Yes, a lovely citizen called the police, thankfully ny is full of them and the response was quick.

Sucks that people can take your hard earned stuff and your health just because they can.

All I can say is be mindfull of when you are out alone, stay near public places near populated areas and yeah try to keep friends around. It definitely sucks to hear. I was mugged once in Fairfield California, and I've been held at gunpoint in Dayton, Ohio, there are shitty people in this world sadly. Fortunately all he took was your things, that can be replaced.

But chear up. The feeling of hate, anger, and the wishing of physical harm goes away, and you will be fine with walking alone again one day. Or hell, even a day or two later. You just make better choices of when you are out and what parts of town you are out in.

Don't mind him everyone. He's the same guy who sent this to Onion a few months back. Just in case anyone forgot

Ka-pi96 said: Slade6alpha said: I'm sorry to hear that Onion I've never been a victim of that but that's always crossed my mind while living alone as I like to walk at night sometimes. You just have to be careful, and don't let him take that away from you. Did you call the police? Some of my girlfriends would tell me they carry pepper spray, I guess having that sort of thing gives you a sense of power. Taking a class won't hurt, but anything can happen. Just be thankful you're okay! Night walking FTW *high fives Slade*   OT: Gotta feel for the OP, that would totally suck. Don`t stop at pepper spray though, you live in the US, take advantage of your right to own a gun. Better yet, go open carry. Ain`t nobody gonna rob you when they see you with a gun.

Only buy a gun if you intend to use it though. If you don't, you may have just given some piece of shit a weapon with your name on the registration.

Being in the military, I'm not really afraid of guns, there are people like that.

Ah that sucks. I'm sorry that happened to you, but glad you're okay. Don't let that guy scare you off the streets though, don't give him that satisfaction. Do that walk to the subway and whatever you'd normally do as if nothing happened.

Used to get into this shit all the time on my teens due to the amount of gangs in the area I lived in. In the beginning I would just be taxed (you would be greeted with the phrase "you're being taxed"), but then things escalated and they would beat you and Rob you. I've had everything from phones, money and caps stolen. However, it didn't last long thankfully, about a year later I had enough and started fighting back. Once I started handing out ass whoopings things got a lot better.

Taking self defense etc is good, but these days you don't know what these guys would pull on you. It could be a knife a gun etc. You're lucky they only took your bag, it could have been much worse.

Have you reported it to the cops?

I think... I fixed it. Fucking VGC and it's shit image formatting  

just in case it is... 

Fuck, if you believe in Karma, you better clench up hard, cuz with all the shit you've said and done just on this site, karma looks like a 20 inch dildo that has your name on it. 

Interesting.

First of all the only thing that matters is that you got out of it safe. You mention this is the first time you experienced violence and the general tone of your OP reflects that. Instead of thinking about revenge or buying guns and all that, you should understand that you could now be in a condition where this thread would have never happened, you could have been damaged badly. Consider yourself lucky.

A smart robber will go for pre-emptive strike and in that situation guns, knives, pepper sprays, self-defense won't help. In that situation, the victim cannot know whether the attacker is armed or not but if the attacker has a knife and decides to use it because the victim tries something, the victim loses. The knife is known as the "equalizer" and for good reason. Outside of guns, the knife is pretty much the deadliest weapon there is, it's small and easy to hide, it's fast to use, human body is a big target, very reliable (don't break easily). Go visit any martial arts instructor and they all will say the same thing, if you are unarmed do not try to take on a person holding a knife. Also against a person who has been trained to use knife, chance of survival for the unarmed is close to zero. That's knife for you. So in a pre-emptive situation, the victim simply does not have time to start attacking without betting his/her own life.

The best thing is to co-operate and let the robber have your stuff.

If by some chance you would get a few second opening then yes, guns, knives, pepper sprays could turn the tide but remember, when you pull out a weapon against a robber, the robber gets scared and instead of running away could very well attack on self-defense instinct. In that situation you are holding your life in your hand, there cannot be any hesitation not even the slightest, you must be prepared to kill the attacker. Now, how mentally prepared would a 22 year old person who has encountered violence once in his/her lifetime be? Can such a person truly know what a real animal like rage and aggression is? Or would he/she freeze?

It's never a bad idea to learn self-defense and carry some extra protection with you. Situations are different and maybe you have enough time to do something,  pepper spray could change robbery to a robbery attempt or kick to the balls could prevent rape. Just think it through and be real about it. Telling you want to cut off the robbers dick and put it in his ass is very naive and dangerous way of thinking. I'm not trying to be asshole, I want you to understand that, I want you to understand the world is a dangerous place.