News: No reasoning with the unreasonable

Last Friday night, two store clerks at a Circle K were murdered by masked robbers. Here's an excerpt from Andrew Marra's write-up in the Palm Beach Post today (the mugshots in the link sidebar are not the suspects, BTW; the Circle K killers are reportedly either white or white Hispanic):

Investigators said the unfolding of Friday night's robbery and double homicide at a Circle K in Greenacres, revealed in surveillance camera footage partially released today by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, indicates both clerks were executed without provocation.

As far as detectives can tell, they had not resisted, disobeyed or challenged their masked attackers.

"The public should be outraged," said Sheriff's Sgt. Rick McAfee, adding that the clerks, Ralston Muller, 39, and Michael Dean Bennett, 48, were "gunned down in cold blood."

"Experts" (including some well-heeled police chiefs) often tell people not to resist criminals, since resistance would only prompt more violence. There is some truth in that sentiment; many robbers are just after the money, and yielding to their threats can be part of a calculated strategy to get them out of the door as quickly as possible.

In the case of the Circle K murders, the whole thing was planned from start to finish; the two masked men were in and out in less than a minute. Robbers can do this because they walk into convenience stores and banks expecting to find submissive victims. Nothing ever disrupts their OODA loops, so whatever their plan is - whether it's stealing cash or shooting hostages - they can execute it, fast.

The Circle K murders, however, also illustrate a harsh reality: when you're bargaining with someone who has taken the social contract and ripped it up into confetti, all bets are off. There was no apparent reason to kill Mr. Muller and Mr. Bennett, who were, by all accounts, perfectly average Joes just trying to earn a buck. In the end, though, the two thugs didn't need a reason.