Say, that looks like a Longhorns hat. Umm…has anyone seen Amanda lately?
An FBI agent, channeling his Hoover-era predecessors:
It would be rare that a young woman would be traveling the country all by herself.
Yes, you read that right. The FBI believes that the “ponytail bandit” must have an accomplice, because she’s a woman, and women can’t handle this kind of thing. In fact, although I can’t find the quote online, I heard on the radio that they suspect [paraphrased] “some sort of ex-convict, hardened criminal, behind the scenes of this string of robberies.”
68 Responses to “Feminism says: Women can handle crime sprees all by themselves, thank you”
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Oooh. Maybe it’s a tranny!
Wank on clyde!
Am I a bad person for wanting to ask her out?
Ooh, if I were writing the screenplay, she would be traveling the country with a small child or baby — after all, who’s going to check the baby carriage of that sweet, innocent mom crossing the street outside of the bank?
This is one of those instances where I’d want to see the original quote. The FBI agent could have been making the point that you don’t see many solo, female cross-country crime sprees, or even solo sprees by either gender - I have no idea whether that’s true or not, by the way - and it some how got truncated into that ridiculous comment by a harried reporter. I find it hard to believe an FBI agent would be unaware women travel alone, after all.
I was nowhere near the place. I’ve never seen her before.
she kinda looks like my old roommate…
but seriously, wtf is up with the cutesy names for girl robbers? i’m surprised they didn’t embellish it into “pigtail”. just a few months ago two women robbed a bank in my general area, and much press ensued about the two “barbie bandits”. because they were young and blonde, i guess. AND the articles kept calling them “girls” because the profile was “between 18 and 25″ or something (they turned out to be 19 but in the meantime police had a field day with investigating local high schools).
Is he presuming women can’t plan or women don’t have nerve? My daughter has biked solo from Yosemite to Denali, from Sydney to Townsville and straight through the outback to Perth, and even traveled in Egypt, Jordan and Syria by herself. Fortunately her only acts against the establishment are in the nature of culture jamming.
what a shit-fer-brains. All that Dickless Tracy needs to do is spend an hour in front of the TV watching the History channel…does he think Bonnie was just there for Clyde’s companionship? Sheesh.
I also love how they describe her as looking like a “Gap model.” If you read on in the story, it transpires that what that means is that she was wearing clothes.
Surely the FBI agent was simply recognizing that no woman would perpetrate such heinious crimes unless constrained to do so by the patriarchy . . .
;)
I don’t see why a woman wouldn’t be a superior bank robber.. aren’t they snide, clevery, shifty and manipulative by nature? Haven’t they trained from early ages how to handle phallic things like guns?
*massive rolling of eyes*
So maybe that’s why the border agents were so gosh-darn befuddled when I told them that I was driving through Canada to visit friends on the East Coast. A road trip without a male chaperone? Heaven forbid.
text of stickup note: “IF YOU HAVE TO ASK ME WHAT I WANT I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHY WE’RE HERE”
I’m sure that some in the FBI believe women shouldn’t be allowed to travel across state lines by themselves — they might be after the abortion. . .
It’s a miracle these guys seem to catch any criminals, when their busy spying on terrorist vegans and quakers, and run around assuming that women can’t be bank robbers or that white guys from the south can’t be terrorists. It just boggles the mind.
Is the special agent in question a profiler? If so, these are the kinds of broad generalizations profilers make, and IIRC they’re based on the history of crime, not patriarchal assumptions.
Yeah, I watch Body of Evidence a lot…
So, is this the same FBI agent who described the Unibomber (Ted Kaczinski) as fashion-obsessed and meticulous dresser?
Chris Clarke, you are the funniest person ever! That was hilarious.
GAP MODEL? More like your average sorority girl at KU/any other university/ Johnson County trophy wife (KC suburban area).
I mean, I can rarely distinguish… all using the same shade/tint of hair bleach. Oh, and the ubiquitous cap/ponytail combination.
I agree with StotheL, by the way: Chris C.- I almost choked from laughter. BRILLIANT!
“Yeah, I watch Body of Evidence a lot…”
Hey, I watch Criminal Minds and I can’t imagine them saying anything stronger than “may” in this case. Not all statistics are equal, and there are always cases that go against the norm.
ok , I will stop pretending TV = real life now.
Wanan bet she’s in Canada by now?
Texas.. California.. Washington… see a pattern here?
I would NEVER pull a ponytail through a baseball cap. But I do travel by myself. I would hope my FBI file was started for a more interesting reason than that, though.
I’d just love to see dozens, hundreds, thousands of copy-catters out there. Waitresses, baristas, copy-shop clerks knocking over the mall banks during their lunch breaks. Camp counselors taking down the town-squre branch office while on field trips. Whole sorority chapters doing en-masse bank blitzes for rush. The Gap & American Outfitters could have special sales on the appropriate outfits.
For decades, any Black male could be stopped at any time on suspicion of… something. I wonder what it would take to get us to the point that they start randomly stopping 20-something blonde women? And if they did, what do you suppose our wonderful MSM would say about it?
I always love further proof that I don’t actually exist.
“but seriously, wtf is up with the cutesy names for girl robbers?”
A woman robbed a bank in my country wearing a cat mask. Despite the mask looking nothing like the relevant costume, she was called “Catwoman” in the news. I imagine it was then difficult to get anyone to side with the police. After all, if Catwoman is robbing banks, then it’s up to Batman to do something about it.
Now this woman started in Austin and is wearing what appears to be a Longhorns cap. But I’m sure that it’s all a coincidence…
What does the girl next door look like, that makes her different from the typical criminal, again?
Just like Pierce Brosnan!
What storybooks is agent Ruocco reading?
It’s the Bush twins.
What does the girl next door look like, that makes her different from the typical criminal, again?
Well now, I’m not quite sure, but I think it has something to do with being white, with a side of whiteness and a light sprinkling of white on top. See also “all-American girl.”
togolosh:
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
(wipes eyes)
now that’s what i call laughing all the way to the bank
genius. pure genius
The discursive hallmark of ideological small-mindedness and monomania is its eager desire to misconstrue minor empirical statements into normative claims it can easily denounce.
And these are the people we are supposed to trust with rooting out domestic terrorists in our midst?
The discursive hallmark of ideological small-mindedness and monomania is its eager desire to misconstrue minor empirical statements into normative claims it can easily denounce,
The discursive hallmark of ideological small-mindedness and monomania is its eager desire to misconstrue minor empirical statements into normative claims it can easily denounce,
If you’re a discursive hallmark of ideological small-mindedness and monomania and you know it, then your face is gonna show it
The discursive hallmark of ideological small-mindedness and monomania is its eager desire to misconstrue minor empirical statements into normative claims it can easily denounce.
somebody get a thesaurus for christmas?
rart! i said, [heart]chrisclarke.
…and they say that she is armed and dangerous. lol. Looking at that camera angle, I don’t see anything dangerous about her.
Maybe the FBI dude is simply implying that every Thelma needs a Louise. And he must be the kindly agent chasing her like a good father trying to prevent her from doing something even worse. Hope he gets to her before she drives her car off a cliff.
But we’re not denouncing it - we’re making fun of it!
Plus, obfuscatory polysyllabic language is an invariable indicator of muddled cogitation and excreble communication abilities unless coupled with a clear sense of irony.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the “women don’t travel alone” thing was about “women know better than to travel alone, because if nobody comes with them they might get stranger-raped”.
Tapetum, you put the “quip” back into “sesquipedalian.”
…and they say that she is armed and dangerous. lol. Looking at that camera angle, I don’t see anything dangerous about her.
Yes, let’s all share a hearty belly-laugh at the ridiculous and lol-worthy notion that a
womangirl could be dangerous. Ha ha ha ha ha!But seriously, fuck you too.
Ooh, if I were writing the screenplay, she would be traveling the country with a small child or baby — after all, who’s going to check the baby carriage of that sweet, innocent mom crossing the street outside of the bank?
Did you ever see the movie called THE SAMURAI AND THE BABY?
I don’t see why a woman wouldn’t be a superior bank robber.. aren’t they snide, clevery, shifty and manipulative by nature?
Only the ones that I wind up dating.
I remain silent about the direction of causation here.
I seem to recall that Aileen Wournos managed her activities quite well without the aid of any menfolk in her life.
history-mom @ 10:54PM asks:
But doncha know? White folks can’t be turrirists. That’s against the laws and TV rules. They can only be mis-guided or overly zealous, or maybe following Dog’s natural orders which supersede man’s laws (not to be confused with those commercials with Burt Reynolds et al). /s
Odd, the article mentions nothing about the sex of any possible accomplice.
So, why all the uproar.
Many cross-country bank robbers have an accomplice.
Makes get aways easier,
I think posters are reading too much in to the story.
Solo robbers tend toward convenience stores.
My GOD she has the PERFECT DISGUISE.
She looks like half the girls on any Midwestern college campus.
Ahem. Anyway, she could have an accomplice, but according to the article each robbery of this type typically nets you $1000 - $2000 dollars. That’s really not that much money for the effort if you have to split it with someone. On the other hand, it could just be someone doing it for the thrill, since the real money is in identity theft and electronic banking fraud these days, not in armed robbery.
“Hopefully somebody knows her, knows something about her and will let us know what’s going on,” Carr said.
This quote really took me aback. His bewilderment is pretty clear. Would he ask a black man’s friends to contact the police to find out “what’s going on”?
*cue Dueling Thesauri banjo music for Tapetum and Chris Clarke*
If this was a local cop somewhere saying this, I’d probably say he was being sexist. And as far as all the cutesy stuff, yea, that is sexist. However as for the traveling alone comment, I want to say this isn’t a reference to law-abiding, non felonious females traveling alone, and more than likely a reference to women commiting crimes traveling alone. I’ve taken a couple of criminology courses, and while not every class of crime is easily documented for statistics purposes, cross state crime sprees of a bank robbing nature tend to be. The other thing you learn, is that the FBI has a love of statistics that is second only to their apperent love of doing questionable things to peoples civil rights. More than likely this FBI agent is making a badly worded comment that most cross state bank robbers who are women, are rarely alone in the process. He didn’t make a mention of the gender of the possible accomplis (sp?). I don’t have the ability to crunch the numbers myself, but just on the face of it, I’d say the comment is probably right, but would also apply to men. As someone above me said, bank robbers tend to work it teams, store hold ups (especially when it’s one clerk on duty) tend to be the solo armed robbery venues (at least in my amature, I watch the news so I knows stuff, opinion). However the other thing you learn is you can’t rule out anything, so the above is always just a guess.
However stating all of this, I could be very wrong, and this guy is just a sexist a$$, who should be kicked hard in the knees.
As a woman, I never travel the country alone. I travel other countries alone!
Why thank you, Chris. As someone who chuckles frequently over your commentary, I’m tickled to have caught your attention.
Oh, and hmmph to the “not dangerous”. She bears a strong resemblence to one of our dojo’s blackbelts, a woman who can kick you in the face while standing a foot from you, or while ten feet away before you even see her coming.
omg is she chuck norris?
“If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can’t see Chuck Norris, it’s because you have two seconds before he roundhouse-kicks you.”
Kids, Chuck Norris jokes are officially dead. Seriously, stop.
I say, fie on you Miranda! Chuck Norris will never die!
Corner lurker, I think the confusion comes from said FBI agent mixing up trends in population statistics and inherent attributes of an individual situation.
Not that a lot of doctors don’t do the same.
It would be funny if every young woman in America who has “traveled the country all by herself” in the last two years emailed that guy.
I bet it would crash the FBIs email system.
Mr. Kate,
True, there is a very good chance that this FBI agent is unable to seperate the theoretical situation and the actual crime. Generally unless the quote is preceeded or followed by the words, So and So is a Criminal Profiler (or similar career title) the data being spouted should be suspect until sources are given.
I will admit, in this case statistics probably don’t mean much. I’m not sure there are a lot of cross state bank robbers, with multiple successes under their belt, of either gender, let alone someone who, we can only assume by apperence, is in their early to mid 20s, at least I haven’t heard of many.
It will be interesting to see what the full story is, if and when they catch her.
My Apologies MS. Kate, my fingers and eyes betrayed me. I only just noticed the typo in your name in my last comment. Should have proof read better.
Sincerely,
The Lurker who is now headed back to his Corner.
Did you ever see the movie called THE SAMURAI AND THE BABY?
No, but it sounds like exactly the kind of movie I love.
Running to IMDb to investigate it now ….
“Chuck Norris will never die!”
Yes, we know: Death will Norris.
where I come from, jokes are funniest when they’re ’so over’. then again, i didn’t learn about all your base until like 2001, so take that as you will.
According to the latest statistics,
6.14 % of those committing a bank robbery in 2006 were women, there are no statistics on how many were solo jobs.
Sophonisba nailed it first but I just have to rehash it: it’s not that she’s female. It’s that she is a young, conventionally-attractive WHITE female. And then on top of that she doesn’t even look externally like your typical Librul. White baseball cap with blonde ponytail pulled throug it, fitted henley shirt with jeans? That says Midwestern sorority girl to me (no offense to any Midwestern college women who joined sororities, but seriously). In other words, the sort who are expected to be already conditioned to be under control, or at least not to be a threat.
Not that criminality is anything to be proud of, but that’s exactly the valid point here - thinking women are going to be somehow nobler or less capable of harm simply by virtue of being women is just as ridiculous and sexist as thinking they are all false-accusers/money-grubbers/mentally infantile/baby machines who are foolishly not realizing their own potential to be well-cared-for servants. They might more often use different means to accomplish crimes than some men would, particularly if they (a) are not proficient in using physical intimidation as a tactic or (b) know their inconspicuousness is an advantage. But I think what is at issue here is not her gender, but her age, color and apparent social sphere. I can’t help but feel that if the person they had captured on footage had been a large woman of color, or heck even an itty bitty petite woman of color, law enforcement wouldn’t be ruminating over whether females travel and commit crime alone.
Does this mean the next MP3 blog post will be the Clash’s “Bankrobber”?
Dangit, does this mean I’m going to have to come up with a new look for hassle-avoidance at the airport (when I fly cross-country, alone, as I do often)? Because I’ve been banking on my whiter-than-white, look-at-the-sun-and-turn-lobster-red complexion and young 20-something looking like a college gal thing to breeze through security with nothing more to worry about than the lechers with the wands pretending not to understand that the persistent beep in the vicinity of my chest is my underwire. Seriously… although I get guilty twinges about abusing privilege, it is rather nice to know the only people in the airports being looked at with less suspicion are still learning to walk.
A women needs a wheelman like a fish needs a bicycle?
P.S. Mnemosyne, See also: Lone Wolf and Cub.
Its easy for someone to pick at words from an interview and interpret them in their own way. The agent’s interview might not have been perfect but his job is to catch the person commiting crimes so if that’s done I’d say it was a success. Everyone needs to stop and realize that this is a bank robber we’re talking about.