Lane sees a couple of milk crates, grabs them and sets them down. Lane kicks the dirt off of his boots as he prepares to step up onto the crates, as he steps up onto the crates he notices that his suit is dirty and wrinkled from a long night of criming and just all out revelry.

May I have your attention please, I am here today to ask what everyone thought about grave robbing.

While I was paying my last respects to my dear uncle I noticed a couple of lowly thugs with shovels trying to rob a nearby grave.

I was wondering is it wrong to grave rob? Is it disrespectful of the dead to rifle through their caskets like this? And how would the next of kin of the deceased feel about it?

This subject is an eerie one to me. I feel that if an ancestor of mine was dead and had some valuables then yeah I probably would go and dig him up and go get it. I think that if you don't have a guilty conscience and can bear to stand in the grave yard after dark then by all means go for it. I feel that the deceased won't know what is going on but you have to be mindful of the next of kin that comes to these shores. If they saw you rummaging through the casket of your newly departed father, might they not be justifiably angry? That is who this will bother the next of kin.

So I am asking what do y'all think about this subject?

Being that these are hard times I see many grave robbers around.

Is this wrong "YES"

But I believe it is necessary for them to survive these dreadful economy

Puffing on his lucky, Phelix listens intently to the speech and follow up response. This subject wasn't one he paid much attention to usually. He was more of a pickpocket then a grave robber--never cared to get his hands "dirty" as it were. But he knew that if he needed to, he would.

Now, lets be honest here. Respect ends at the funeral. After I've paid my last respects, and the casket has been buried, I'd be digging up old bones and cleaning out the jewelry and buried wallets. Not like they need them. Its a dreadful act, and against most religious beliefs, but you know what, when it comes down to it I know that whoever that dead guy is would want me to have it. Because if he didn't want me to have it, well, I'd just take it from him either way.

Lets be honest, this thing of ours is about respect, but hell, if they can't fight you, why respect them?

The harping of a nearby morality vendor caught Bennie's ear as he walked on by. Grave robbing? Was this man for real? Standing up in the street begging folk to give their time to listen to him talk about the robbing of graves?

"Get a job, wacko!" he crowed and flicked his cigarette butt in the direction of the milk-crate prophet.

Then he was gone - just another face in the crowd.

Well, As I am a pretty compulsive grave robber I cannot help but comment on this issue. As Consigliere PhelixTheSpinx stated, respect ends with the funerals.Not only that,the dead do not care about revenge and all  their worldly wealth all they care about is getting to convince Saint Peter into opening the pearly gates for them. Hence I think the only logical course of action for those who are still alive and in need of money,would be to clean out their graves instead of letting such easy money go to waste just rotting away. 

"I'm pretty sure that Saint Pete ain't chargin' on the gate of heaven, so why is Christ do those guys need it. It's necessity plain and simple..."

Jimmy moves to the trunk of his car and pulls out a spade and heads to the cemetery whistling...

Get digging & fill your boots is what i say

I, for one, think that it is in fact disrespectful. If I were to hear of someone robbing the grave of the late Las Vegas Don Ricin, for instance, I would be quite offended that someone had trod uninvited into his casket, disturbed his corpse's eternal rest, and took any personal items of great significance that he might have taken with him to the grave. I view it as one of my duties as a close personal friend of the man to ensure that his slumber is undisturbed. Granted, if someone does it cleanly and can keep a secret, I'd never be the wiser were his grave to be robbed. I would think it pretty obvious that if you're going about robbing people's graves, you should be keeping it mum so the wrong people don't get offended.

On the other hand, if one of mine wants to go out and rob the grave of some random unaffiliated gangster, I can't see why I'd get up in arms about it. In fact, I can't see why anyone would. It's not like it was your relative to care about. You may be disrespecting someone, but there is no one to stand up for the person being wronged, so you might as well laugh all the way to the bank.

I don't think it's disrespectful, what use is money to a dead man?

I choose to live by a code or respect, dead people do not feature in that code.

Gaius listens to others before him before finally adding in his two cent. Inhaling deeply on his cigarette he begins

Lets be frank here, what are we all here for? It's not to wipe each others asses, or giggle at each others jokes. Profit ladies and gent's... profit. Is it profitable to grave rob? Damn straight, not like they need that fine jewelry. Let there family members believe they were buried with it, a few hours later I'm a diggin fool!

I don't think it's disrespectful. The person is dead and can't use a penny of what they are being robbed for. I wouldn't brag about it to their family though. When money is tight you gotta do what you gotta do. 

Since you do the digging away from anybody that could see you, you'll never get caught.

So I guess it may be disrespectful, but there is no way anybody will even find out.

The way i see it there dead they don't need the pinky ring anymore but it is pretty harsh to rob a dead man of his items

Claudio begins to ponder the question set before him as he walks away

Yes it is disrespectful to them. But Im guessing its the way of the world huh? If the dead wanted to do something about it im sure they would think up a way to stop us.

Illidan smiles

first of all I have always knew that respect is for someone who deserves it, I don't think a dead body deserves any respect. The respect I had to this person whomever he is, was for himself and his own character and personality not for a body.
Second of all, Why would I think that a dead person would need a wallet full of money or some jewelery they won't use it to buy a beer in the graveyard, but I as an alive person would need the money to cover my expenses and bribe some cops to stay away from my business.

Alright first of all the person is dead and gone. They don't need anything they might have with them. Second is no one will know who you have grave robbed unless you start telling people about it. If you need the money go for it. I don't care if someone steals everything from me when I am dead. I won't need it anymore.

Advantage listens to the multiple responses.  After finding a brief moment to inject his two cents into the conversation, he speaks

Well Lane, I do believe I can answer your question in more ways than one.  Where shall I begin?  For starters, there are many aspects of our lives that can and are deemed disrespectful yet life goes on. 

First complaints were made on the shooting of people fresh off of the boat, before giving them a full 48 hours to find a crew.  The Gods fixed this issue.  

Then everyone was complaining about being pickpocketed, the leaders of our fine cities implemented very clear pickpocketing laws in their cities.

Now what we have here is a complaint about digging up objects from the dead?  Quite frankly, I just see this as something new to complain about and it is rather tiring so I present to you the same option that all others have been given:

Make something of yourself and enforce a change yourself.  Stop coming to the streets with bitter views on every last aspect of this world and change it yourself.  No one wants to hear the complaints.  If you really feel the need to bring it up then take it to your chain of command.

The streets are for news of the cities, not for lowly ranked associates to voice their complaints.

I don't see this as an airing of a grievance, Advantage.  Someone was merely trying to initiate a discussion.  As with any discussion, you are going to have varying viewpoints on the subject matter.  This can hardly be seen as complaining for the sake of complaining.  Would it be ok if everyone who contributed had a rosy perspective on the topic?

The fact is, the streets are not just for news of the cities. They are not "for" anything. They are just the streets. Personally, I use them for getting back and forth to work every day. I might also stop on a street corner and have a good old rant every now and again. The streets can be for whatever someone would ordinarily do out in the streets or on a sidewalk.

FlyingPig, by use of the streets, I mean in the form speeches.  Of course we use the streets for travel!

As for an opinion that I have earned the right to have, I do not like to see these complaints brought to the streets, especially by a low ranked associate.  I can give Lane respect for bringing up the discussion in a decent manner but never the less I don't want to hear it.  Once you have earned a rank that is respected in your family then you have earned the right to voice your opinion.

You, sir, are completely entitled to your opinion of what you like to hear out in the streets.  As for me I like to keep it down to News and Announcements, not to be pestered by those that like to shout out about random moments in their life where they were robbing a bank or pulling a heist. 

On that note Mr. FlyingPig, rather than straying too far off of the subject, if you would like to drop by my office or send me a mail sometime, I would be more than happy to discuss this further with you.

Personally, I saw it as someone trying to initiate a conversation, I didn't come across it as complaining. The streets weren't made for anything in particular, they were made for what you want it to be - Be it a vessel to recount a story, announce so and so's rise to a crewleader/captain, and so on, so long as it isn't one of those crazy space-age stories.


To get to the original point, this subject is a bit trivial, but I'll give it a shot anyway.


Of course it's disrespectful. Hell, noone would like having belongings yanked from their lifeless corpse, but on the other side - who knows? The dead don't judge and, unless you're the religious type that believes in karma or the like, have any effect on us whatsoever. Considering there's next to no repercussions, I'd go for it. But, to get to your original answer - yes, it is disrespectful, but I highly doubt we'll be seeing a mass uproar coming from the local grave about it.