Episode 795 - Crimes of Intent VS Opportunity
In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew talk about the difference between Crimes of Intent VS Opportunity.
Crimes of Intent VS Opportunity - Episode 795
Crimes happen every day. It could happen to us randomly or for some reason, someone has been planning something bad for some time. As martial artists, we are trained to somehow protect ourselves against these. But how do we at least avoid being confronted with crime? In this episode, Jeremy and Andrew talk about the difference between Crimes of Intent VS Opportunity and how martial artists respond to them.
After listening to the episode it would be exciting for us to know your thoughts about it.
Show Transcript
You can read the transcript below.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome. This is whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, and today, Andrew and I are tackling a subject that some of you may have not have thought about before. Crimes of intent versus crimes of opportunity and the way we respond to the different types varies. And so as martial artists, we have to think about that. Stick around. If you're new to the show, whistlekick.com is the place to start. That's where you're gonna find out about everything we're doing. It's a long list and we're adding stuff all the time. So if you haven't been over there in the last three to four weeks, I would strongly urge you to check it out. One of the things there is our store, you can make purchases using the code podcast15, saves you 15%, and we have new stuff coming in. I've just had emails coming in last night about new apparel items that we're adding. So cool, stuff is happening. whistlekickmartialartsradio.com is the place to go for everything related to this show. We have brought you close to 800, right? This won't be on the other side of the 800 mark, right?
Andrew Adams:
No, I don't think so.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Okay. Alright. So we brought you almost 800 episodes and we've been doing this for almost eight years. Why? It is our mission to connect, educate, and entertain traditional martial artists worldwide. I don't care how long you've been training, I don't care who you train with. I don't care what you get from your training. I care that you train. I believe wholeheartedly, and the team does as well, that even six months of training makes you a better version of yourself. And thus, if we could get everybody in the world to train the world would be a much better place. Now, if you wanna support us in all the things that we're doing. We could help you with your school in a consulting capacity. We could send you some books. We have books, go check 'em out on Amazon. I guess Amazon's sending you the books. You could make a purchase or we also have a Patreon patreon.com/whistlekick. $2 a month is how you get in. It goes up from there. There are various tiers if you want, free training programs or books or all sorts of other good stuff. Well, there you go. We've got tons of stuff and our Patreon, like everything else we do is based on delivering overwhelming value. And we know that we're doing a good job because people rarely reduce or remove their pledges. And we see those numbers continue to march up. Doesn't cover all of our expenses, but it covers a chunk and it's a nice chunk and we appreciate it.
Andrew Adams:
It helps.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Keeping all of you out there. Alright. Let's talk about the impetus for this topic.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. Cause you brought this topic
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Andrew Adams:
To me and said, hey, we should do an episode on this.
Jeremy Lesniak: So I got back from some traveling abroad just a couple days ago, and there was a point in time, probably the third or fourth day I was in my hotel room. And you know, if you stay in a hotel and you're there long enough, you need people to come in and clean. And, you know, this was not like three days. So I wasn't saying don't clean, but there were things that I was hiding, right? There were things you know, I was in, I was traveling in Mexico, I was traveling in a safe portion of Mexico, but it's still Mexico and there, you know, it's not like it's perfect. And there was a point where I kind of sat back and said, all right, I brought some extra money. It's not all in my wallet because if I'm out and about, I could lose my wallet. I could be mugged.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
You know, in fact having all of my money in my wallet makes it more likely someone's gonna steal it from me because when I open to pay for something, I might see it all. Versus leaving my extra money in my hotel room where I am not around. And the people cleaning it have all the time and access that they want. Hmm. Interesting. And it made me start to think about this notion that there are some crimes that occur because someone wants to make them happen. A lot of violent crime as we think about it is actually crime of intent. You know, when you look into the statistics, you know, domestic abuse, et cetera, these are crimes of intent. You know, it was the same crime would not occur in a different circumstance with a different person, et cetera, versus a crime of opportunity where you could pretty much swap out the person. And it's just as likely to happen, you know, if I walk down the street and somebody is waiting in the shadows with a weapon, and their intent is to rob people as they go by. It doesn't matter whether it's me or somebody else. They want to do that, right? But there's also an opportunistic element there, because if I walk down the street with six friends and they're alone...
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Now that intent doesn't seem as solid. You know, they're, maybe they look for an opportunity.
Andrew Adams:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And, I started thinking about this quite a bit and I think it's a delineation in crime and we'll talk about it in terms of violence, cuz this is a martial art show, that I'm not saying hasn't been discussed. I'm just saying I haven't heard the conversation. How about you?
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, I think it's an interesting thing to think about and when you first brought it up to me, I started thinking of in terms of crimes that have a, typically are a little more premeditated and thought of more so often robberies, for example. I mean, obviously, they're opportunistic in terms of they're picking what they're going to rob and how they're going to do it, but they're thinking about it. As opposed to, you know, you mentioned the hotel, sorry, cleaning your hotel room. I was thinking in terms of like, you work at a large department store and you know, you just see this thing that you could probably get away easily with. Oh, you know what? I'm gonna take this, I'm gonna steal this because it's, you know, no one's gonna notice it. It's just, but I didn't go into work that day thinking I'm going to steal that thing. It was more like...
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Andrew Adams:
Oh this happens to be right there and I think I can get away with it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right. And so for me, you know, a lot of what I do when I think about protecting myself, my belongings, my home, is trying to reduce the perceived opportunity, the likely opportunity. If someone wants to, you know, really wants to come and rob my home, it's gonna happen. There's not much I can do. I don't have metal bars on my windows. I have no plans to do so. You know, I'm not putting in a moat as much as I would love to have a moat. But there are things that I have done. I have some signs advising that there are security cameras up. I do have security cameras. I have redundancy to those security cameras. I let my neighbors know that I was going away. Things like that, that make it a little bit less opportune. And if we want, take the example, the mugging example that is so common in our self-defense scenarios. What is one of the things that most good self-defense instruction leads with? Stand tall, don't have your eyes on your phone.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
If you're walking to your car, have your keys available, right? All these little things. And what do all of them do? It makes you a less opportune target. Because if someone really wants to rob someone, maybe they have intent of robbing someone. Maybe it is how they provide a living for themselves. Their intent is to rob someone. Despite the movies that we enjoy, you know that every crime is not the Thomas Crown Affair where an extensive amount of planning goes into committing that crime. So all we have to do is become less opportune than the next victim. And it's kind of sad that we think about it that way, but that really is the case. If someone's gonna rob somebody, just don't be the easiest target.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. I mean, there's a reason why when lions are stalking a herd of Wilder Beast or whatever, they go after the smallest one that they think, or the ones that are lame, the ones that they think they could get easily.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right, right. And this happens over and over again. It's actually you know, we can look at this delineation, this philosophy in a lot of different ways. Most of us here's one that almost has nothing to do with it, but you'll see the example in a moment. Who do most of us end up committing to romantically? The best person we think we can get. Not the best person we can find cuz there's always someone better, right? There's always someone we can find that we think is more attractive, smarter, whatever. But there's a reality component that goes into that. You know, the criminal on the street may look at us and say, you know, I'd really like to rob someone that has a, you know, a Rolex and, you know, six gold chains and they're dragging a wheelbarrow of money.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And they could hold out hope you know. Eventually, someone will come along that might fit closer to that description than I am with my, you know, I don't know, cargo shorts and flip-flops. But they're gonna be waiting a while. They don't think they can get that. So they make their choices.
Andrew Adams:
Right.
Jeremy Lesniak:
How do we take this notion into training, into self-defense? How do we bring this back out? You know, we've presented as a philosophical concept thus far.
Andrew Adams:
Well, I mean, one of the things that you, we already talked about is like, hold yourself higher, lift your, you know, all those things are useful. I mean, there's a reason why instructors tell people to do this because it can't hurt.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Andrew Adams:
Right. I'm not going to say it works. I'm not gonna say you won't get mugged if you do these things, but it's not gonna hurt, you know, it's not gonna make it you more likely to get robbed.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right, right. I think it's important that we apply this kind of understanding to the world. Because most of us tend to look at especially violent crime as one of these categories and not both. They're either prepared for the scenario where someone really means to go after them. But they ignore the random person who doesn't know who they are. Or they're so prepared for the random street mugging that they miss the warning signs of the drunken family member at the family reunion escalating the conversation.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And now it's come to blows, right? I don't think any crime is perfectly one or the other. I think it's always both.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. I mean, I think there's some...
Jeremy Lesniak:
But it's a spectrum, right? There's gonna be some element of both in there. And we could, not we won't, but we could come up with all the different crimes and, excuse me, and plot them along there and recognize that by diffusing some element of the opportunity or the intention, things change. Here's a great example. When we look at most bullying scenarios. It's a combination of both, right? You know, you think about back when you were a kid, somebody picked on you cuz it was you, but they also picked on you because there wasn't a teacher around.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, exactly.
Jeremy Lesniak: Right? And so you can change either the way you show up, the way you speak back, carry yourself doesn't matter if the teacher shows up, it changes the dynamic and the intent. Not that I'm concerning bullying a crime, I think that it's unfortunate.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's not a crime, but it could also be, you don't have to change anything about yourself. You just have to change your physical location. And now it is less of an opportunity for someone to take advantage of you.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah, exactly. And it's hard sometimes depending on the crime for you to know which it was. Was it more intent that someone planned on that, that they were going to rob you? Or was it just an opportunity that they just were gonna rob somebody? As an example, I have a good friend of mine who had their store broken into. And they broke the glass, for the door and they came in and stole some money, and they, you know, it, the person that owned the store didn't really have cameras, didn't have good safeguards.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Andrew Adams:
And there were a string, there ended up being a string of robberies, small businesses in town.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yeah.
Andrew Adams:
And they got their door, you know, they had replaced with a huge piece of plywood until some new glass could come in. About a month later, the glass finally got replaced. They had then put in security cameras to, you know, help ensure that at least if it happens again, they'd be able to find out who it was. Within three days of the new glass being put in, the door was broken again, and someone else came in. And the first time it happened, it seemed like it was just, you know, the person was obviously looking to rob places because they had been breaking into a number of businesses and this just happened to be, it was just, you know, opportunity they walked nearby. But then when it happened again, it was very clear that they were deliberately targeting specific businesses.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep. Probably because they'd been in.
Andrew Adams:
Correct.
Jeremy Lesniak:
They knew what the risks were.
Andrew Adams:
They had been in and cased the joint. They had had conversations with the owner. The owner actually helped them out. This person came in and said, Hey, you know, I really need some help and the owner said, oh, okay, well here's what we can do to help you out and help them. And they were actually really just coming in to find out the best way to rob the store.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Yep. Yeah. And you know, here's a good example with intent versus opportunity. The first time might have been opportunity, second time is intent.
Andrew Adams:
Correct.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right?
Andrew Adams:
Yep. That's exactly what I'm getting at.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And so if that person came in the second time and they saw the cameras, well, what did they have to do to avoid cameras? You know, put on a face mask, right? Like there's not a lot, when someone truly has intent, and this is something that's really terrifying for us to think about. Unfortunately, most crimes do not come down to complete intent cuz of the, as I see it, the further you get to the intent line, the scarier it gets.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Because here is the unfortunate reality. At any given time, if someone truly wants to harm you as an individual, they can do it. I could and, you know, let's, I'll take a ridiculous example that uses something that we don't often talk about. I could take my car and I could drive it into your house.
Andrew Adams:
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And I could probably collapse the house around you in doing so.
Andrew Adams:
Please don't.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And cause you great harm. And I'm not gonna give other examples. I'm giving that example specifically cuz it's a little bit of an odd one.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
But I would imagine that most of the audience right now is taking a moment and thinking and saying, you know, If I really wanted to hurt that person, I could. I don't care how geographically distant they are to you, you can make that happen.
Andrew Adams:
Sure.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And the fortunate thing is most of us are good people.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
And most of us who are not good people, our intent is really not on crime against a specific person. It's crime to a specific goal.
Andrew Adams:
Goal, yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak: Right? Money for purposes of whatever. And that is the thing that kind of saves us. So if we work hard to make the potential subject of these crimes, be it our body or our property, less opportune to the person who wants to commit the crime, it's the best thing that we can do. And what are examples like that? Well, it's training, it's building confidence.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
It's being aware of your surroundings, not burying your face in your phone. It's wearing weather appropriate clothing and shoes. It's not parking in, you know, areas of darkness. You know, try to find street lamps, things like that. It's always gonna happen. Crime has always happened. I don't see it ever going away. But it's about mitigation and acknowledgment of reality.
Andrew Adams:
Yeah. No, I think that's great. I mean, you can't live your life, you shouldn't live your life being, you know, worried and constantly like on edge, but you do have to some degree, look at the future and what may happen. You know, like you said, parking under a street lamp, if you know, it might be two o'clock in the afternoon, but if you know, I'm gonna be leaving work at, you know, 11:30 at night.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Right.
Andrew Adams:
It's perfectly bright when I'm parking my car. But having the wherewithal to think about, oh, when I leave, it's gonna be dark. There's a street light right there. I'm gonna park right here.
Jeremy Lesniak:
There are 1,001 things that we could take this into as specific examples, but I suspect in combination with the other episodes we've done, you can understand where...
Andrew Adams:
People get it.
Jeremy Lesniak:
We would head with this. And if anybody has specific questions or scenarios that they would like us to unpack, we will happily do so. Don't be afraid to reach out. You can get me jeremy@whistlekick.com or if you wanna talk to Andrew, andrew@whistlekickmartialartsradio.com. Can you take us to the end?
Andrew Adams:
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Takes us to the end seems like a good, logical conclusion. I wanna thank you for coming by. Thank you for your continued support of all that we do here at whistlekick, including Martial Arts Radio. We are proud of the show that we produce and a great deal of that pride comes from the growth and the improvements that we've made from your input. So if you have input, if you have ideas or show topics for guests, you know, there's a forum at whistlekickmartialartsradio.com, but you can also reach out to us directly. Our social media is @whistlekick. Don't forget, we offer consulting services to martial arts schools and we do a really good job of that. So keep that in mind. And if you wanna host a seminar, a whistlekick seminar, a Jeremy seminar, just let me know. We'll make that happen. That's it. All right. That's it. Nothing else you want to add?
Andrew Adams:
No, just one subliminal message.
Jeremy Lesniak:
Patreon? You can support our Patreon, patreon.com/whistlekick. Thank you, Andrew. That was hysterical. Until next time, train hard, smile, have a great day.