No Sympathy or Remors

The definition of chutzpa is someone whose blatantly egregious effrontery comes with an air of injured innocence. Along with a touch of the pot calling the kettle black. Offensively uncivil, unbelievably hubristic. Actually words tend to fail when confronted with the spectacle of a young thug who justifies his thieving activities by claiming that his victims are at fault because of the conspicuous appearance (to him) of laxity in protecting what they own.

This kind of attitude is not prevalent in some societies. In a country like Japan, for example, where people live virtually cheek-by-jowl on their little Pacific islands with mountainous regions leaving scant enough room for population growth, people are just as acquisitive and anxious to own things as anywhere else. But they live in more confined spaces because there simply is not enough room in a mega-metropolis like Tokyo for people to live in roomy houses set on ample acreage.

People there are largely crammed into tiny, very expensive apartments. And the Japanese drive a lot of cars; they're consummate consumers but also very particular about quality. Yet they respect private and public ownership. Common thievery is rare. Valuable and vulnerable belongings may be left out on a public sidewalk adjacent to an apartment; no one will touch them. The Japanese may leave their mopeds, motorcycles, bicycles in a very visible public area, trusting that no one will attempt to make away with them, and they're quite correct. No one does, although they are rarely locked.

Yet in a country like Britain, (or anywhere in North America), young thugs feel so entitled to take what they feel is inadequately protected from entry-and-acquisition, that they express huge contempt when their targets fail to observe that not drawing their curtains when night falls leaves them susceptible to curious eyes followed by illegal home entries and careful selection of valued objects that have appeal to thieves.

It is as though there is a progression from being acutely socially impertinent to viciously criminally impudent. As evidenced by a British teen-turned-burglar whom West Yorkshire Police took steps to interfere with, by intercepting the note below, as his court-ordered 'apology' might not have appeared as such to the intended recipients. The teen wrote a page-long letter, as instructed, to the family whose home he had burgled:

"I dont no why I am writing a letter to you! I have been forced to write this letter by ISSP. To be honest I'm not bothered or sorry about the fact that I burgled your house. Basically it was your fault anyways. I'm going to run you through the dumb mistakes you made. Firstly you didn't draw your curtains which most people now to do before they go to sleep. Secondly your dumb you live in Shainburns a high risk burglary area and your thick enough to leave your downstairs kitchen window open. I woulnt do that in a million years. But anyways I don't feel sorry for you and I'm not going to show any sympathy or remors.
Yours sincerly"

From the plethora of spelling errors it's abundantly clear that the young man didn't take his schooling all that seriously, either. And it appears that he's fairly complacent about the direction he's chosen to take in his life; the fork in the road that led to criminal activity. Because it's so easy, because there are so many poor sods about who don't believe they will be victimized by petty little larcenists like this.