Segretezza shakes his head and approaching the schlubs gathered on the street begins to speak......

So, some people got mugged today.  That'll teach them to stick their hands in my pockets.  The response however, was a little perturbing.  After gathering my thoughts and coming up with alibi's for the filth I returned home to a couple of mails which, in a nutshell, took the following format:

Hey, 

 

You should really indicate on your lapel that you are not friendly to being pick pocketed.

REALLY? 

I mean, seriously, what the flying fuck?  Has our community really descended into a bunch of hand holding, fassie cunts?  I would like to think otherwise but on this evidence I seem to have been proved wrong on so many levels.

What the fuck do people expect?  

You stick your hands into a mobsters pockets and that mobster happens to see you, what else do you expect?  A pat on the back, maybe a kiss and a hug and some loose change for a scotch down at the local speakeasy?  

If you don't want to be mugged, why not just attack the plethora of corrupt agents wandering our streets?  Seriously, they seem to love it, not once in my lifetime nor my ancestors do I have one documented case of a reaction from these schlubs.  

<font color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)">If I had my way, these </font>friendly<font color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)">/unfriendly badges would be banished from our world, pick pocketing is about taking a risk no?  Where is the fun in something that carries no risk?  I sure as hell can't find any.</font>

But what do I know hey?  After all, I am just a lowly Gangster trying to make an honest cent or two.

In the words of one of our forefathers:

Let the ass-kissing and abuse commence.

Garrus hears the young mans speech, and steps forward to respond. But, before he can he see's a mobster grab from his pockets.. He grabs the mans hand then breaks it. After that, Garrus takes part of the mans money he had on him.

"Now what you just saw here is a pickpocket and a mugging happen within seconds of one another. I myself have never and will never put a Pickpocket status on my profile. Why? Because if someone wants to steal from me how can I tell them no? Most people don't listen to that status anyways. I know I sure as hell don't, why would I need someone permission to steal?"

Garrus then takes a second to light a cigarette.

"If you want to react then that is your choice, I will deal with it. I know the consequences for stealing as does every other member of this community."

I dont wear the pp friendly/unfriendly mark simply because i think it would ruin the simplicity of my profile, 

if you want to stick your hands in my pockets feel free, just dont think youll walk away unharmed. 

Heh, whenever I see these stupid 'pickpocket un-friendly' tags it makes me want to pick the hell out of their pockets even more. However, I have respect and a deep seeded love for the meaning of rank.

This is why you will never see me picking the pocket of someone who out ranks me. If someone out ranks me then they have nothing to worry about with my hands being in their pockets. However, If I out rank my potential victim I will pick pocket them regardless of what ever stance they may have on the subject. 

If I get caught and get a beating in return... then so fucking be it. I took the chance and I'll take the damned risk without crying about it. After all, I did just steal from someone. 

I wouldn't expect anything less Genocide.

In fact, I would be most upset if you saw me and took no action.  

Like others have said I personally do not wear a silly tag stating if i'm friendly or unfriendly. 

I like the reactions of some. I'm an avid pickpocketer and I often attempt people that are unfriendly more often then people who are friendly. It gives me some excitement and I sure do like free money.

Me personally? I've never mugged anyone. I'm a nice cat by nature, but if one was to pickpocket me and not be friendly, I'd claw them to oblivion.

It's exciting to steal money from a mobster. Did they see me do it? Who knows. It's all in good fun for me.

What I consider disrespectful is stealing from another mobster that shares your district (or sometimes city) and refusing to repay. Yeah, we're all out to make a quick buck, but have some form of fucking unity for your own sake.

Tags are only a way to make one feel in control. Sure, many people do respect an individual's stance on pickpocketing but in the end tags do nothing. Those who complain about being pickpocketed, or express pickpocket unfriendly, then go off and get caught in your personals...well they'll get what's to them.

I think naturally every mafioso should be unfriendly to thieves. It should go without saying. I'm not sure when being friendly to having your money stolen became a thing. Who knows, maybe we'll see people start claiming to be wack friendly soon.

BigBlack listened to the topic discussed and felt he had a strong enough stance on the matter to voice his opinion on it. 

Being new to these shores I had a look around at what the other mobsters were doing in relation to picking others pockets.  I also watched others to see what they were wearing as suits.  I believed it to be the norm to have your stance on the issue written on your suit so I did the same.  I am seriously reconsidering this though as I agree with what some have already stated here.

 It is not really  mobster like to profess your stance openly on your suit.  It is also not becoming of a member of organized crime to steal from another member.  Unless they want to end up swimming in the river some where or cut up and thrown into a cement drum.    

As far as I'm concerned, you take the risk you take the consequences. Simple as that. The onus is not on the victim to make their status clear, it is on the assailant, if they don't want to be mugged, not to try and take the risk. If you don't want to be mugged, don't take any chances.

Well, I'm certainly glad that you aren't getting your way. I quite like having the pp friendly tag as I find it encourages interaction between mobsters. Which is a good thing. Especially for someone like myself who doesn't have a HUGE circle of friends. If you want more mystery then just move on to the next untagged person. Ultimately it doesn't affect you that much other than being inconvenienced to know that I won't mug you. 

Thank you though, ser. I'd forgotten to add the PP friendly tag, which I've just corrected. 

McMurphy stroked his chin as various fellas spoke, the subject was pick-pocketing, something he'd thankfully not suffered from as yet.

Well see if a chappie puts his hands in my pockets, I figure he's either trying to stroke my snake, or take my money. I wouldn't be too happy with either, and I don't see why you need to carry around a fuckin' sign saying so.

Don't see many signs carried around sayin' don't fuckin' shoot me, do ya?

He shook his head, and gave a shrug.

If someone's gotta have it spelled out for them, maybe they ain't runnin' on a full battery, ya know?

The truth of the matter is most people will do what they want whether your signed pp friendly, unfriendly or not at all.   Is it theft if your asking permission, not really, do some people pay back to lessen the alleged humiliation or bg check of pp'ing of course.  Different people will have aversions to hands in their pockets for different reasons whether seen as an attack, bg check or just the a blatant dislike.

Should people follow the family rules of course, secondly some districts don't like to intervene in pp problems, so often will say, don't pp if don't want to get mugged or we don't intervene.

I dont know what to say to this, just looking around a little.

I respect peoples wishes but if they pp me i mug :) 

A tattoo on your suit jacket, or anywhere on your body really doesn't encourage communication.

I actually said "interaction" which doesn't necessarily have to involve communication. If I pickpocket someone back after they've pp'd me, that's interaction that might not have occurred had I not included a pp friendly tag. Some of us enjoy being pickpocketed and then pickpocketing in return. Listing myself as "pp friendly" most certainly encourages that level of interaction, at the very least. Why discourage something, like the original speaker suggested, that some people (no matter how small of a group those people are) enjoy and doesn't actually harm anyone else? 

Of course, communication CAN happen. You can take that basic interaction to the next level. The choice is up to you. I've had old friends from past lives bump into me because of the tag and my bloodline has made friends because I sent a message to them when I've noticed repeated insertions into my pockets. I'm not saying that it happens all the time(and it certainly doesn't happen as often these days), but, it certainly is a possibility. 

Veo looks around, contemplating at the men's faces. He'd been standing there, quietly, listening to each of their opinions. He takes a step forward and takes his hat off. 

Ah, gentlemen, a debate about feeling each other's pockets. Everyone has exposed some fair points, and I would just like to share my point of view. Personally, I don't mind getting my pockets picked. In fact, my tag encourages thieves to keep what they get. Yes, I worked hard for my money, but given where I am now, what the thief takes away does not represent much compared to what I can make. I bet this is the same for most of you. 

Picking pockets is an aspect of our life; the life we chose. We are all trying to get far, and picking each others' pockets is simply another means to achieve it. Granted giving back what you stole can be considered courtesy and failure to do so might result in mugging, but I believe I shouldn't be getting mad at others for doing the same thing we were once taught we could do. 

Gentlemen.

Veo puts his hat back on and takes a step back.