The smell of freshly cut grass wafted through the air as The_Dean enjoyed a quiet lunch on one of the many benches littered throughout Central Park. He was in Manhatten on business, and had a few moments to relax before rushing off to his meeting.

He stood to his feet and brushed the crumbs from his long trenchcoat, taking care to remove any litter and dispose of it in the conveniently placed trash can next to the bench on which he had sat. As he turned to head back to his vehicle, a body brushed very close to his, nearly knocking him down. His fingers closed on a thin arm tightly, as he regained his balance. His eyes came to rest on a young woman, short dark hair slightly tousled, and as his gaze traveled down her small frame, he noticed at once what had happened.

Her tiny hand held tightly to a dark shape that looked all too familier. His Wallet! The_Dean quickly made a mental note to jury-rig a chain somehow to his wallet so he could attach it to his belt. That would have to come later though, because first he needed to get it back.

Barely seconds had passed and the young squirming woman broke free from his grip, and started sprinting across the newly mowed lawn. The_Dean took up hot pursuit, and gave the young thing a damn good run for her (errm, HIS) money. He cought her rather quickly, tackling her to the ground and wrenching his wallet from her grasp. She sputtered and thrashed underneath his larger frame, and then she finally formed her first words.

"But Sir! I am pickpocket friendly, aren't you?" She said in a sob.

"Not in the slightest you ignorant bitch!" He replyed, as the back of his hand met her cheekbone, spinning her head to one side as a look of pure horror spread across her face. "Just be glad I didn't pistol-whip you. Now don't let me see your face again! Get the fuck out of here."

The_Dean had some more time before his meeting, and as the girl ran off screeching, he headed toward a group of passerbyes that had seen the incident.

"Seriously?! Pickpocket friendly? What the fuck is this world coming to? If someone needs money, give me a good reason and ASK for it, but I catch you with your hands in my pockets...I don't care who the fuck you think you are. I'll chase your ignorant ass down and lay a whoopin' on you!

The_Dean just stands there stunned shaking his head and waiting for anyone else to comment...

Anthony saw the whole thing from his usual lamp post. It was the one thing he leaned on around here, that lamp post. As the man came up and delivered his ultimatum Anthony raised his eyebrows and spoke up.

I understand the sentiment, why not kick a theif's ass if you can get away with it. Its that whole "I dont care who the fuck you are."  thing that might bit you in the ass sometime.

Anthony releans.

Well, the way I see it, anyone who deserves any money from my pocket, would have the decency to ask for it, or get it without my knowing, so I see nothing biting me in the ass. Thank you for the concern though.

Unfortunately, the guy who puts a bullet in between your eyes probably isn't going to give a rat's ass how you see it.

Then I'll die happy, with the knowledge I stood for what I believed in.

I think The_Dean is my new favorite person...

Let's just hope the post offices don't start putting up signs that say "Not Robbing Friendly...Commit a crime here and we WILL mug you."

Well, this topic has been visited and revisited on these Streets but still there seems to be no end in sight for this seemingly eternal debate. I for one view Pick Pocketing as harmless fun where the worst case scenario is you loose an amount of money you can recoup from 10 petties and mugging as a personal attack. That is just me.

However, The_Dean, let's for the sake of this argument assume that you DO stand by your vow to chase down anybody who Pick Pocket's you. What if either Godfather Deadly Sin or Don Sammy Garcini( for no reason other than the 'if you mug me, I'll shoot you quote' that they have') decide to Pick pocket you and you chase said City head down and you manage to beat him up. He will retaliate with a swift bullet to your head and go about his business without giving you any further thought. You, on the other would have died happy in the knowledge that you stood for what you believed but you would also be.. you know, dead. What would have happened to the world as a whole? nothing much.

My advice to you, even though you have not asked for any is that you just wait for now,respect people's views when they ask you not to PP them and suck it up when somebody more powerful than you Pick Pockets you and then rank up and if you are a Godfather with a no PP sign, I don't think anybody would dare try to PP you.

Ah! The wonderful "what if" senario. Alright, now we have a real debate, and I do so like debates.

First of all, I would like to address this from a different perspective. I will pretend for a moment that I am not a New Yorker under Don SammyGarcini, for the sake of argument, or that I have any affiliation with either of these fine men. They both have lived through one of the largest wars in recent history. Are you suggesting these powerful gentlemen who could, for the sake of argument, force taxes on whole citys and get tribute anytime they like, would stoop to the level of trying to grab the wallet of some poor goomba?

Of course, that would be their perogative, but do you then have so little faith in their ability, that you think that lowly goomba would actually catch them in the act? I had already stated two options that I would not have a problem with. 1) If they ask for it. 2) If they get it without me noticing.

Furthermore, I would think, if I was in their shoes; I would be VERY careful who I played those sensitive "games" with, since a mugging could be an awful debilitation tactic in a war senario.

On my final note, this is not said out of disrespect for anyone. Merely my personal opinion mixed with my own, possibly flawed, logic.

heres to hoping a city leader steals your wallet as soon as possible to see if your bite is as big as your bark

Personally, I stay true to my profile, and I respect other people's profiles. If they are PP Friendly, I'll PP them and pay the money back. If they are not PP friendly, or warn of mugging, I just leave them alone. For this simple fact, I won't be PP'ing The-Dean, so he won't have to prove if his 'bite is as big as his bark' AlexanderJones. I would have no problem with him mugging ANYBODY if they feel the need to go against his personal wishes and PP him.

If they can't respect his wishes, why should he respect their money, their ability to travel, and their ability to pickpocket again?

That is a very interesting point by Don Garcini.  Even a city leader respect's a Goomba's wishes.  All I can say to that is wow! 

I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not.  I will have to think about that for a while.  A city leader will come out here and express concern whether a Goomba's bite is as big as his bark.  Hmmm. 

It certainly brings up some interesting issues in my mind.  But perhaps I'll walk on over to my own street corner and talk about those issues, like - respect.  And the difference between respecting a person and respecting a person's wishes.  Are they two different things?  Should a city leader respect a Goomba's wishes?  What has any goomba done to earn any sort of respect?   Maybe a lot.  Maybe nothing.  I don't know.  I'm just posing the questions. 

Personally - I, too, respect people's wishes.  But that might just be because I'm a lowly associate of a family.  Who knows - when I earn my button, maybe I won't respect anybody, unless they earn it. 

Respect is usually something that's earned but I go about it as give everyone an equal amount of respect until one of them gives me a reason not to, they I may lose respect for them..

I think a city leader respecting a Goomba's wishes is nothing out of the ordinary.. I personally think that respecting someones wishes, regardless of rank, is a very honorable thing..

I think respecting a person includes respecting the persons wishes but respecting the persons wishes doesn't necessarily mean respecting the person, if that makes sense..

I agree that not many Goomba's do anything to earn any sort of respect but I think that everyone deserves a certain amount of respect without having earned it.. Maybe then the higher rank and the better you are to people and the more known and prestigious you are, maybe then you would have more respect than the average person for obvious reasons..

For example, Okay I'm a Capo, but I don't think I have half the respect that SammyGarcini has again, for obvious reason..
If someone is of a prestigious blood line then you could even say that some civilians have had a fair amount of respect..

I respect other people and their wishes to not be Pick Pocketed because I in turn, expect the same level of respect and/or consideration for my wishes..

I've seen many discussions about this and  I really don't have a strong opinion about it one way or another.  I don't really understand the whole friendly or unfriendly status.  I just tell people to pp if they must.  My beef is with people that put not pp friendly and then go ahead and pp someone else.  I think that if you are not pp friendly, and by the way I'm ok with that, you should keep your hands to yourself.  Don't tell someone that you don't want their hands in your pockets, but its ok for you to swipe their hard earned money?  Pretty hypocritical if you ask me.  But that's just my humble 2 cents worth.  Steal from me if you want.....just know that if you are pp unfriendly yourself and you do it.....respect from me is lost.

I know DeadlySin. I work with DeadlySin. Trust me, he would stoop to the level of picking a poor Goomba's pocket.

"Brick_Pollitt, I don't view it as just a Goomba's wishes that I am respecting, it is a fellow mobster, one that values this way of like and practises crime just like the rest of us. To take the view of "You're a city head, you shouldn't be respecting a Goomba's wishes is, in my opinion, disgusting. I am not giving him special treatment, or any more respect than he deserves. I am treating him the same way as I treat everybody else that takes part in this way of life.

"If somebody doesn't want you writhing around in their pockets, and somebody in the city doesn't mind it, why go out of your way to piss the first person off? It's not like their wealth makes any difference, you can only take a maximum of $5,000 at once.

"I don't see the need to pickpocket people who are unfriendly to it, there are plenty of people who don't mind you being in their pockets. Hell, some people look forward to it I hear!"

Sammy winks as he finishes he last sentence.

I'm hearing the word respect being thrown around here quite a bit, but I'm not sure if thats the word I would use in this instance. Maybe common curtesy no? There is nothing wrong with showing someone you do not know a little common curtesy, which goes a long, long way towards starting the foundation for respect.

Well, The_Dean, firstly, what is stopping Don Garcini from PP'ing you but his sense of decency? Your gun? Your word? nope. All I meant to say was that he could if he wanted to, but as he has so graciously pointed out, he respects your wishes and he does not do it. I had used him and Godfather DeadlySin as an example of what could happen if they wanted to PP you. I guess I should make myself clearer:

If I ever got to the esteemed position of power aforementioned gentlemen enjoy and if I was to see a Goomba threatening to mug me if I did PP him. I will do it. I will do it without the slightest bit of hesitation and I will wait for the Goomba's response and if he has not noticed me steal his wallet, I will let him know that it was me and I would actually try to goad him into mugging me and then irrespective of whether he succeeds or not, I would kill him. I would do it partly because I am extremely against these blanket statements along the lines of 'I will mug you irrespective of who you are' but also to awaken himself to a harsh reality of our life that I am above him in the pecking order and that all the promises he makes are fucking worthless if I put my mind to it.

Furthermore, I would think, if I was in their shoes; I would be VERY careful who I played those sensitive "games" with, since a mugging could be an awful debilitation tactic in a war senario.

Well, I am sure I misunderstood you, but what it seems like you are saying here is that a man of power should be scared of PP'ing you because if you mug him then said mugging would cause trouble for him in a war scenario. Well, first you should succeed and even if you do if I was that person I would stand by it just as you have claimed to stand by your philosophy of mugging anyone who attempts to PP you.

Don Garcini, it was not my intent to bring the question of respect into this argument and I had simply used your name, as I have already said,because you are against people mugging you. If it is your view not to PP people who are unfriendly to it, that is your choice and I respect it.

If I ever got to the esteemed position of power aforementioned gentlemen enjoy and if I was to see a Goomba threatening to mug me if I did PP him. I will do it. I will do it without the slightest bit of hesitation and I will wait for the Goomba's response and if he has not noticed me steal his wallet, I will let him know that it was me and I would actually try to goad him into mugging me and then irrespective of whether he succeeds or not, I would kill him.

 

I'm extremely sorry you feel that way. I respect your Rank, and I respect your right to an opinion, and hope it never comes to that.

Well, I am sure I misunderstood you, but what it seems like you are saying here is that a man of power should be scared of PP'ing you because if you mug him then said mugging would cause trouble for him in a war scenario.

 

I said "If I was in their shoes." I would never assume to dictate how they should feel, or what they should do. I was merely stating that I would be careful since it could potentially put someone in a bad situation strategically, over a mere few dollars? I doubt it would be worth it, but that is just my opinion, and I think I am entitled to that.

"Excuse me sir, would you mind terribly if I stuck my hand in your pocket?"

Really? Aren't we mafioso? If I'm going to rob you, I most definitely will not be asking for permission. If I see you in my pocket, I will most definitely be mugging you.

I personally make it a point to PP those with signs around their necks. To quote Flea: We're in the mafia for fucks sakes.

If you cannot handle someone's hand in your pocket or getting caught and getting the snot beat out of you...you're in the wrong place.