Profile of a NYC pickpocket

[Permalink]

I love how these articles about “master” criminals always begin in a prison or jail.

It’s like being a spy. If we’re reading about your exploits in the mainstream press, you weren’t that good.

I think a lot of banksters would have a good chuckle if they read that…

In the genre, I always enjoyed this gem. Harry never holds!

These breathless, awed profiles of career criminals always make me uncomfortable. Yes, this guy is seriously skilled. He’s very good at a difficult job. But his “job” is ruining people’s lives, and it’s really disturbing that the author seems to think that that’s not such a bad thing. As if to prove it, the bit he chooses to end the article–the thing he wants you to take away–is this:

In the end, she added, the worst that could be said of her husband was that he was a thief.

“So what?” Ms. Rose said. “He never hurt anybody, never got in fights — never bothered no women, never hurt anybody.

“All they can say is he’s a thief,” she added. “That’s all.”

“Never hurt anybody,” my ass. Jacking someone’s rent money, or the cash they were gonna feed their kids with, hurts far more than a broken nose. I can at least understand why the man’s wife would be in denial about what a dirtbag the father of her children is, but I don’t see what Joseph Goldstein gets out of facilitating it.

3 Likes

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.