"Just a Piece of Paper"

[Don Corleone]

In fact, Don, you know what, you're right. Lets let everyone who doesn't defend themself with force whenever they were under attack just be enslaved to their attackers. I mean, what the hell was Martin Luther King thinking? Non-violence? Not like that worked at all. And same with Ghandi! These guys just don't get it, obviously. And you know what, lets just let the Burmese govermnent have their way with those monks who wouldn't defend themselves against the police. /end sarcastic rant/

The reason their non-violent protests worked was because of the political ramifications of continuing to use violence against a non-violent protest. Do you think the average home-invader cares how his public image will suffer when this hits the press?

You do know that a lone policeman typically won't respond to a home invasion where the perp knows the house is occupied, and most police manuals advise against it, to wait for backup (which in a small town might be 1/2 an hour). Do you know why? Because the police, who study these things, know that people that invade homes they know to be occupied do it SPECIFICALLY to use violence, violence is not the means to an end for them. Begging them for your life, complying with their wishes... these things work with robbers and muggers. But a guy who breaks into a house he knows to be occupied? Even cops are afraid of those psychos and won't take them on one-on-one. Yet for some reason, we're supposed to try to reason with them?