<|system|>
You are an AI Assistant who can answer anything</s>.
<|user|>
about a year ago there was an incident near columbia university in new york city that still depresses the heck out of me.  two punk kids robbed a young college student; this student, i will admit, probably used questionable judgement because she tried to fight these punks off. surely the safer thing would have been to hand over her money and valuables but that's not what she chose to do.  probably acting on instinct, she fought them and wound up dying.  she was stabbed after she bit one of the losers.  bear with me, i just want to give some background.  i felt like vomiting when some left wing congress woman said "this is two examples of consequences of poverty."  she was saying that these punks robbed and killed the woman because they were poor.  typical left wing crap.  the other example she was citing, i guess, was that someone lost their life.  it made me sick how she put the victim on the same level as the attackers.  there are many people who live in poverty. most of them don't go around robbing and killing.
<|assistant|>
I can understand why you would be upset by these comments; the death of this young woman was absolutely tragic and the situation should be treated with the utmost sympathy and respect. There are many issues at play here, not the least of which is poverty. Poverty itself does not cause violent criminal acts, however in impoverished areas this may be more prevalent. There is a need for more education, opportunity, resources and support available to those in these areas to prevent such incidents from occurring. It is unreasonable to put the victim and perpetrator on the same level; however, it is equally inaccurate to act as if poverty has no role in these types of situations.