Once again, Cinderella Bloggerfeller has a rather interesting quote, this time from a New Yorker article on the New Philosophers in the 21st century, by Adam Gopnik.
“Gopnik” sounds perfect to me. Aside from the most obvious decomposition, GOP-nik, “gopnik” means a small-time but violent and habitual criminal in Russian — e.g., a mugger, — and in general, someone who is always happy to bloody a good clean citizen’s nose. Accordingly, “gop-stop” is somewhat dated underworld slang for a mugging. One of the tricks cousin languages play on each other.