By the shape of his nose, I think he is white. He does look warm, but he doesn't look armed. He does appear to have somehting in his pocket, though. I wonder what it might be.... by looking at these pictures we will never know anything, except the guy looked warm, and maybe white, and made a few dollars by frightening the employee.

Do we know what he was drinving, or which direction he was heading? Do we even know how long he stood there with that invisible look on his face?

It was noon, for crying out loud! Why don't we have a better description?

Hey, Marion?

How many liquor stores in town DO have 'protective security booths' in them? Which ones are those?

I take issue with your 'the owner doesn't care' statement. A liquor store is a retail store, not an armed castle under seige. The employees occasionally have to (gasp) do things like talk to a customer about which wine to buy, show someone where the tequila is, or help a handicapped or older customer carry something out to a car.

What happened was upsetting, and could have been a lot worse. I'm glad the clerk wasn't hurt, but to state that the owner of a store who chooses to operate it as a retail store instead of a fortress doesn't care about the safety of his employees is more ignorance than I've come to expect, even from you.

For the record, I've spent a good bit of time working part time in liquor or convenience stores in the last decade (makes a great second job), and have never had a 'safety enclosure' and never felt endangered by the lack of it. I've never felt as if I were being 'hung out to dry' by not having plexiglass to hide behind (which I'd just have had to come out from behind to help someone find something every ten minutes anyway, unless I wanted to just leave them wandering around trying to find the Twizzlers or the tequila or the motor oil). I've felt as if my employers did their part ensuring my safety by installing alarms, by maintaining strict drop-box policies and low-register-cash policies, by putting up cameras and by having second or third employees on duty when there was a concern about robbery.

Let's just encase everyone, from the kid at the gas station to the supermarket checker, in plexiglass and kevlar. Will we all be totally safe then?

Pfft.

Since we're playing the odds and chances game... here are some more:

Odds of injury from fireworks: 19,556 to 1

Odds of injury from shaving: 6,585 to 1

Odds of injury from using a chain saw: 4,464 to 1

Odds of injury from mowing the lawn: 3,623 to 1

Odds of fatally slipping in bath or shower: 2,232 to 1

Odds of drowning in a bathtub: 685,000 to 1

Odds of being killed on a 5-mile bus trip: 500,000,000 to 1

Odds of being killed sometime in the next year in any sort of transportation accident: 77 to 1

Odds of being killed in any sort of non-transportation accident: 69 to 1

Odds of being struck by lightning: 576,000 to 1

Odds of being killed by lightning: 2,320,000 to 1

Odds of being murdered: 18,000 to 1

Odds of getting away with murder: 2 to 1

Odds of being the victim of serious crime in your lifetime: 20 to 1

Odds of dating a supermodel: 88,000 to 1

Odds of being considered possessed by Satan: 7,000 to 1

Odds that a first marriage will survive without separation or divorce for 15 years: 1.3 to 1

Odds that a celebrity marriage will last a lifetime: 3 to 1

Odds of getting hemorrhoids: 25 to 1

Odds of being born a twin in North America: 90 to 1

Odds of being on plane with a drunken pilot: 117 to 1

Odds of being audited by the IRS: 175 to 1

Odds of having your identity stolen: 200 to 1

Odds of dating a millionaire: 215 to 1

Odds of dating a supermodel: 88,000 to 1

Odds of writing a New York Times best seller: 220 to 1

Odds of finding out your child is a genius: 250 to 1

Odds of catching a ball at a major league ballgame: 563 to 1

Odds of becoming a pro athlete: 22,000 to 1

Odds of finding a four-leaf clover on first try: 10,000 to 1

Odds of a person in the military winning the Medal of Honor: 11,000 to 1

Odds of winning an Academy Award: 11,500 to 1

Odds of striking it rich on Antiques Roadshow: 60,000 to 1

Odds of getting a royal flush in poker on first five cards dealt: 649,740 to 1

Odds of spotting a UFO today: 3,000,000 to 1

Odds of becoming president: 10,000,000 to 1

Odds of winning the California lottery: 13,000,000 to 1

Odds of becoming a saint: 20,000,000 to 1

Odds of a meteor landing on your house: 182,138,880,000,000 to 1

Chance of an American home having at least one container of ice cream in the freezer: 9 in 10.

Chance of dying from any kind of injury during the next year: 1 in 1,820

Chance of dying from intentional self-harm: 1 in 9,380

Chance of dying from an assault: 1 in 16,421

Chance of dying from a car accident: 1 in 18,585

More to come...

Chance of dying from any kind of fall: 1 in 20,666

Chance of dying from accidental drowning: 1 in 79,065

Chance of dying from exposure to smoke, fire, and flames: 1 in 81,524

Chance of dying in an explosion: 1 in 107,787

Chance that Earth will experience a catastrophic collision with an asteroid in the next 100 years: 1 in 5,000

Chance of dying in such a collision: 1 in 20,000

Chance of dying from exposure to forces of nature (heat, cold, lightning, earthquake, flood): 1 in 225,107

Chance of dying in an airplane accident: 1 in 354,319

Chance of dying from choking on food: 1 in 370,035

Chance of dying in a terrorist attack while visiting a foreign country: 1 in 650,000

Chance of dying in a fireworks accident: 1 in 1,000,000

Chance of dying from overexertion, travel or privation: 1 in 1,428,377

Chance of dying from food poisoning: 1 in 3,000,000

Chance of dying from legal execution: 1 in 3,441,325

Chance of dying from contact with hot tap water: 1 in 5,005,564

Chance of dying from parts falling off an airplane: 1 in 10,000,000

Chance of dying from ignition or melting of nightwear: 1 in 30,589,556

Chance of dying from being bitten by a dog: 1 in 700,000

Chance of dying from contact with a venomous animal or plant: 1 in 3,441,325

Chance of dying from being bitten or struck by mammals (other than dogs or humans): 1 in 4,235,477

Chance of dying from a mountain lion attack in California: 1 in 32,000,000

Chance of dying from a shark attack: 1 in 300,000,000

Chance of having a stroke: 1 in 6

Chance of dying from heart disease: 1 in 3

Chance of getting arthritis: 1 in 7

Chance of suffering from asthma or allergy diseases: 1 in 6

Chance of getting the flu this year: 1 in 10

Chance of developing schizophrenia: 1 in 00

Chance of contracting the human version of mad cow disease: 1 in 40,000,000

Chance of dying from SARS in the United States: 1 in 100,000,000

Chance of American man developing cancer in his lifetime: 1 in 2

Chance of an American woman developing cancer in her lifetime: 1 in 3

Chance of getting prostate cancer: 1 in 6

Chance of getting breast cancer: 1 in 9

Chance of getting colon / rectal cancer: 1 in 26

Chance of beating pancreatic or liver cancer: 1 in 9

Chance of beating thyroid or testicular cancer: 9 in 10

Add it all up and we're all going to die someday. So just go out and enjoy life and don't worry too much about getting robbed and killed because there's WAY less than a 1% chance it'll happen.

Marion:

Way to ignore what I actually said in favor of your usual tactic of hysterical blather.

In the 21st Century, we answer people's questions:

How many liquor stores in town have 'protective security booths' in them?

If it's such a great and important thing, and so very necessary to the safety of every employee, why is it that every employee in town isn't safely ensconced behind plexiglass? Is every single retail employer in town blatantly disregarding their employees' health and safety?

If 'they' (who are 'they' again? Do they ride with the men in the black helicopters that follow you around, Marion?) would 'kill you for a pack of cigarettes' then why isn't every employee at every grocery store, convenience store, Wal-Mart, and pharmacy secured behind two inches of reinforced window? How come Smoker Friendly isn't getting robbed every single day?

Oh, wait. I guess it's because

we

don't

actually

live

in

Marion's

head.

Also, the best way to prevent violent crimes like this is to tighten up sentencing, and making prison overall an uncomfortable place to be.

Remember the person who committed six armed robberies in the summer and fall of 2000? Robbing places like Myers on 23rd and JFM on 9th? That person had been adjudicated, he served his time, and he has been out on parole now for over a year. Four years total for six armed robberies? I don't know where the guy is (I do konw who he is - I am actually a casual acquaintance of him, as much of the music community of Lawrence was) but I sincerely hope this wasn't him--he had no problem holding a gun to one of my friends' head back in the year 2000.