Kent Bank robbery

[Mxfan]

Does anyone agree with me that to some extent the robbers should somehow be admired for actually having the guts to carry out a crime like this. How incredible would it have been if they were never caught.

[noxlumos]

Never mind Mxfan, I know what you meant by by the question even if you've got accosted by the "technical definition brigade".

Although obviously no-one would condone the kidnapping of and 8 year old kid etc etc etc, I think Mxfan was simply trying to say that it took, planning, careful execution, a lot of nerve and that as such not just anyone could have pulled it off without things going wrong and people getting hurt.Jutsia is right that we all love a good bank robbery film and that when these guys are celebrated in celluloid then most of us will be cheering them on, or has no-one seen films like Lock Stock or Snatch and identified with the bloke with a gun up someone's nose?

I don't think violence etc is ever excusable in the persuit of money but this particular robbery did take some pulling off.

[Cheesefreek]

Yea, well they'r all getting pulled in now, so obviously they weren't so clever.

[gary baldy]

Knicking 50 million quid or knicking your car stereo - whats the difference?
None - both thieving scum!
You dont here much 'admiration' for your local smack head who steals your video do you?

[JustSia]

By no means am I trying to convert anyone to my opinion. Neither am I saying that JudgeJ's view on this subject is clouded. If anything I respect people for taking such a strong moral standing. Unfortunately in this case I think the underlying idea had nothing to do with the morality of the situation. Perhaps PO�s post was a tad over-enthusiastic, maybe admiration was a bit of a strong word (although not completely wrong in its context) but it is a very well know concept.

We respect sharks (despite the number of deaths caused by them), we respect poisons found in snakes/spiders, scientist have a certain degree of admiration and respect for viruses and bacteria. Boxers respect their opponents. Generals respect their adversaries and through that respect learn how to conquer them. Just like love, respect/admiration can mean loads of things in different contexts. You have to respect your enemy and understand it in order to learn its weaknesses and thus beat it. It is not a rule but it is practiced often enough.

...see the following post...

[JustSia]

Talking about Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, Vinnie Jones�s character was based on one of the most notorious gangsters in London, Dave Courtney. (BTW, I strongly recommend his autobiography �Stop the ride I want to get off�). Anyhow in it he said something that stuck with me. Villains behind crimes like these (unless they are �fake, plastic gangsters�) often look at what they do as �work�. He did not expect us, �straights� to understand it, although police do, but said that this is their way of life, it�s a norm for them, it is what they are good at, and what they are ultimately paid for. It might be illegal but work none the less. (For them!!! I am not talking about how I see it). And in order to catch them this requires a certain degree of detachment from the police, which is why they are more likely to appreciate the skill and the resourcefulness behind these crimes. It is not condoning but understanding. This is why these crimes often make the best fiction and Hollywood blockbusters.

S.

PS, this topic is specifically about villains like bank robbers and such, not the entire crime world. Some crimes are not acceptable even in the underworld.

[Supernick]

Right. How hard was this robbery? Kidnap a bankers family and threaten to kill them. Obtain a truck. Enter building and threaten to kill everyone. Load money into truck. Drive off. It takes nerve, but they're hardly winning any prizes for ingenuity. In fact haven't they just ripped off the same robbery from a while back in Northern Ireland?Now it turns out that they've made so many basic errors that the net is closing fast.

As for admiring them, no way. They've terrorised an 8 year old boy, a family and a load of bank employees. That family can't go home for fear they'll come back, the bot can't go to school, and numerous people are in need of councilling after believing they were going to die.

The next time someone performs a string of excellently planned rapes and gets away with it, we'll see if anyone admires the precision and balls that it takes to go through with it.

[joko]

well said nox.

i think some are misunderstanding what mxfan was actually saying.

daring to do this and planning it must take some level of balls and intelligence, and to pull it off is amazing - ok they were caught later, but still - most people wouldn't even know where to begin, i know i wouldn't! (i know most people wouldn't want to know where to begin)

obviously they are scumbags to even want to do this and should be locked up, but their plan was sort of clever and i think thats what mxfan was saying

had this been a 'victimless' crime and they had got away without scaring or hurting anyone - i think a lot more people would actually be patting them on the back - however without their violence they wouldn't have got away, so they weren't really so clever, otherwise they would have been in and out, and it would have taken a while for anyone to even notice anything was missing.

as someone said, with all their planning abilities they could probably be doing some well paid job.

this reminds me of a story of a bank robber who burst into the bank, and smiled and looked right into the security cameras, looking smug, and robbed the bank - he was caught and told the police that he had heard that lemon juice stopped the cameras being able to see your face. the person had meant squirt it at the lens - this doofus had rubbed lemon juice all over his face!! he thought, somehow, his face appeared blurred on the cameras! :oD haha

[Mxfan]

Gary Baldy - I believe there is a big difference between someone stealing your video and someone stealing 50 million quid. A hell of a lot of planning would go into robbing a bank. It isn't something a smackhead would do whilst drugged up.

Clever criminals can also be employed after commiting crimes eg. Hackers who steal money from people through computer fraud are often employed by Major computer companies in stopping other Hackers.

[Andy008]

Whilst initially an event like this has a kind of dramatic allure to it, in the cold light of day it appears that the robbers were motivated entirely by greed - to steal the full amount of �53 million reeks of hubris. On a global scale �53m is no huge amount - but in loose cash it is an obscene amount. Anyone sensible would have thought "Let's take 10% and we've still got a load and cash which we can safely launder".

Also the mantra "success breeds success" doesn't just apply to legitimate business - there is a very good chance that the money was in part destined to finance other criminal activity.

[Cheesefreek]

joko - I almost died laughing at the guy who put lemon juice on his face to fool the camera. Thanks for writing that - you've made my day. In fact I've got tears rolling down my face as I'm typing.

[joko]

glad to be of service cheesefreak.

my favourite type of criminal!

heres another - shown on cctv

man goes into a bank and demands the money - an alarm goes off and shutters come down over the tellers windows.
the man, giving up, tries to go out the door - it won't open, he pushes and pushes, it must have locked automatically like the shutters he thinks, he starts shouldering it with all his might, taking run-ups over and over again - it won't open. its hilarious watching him getting angry and desperately banging the door.
eventually, worn out, he stands back realising hes done for, when a little old lady approaches the glass door from the outside - and pushes the door open - inwards!
dumbfounded he pulls the door handle and escapes - durrr!

whats funny is he had come through that door seconds earlier - and lets face it most doors don't open onto the street do they?

i love dumb criminals!

[Cheesefreek]

Check this out for dumb criminals http://www.bullguard.com/badnews/

[ahar]

fact is, they did get caught. so aside from the whole ruining lives aspect, its not admirable coz they didn't even get it right.

[Eno]

If it was just plain Theft then you could say they had pulled off a great blag with only the insurers being the victims.

But sadly it wasn't, it was Robbery with threats of violence and intimidation to take a life being used. Any idiot can plan a heist using violence and weapons.

I hope they throw away the damn key !!!!

[JudgeJ]

Be careful, Eno. I agree with your views 100%, but don't get bamboozled into thinking that crimes are OK "when only the insurers are victims".

When the insurers are victims then we all are (or at least all of us wanting any kind of insurance). Insurers do not meet the costs of events like this out of the kindness of their hearts. They meet them by increasing their premiums - for which we will all ultimately pay, and thus become victims.

[FTVS]

I too find it hard to admire anyone who threatens teh life of a 8 year old boy.

BUT in any event, they are not great robbers are they? Firstly they have stolen far too much cash: bonds, jewels, even fine art would have been easier to convert than nearly a tonne of bills with known serial numbers. Secondly, looks like too many people are involved, the police first got onto them when that idiot walked into a BS with teh Tonbridge wrapper on the cash! Not only that, she was dim enough to let the BS staff string her along until the police came to arrest her... yeah really admirable clever robbers...!

[Eno]

Totally agree with Judge J. There is always a much bigger picture, with indirect victims getting suckered in.

[smart guy]

man i swear they do all that and go and get court .Some one would at least plan what theie going to do after the robbery

[smart guy]

kent bank robbery hey..they do that and get cought.why did they paln what they were going to do after the robbery when they got the money.