wrote:
| I had never heard of this before. I have been to Dresden once for
| new years 2017 iirc and while I was reading the article it felt
| like fiction. The city was swarmed with heavily armed police all
| throughout the city. All the police officers were incredibly
| polite and helpful and were more than happy to respond to any
| sort of questions. Mind you, they were all insanely heavily
| armed. I spent an afternoon at the Zwinger museum and while there
| was no apparent security anywhere in sight, my friend, being as
| curious as they come, stepped over the designated limits in the
| gallery on several instances. And there wasn't even a second
| before a security guard would pop out of nowhere with a "Miss,
| could you take a step back, please". A heist like the one
| described feels like it's about a completely different place.
| [deleted]
| lostlogin wrote:
| I think that assuming more police means less crime is a
| problem. The article even mentions how that family join
| security companies to get insider information.
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(page generated 2021-08-27 23:01 UTC)