The problem with all this is that it is Monday morning quarterbacking of the worst possible kind. I have always been more of a resister than a submitter as far as my planned response for a situation like these, but it is all so case dependent.
9/11 along with many criminal cases that have happened through history did indeed teach us that in many cases submitting will just lead to your death in the end anyhow. My personal opinion is that if I were taken in a situation like this, and I submitted, and this happened, I wouldnt be able to live with second guessing what could have been if only I had resisted. However, human will to live is a strong force, and I wasnt in their shoes. A gun to the head is a powerful persuader.
Certainly there are still cases where submitting may be the best option. Lets say you are in a vehicle with your girlfriend and the bad guy comes up and points his gun at her from a distance and says, "Im taking your car, dont move or I'll kill your girlfriend." Now I'm in the military, and I risk my life for a living but I'm a lot less comfortable risking somebody elses life. If I think the dirtbag is just after the car, and I believe that if I move to resist he is definitely going to kill her, than I'm not going to try anything stupid. He is standing more than 20 feet away and is smart enough not to give away the standoff advantage the gun gives him. You are in the car and the engine isnt running so you cant run without giving him all the time he needs to shoot. You can see that this is a scenario where I would really think twice about resisting, because if I mess up, she dies. The decision time will be very short, and then the bad guy orders you out on the ground face down and says to leave the keys in the car. Now that you are laying face down the bad guy comes up and cuffs your hands behind your back, takes the girl and leaves. There are many other possible scenarios that could have happened that would explain this just as well, besides the easy conclusion for everybody that the boyfriends must have been sissies. The boyfriend was the one on the spot, he had to make the decision and he did what he thought was right at the time Im sure, if he even had time to think about it much. We will never know if by resisting the boyfriends would have stopped this crime from occurring or if they would have just ended up adding to the toll, with the girls still getting taken. The fact is, they were there, you and me were not. I will not second guess their decision.
Crime is somewhat rare and the odds are against you ever becoming the victim of violent crime, but it isnt as rare as some people seem to think. I am only 25, and I have had several close brushes with violent crime either directed at me or people I know. I am certainly not blaming these kids for what happened to them, but I think that parking at 1 AM in lonely areas is a risky practice. The "son of sam" killings, and many other serial killers have proved this to be so. There are plenty of secured areas that you can go to.
That all said, if I found myself in this situation I can only hope that I would have the opportunity and the strength to resist. I would rather die fighting a warriors death, then be shot execution style after I was tied up. You never know what could happen, the man says he is going to shoot you if you move, how do you know he isnt just going to tie you up then take you somewhere else, then shoot you? Again, that is putting the whole situation in his hands, I would rather trust in my own strength and luck than put my fate in the bad guys hands like that. Its all situational though, there is no "one size fits all" solution. These kids may have done the right thing, none of us can say. I feel terribly sorry for them and the girls though. I hope the media will leave them alone and allow them to get on with their lives, and I hope they recover quickly from this ordeal.
