Depredations

I wonder if people who watch security cameras ever try to quantify the expressions that they see on the faces of those committing criminal activity--I mean, past "Look at this jackass."

This past month I saw one film up close and personal. It was of someone I knew and had tried to establish rapport and friendly relations with.  He was filmed going through someone else's possessions, taking the contents, and putting the box back. His face was hard, sharp, triumphant--cruel, in other words. Past predatory.

I have met other predators: almost been carjacked, had my purse snatched, nearly been mugged, blah blah blah. All these faces were different than the face I saw on film.

So I wonder if there is a register of expressions out there, a quantitative or qualitative scale. But I already have an opinion.

I have seen that cruel face before, but not in connection with a theft. For some reason, this was an emotional crime. If you saw the face but not the hands, you would say it was a beating, an abuse, a kill.

This man thought he was winning. And every viewer was outraged. Everyone who saw or heard about it said he was an idiot. They said he'd "thrown it all away for nothing."  I know from past experience, how the details spun out, that he was unimaginative. His method was just so ordinary. What nobody said--absolutely no one--was that he was morally and ethically wrong.

And that still bothers me.