>The threat of shooting someone unless they give you money, whether or
>not the threat is credible (how will we know? do we have to force your
>hand? what if you actually have a gun, but would never shoot it?) is
>ABSOLUTELY VIOLENT.
I've been held up twice, once by a guy with a syringe who told me he had AIDS, this was in Madrid, and once here in Los Angeles by a guy with a very small knife. Neither time did they get away with much because I make a habit of not carrying a lot of cash. And neither time was I *that* scared because the weapons just seemed kind of ridiculous. But I still felt violated, absolutely. And with a gun? Yeah, absolutely violent.
>So how many of those violent crimes were
> > actually violent?
>
>I'm gonna stick my neck out and say: all of them.
One thing I wonder though is how many were assaults on police. You can shove a cop and it's felony assault. I don't know if there's still an open case against Cynthia McKinney, but she could have been charged with either simple assault, a misdemeanor, or assault on a police officer, a felony.