Father Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea parish in San Francisco:
What She Learned From Being Mugged Many of you know that our own Clarisse was mugged in broad daylight on a busy street at the foot of Nob Hill on Sunday. She and Laurie Murdock (both work extensively in prolife activities and teach children’s catechism for the parish) were walking back from the weekly rosary walk at the cathedral when three men jumped out of a car at them. Clarisse wrote five inspiring “learning points” from the incident, and you can see the ABC coverage in the link below. Here is her account:
Clarisse:
What happened (to the best of my memory):
On Sunday, 3/21 at 3:40 p.m., Laurie and I were walking on Bush Street towards Polk Street, a busy intersection in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. We were jumped from behind by 3 people who pulled at my handbag and a reusable grocery bag. Laurie started screaming for help and we fought them to the ground. They dragged us up the sidewalk to their car. I was punched 2-3x in the head as one of the thieves shouted “B****, let go.” When they finally got a hold of my bags, they ran to their car. I ran after them and tried to jump in the back, but was kicked out. Then I grabbed to the side window and tried to stop them as they drove away. I finally wised up and let go. Within an hour, my debit card was charged $500 in Oakland. You can see a little bit of the video of what happened here: https://abc7news.com/
My learnings:
I’ve definitely learned to be less stubborn and to let go sooner! Here are some other learnings that may be broadly instructive.
1. Based on my subsequent conversations with folks who are in-the-know, I’ve learned that Asians are perceived to carry a lot of cash. That’s part of the reason for why Asians have been targeted. It’s not necessarily a race issue. I was wearing my Sunday church clothes and carrying a big handbag. I was an easy target. My learning is to keep valuables (keys, wallet, phone) on my person and to let the bags go.
2. Put up a fight, up to the extent reasonable. This is my personal opinion: When criminals aren’t met with any resistance, there will be more crimes like this. I was inspired by this 76 year old Asian woman who fought back and sent her attacker to the hospital (video). Bravo! Again, this is my own opinion; it is up to your prudential judgment whether you should fight back in this situation.
3. If you see someone getting attacked, please help them. There were at least half a dozen people taking videos and photos of the crime, but doing nothing to help two women screaming and fighting their attackers. If even 2 of them had jumped in, I think this would gone differently.
4. Exercise your civic responsibility. Over the past couple of days, I’ve run into locals who uniformly say that San Francisco has gotten much more unsafe in just the past year. I encourage everyone to exercise their civic responsibility to restore our great city of San Francisco. Vote, participate in recall campaigns, organize — whatever it takes, because enough is enough.
5. Don’t be afraid. I didn’t feel any fear during the encounter. I believed this helped me avoid any emotional trauma after the incident and aided my physical healing. There is a strong connection between mind and body. As a Catholic Christian, I sincerely credit the daily Mass, the sacraments, prayers and daily consecrations to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph for the gifts of fortitude and courage.
Father Illo:
I am inspired by Clarisse’s faith and fortitude, which come through in the ABC interview. Clarisse, and many others in our parish, are the fruit of Eucharistic adoration and frequent confession and God-centered Masses. We have a beautiful and strong parish, thanks be to God, who sacrificed his Son for us.
The above comes from a March 25 pastor’s letter by Father Illo.
The 13% at it again.
Situational awareness. As my old hockey coach would tell me after getting clocked a few times, “Keep your head on a swivel”.
Some good advice here, but never get into the attacker’s vehicle. Throw something at windows to break them or do other damage but do not get in there. Elderly Asian women were being attacked at a mall in our area before COVID 19 because it was assumed they would be carrying cash as the article says. I rarely go to shopping malls any more but go to shopping centers where I can see all around before I go directly into the store. In other cities many East Indian women were attacked wearing expensive gold bracelets.
God bless brave Clarisse and Laurie. I hope this never happens again. May your Guardian Angels always watch over you and protect you both. Sending prayers for your recovery– and prayers for justice for this horrible crime. Hope Clarisse will also be able to recover her stolen handbag and all belongings.
What a great post. I join with the writer in prayers for Clarisse and Laurie, and in the invocation of their Guardian Angels to protect them. To both Clarisse and Laurie, I add AXIOS! AXIOS! AXIOS!
I believe these beautiful ladies, dedicated to Christ, ought to receive special blessings with prayers, holy water, and holy oils, for healing of the effects of this evil, violent crime– for healing of the violent attack, and also, for healing of the filthy, vile names the Satanic thugs called them. Also, I believe the crime site should be blessed with a purification ritual, perhaps by the Archbishop himself. May Christ, Our Lady, St. Joseph, and their Guardian Angels, always watch over and guard these two lovely Catholic ladies. May this never happen again.
I saw that video and did not realize how young the victim was and that she was leaving Church when it happened.
Her message of love for her attackers is inspiriting. She is a true Christian.
So her attackers were not necessarily racist. So relieved. Actually these assaults long preceded Covid, and crime is up everywhere since the Summer of Floyd:
⦁ Thug rapper YG made a how-to “song” (Meet the Flockers) about robbing Chinese homes, ‘Chinese’ being a ghetto catch-all for Asians.
⦁ Ying Ma’s book “Chinese Girl in the Ghetto” is about what she endured daily in Oakland and its schools decades ago.
⦁ San Fran’s DA Chesa Boudin is a communist revolutionary and son and stepson of four communist terrorists. He once worked for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.
⦁ 85% of San Francisco street crime is black on Asian.
⦁ Etc., etc.
Now add the car jacking in Washington DC. Perps were underage girls, members of the 13%. They murdered a Pakistani (south Asian) immigrant. Until people are honest about who’s really committing the crimes, we can’t be helped.
Not sure you wanna take lessons from one who managed to get her head bounced off the street falling from a moving car. Lucky she wasn’t shot. Then instead of the countless similar racial muggings, she or Illo uploads the one video where a crazy white homeless druggie gets beat up by the 76 yr old granny he just assaulted. Denial, deceit, delusion.
Here’s video of one who took Miss Clarisse’s advice. RIP.