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coillah

Sun Apr 12 2009, 09:12AM

Registered Member #1517 Joined: Wed Jun 04 2008, 06:55AM
Location: Chico CA
Posts: 304

You know how you always think of the best thing to do/say after the fact.

Tonight I was razoring home from the physics lab (yes I razor around, it may attract attention but hey, its quick and I enjoy watching people get a kick out of it, although my self respect gets in the way some times), I usually choose to go down a popular street because it is well lit. Normally people just remark that I am riding a scooter, but tonight I saw trouble up ahead. I went along my way, looking ahead to see a group of guys, loitering on the sidewalk, dressed in the uniforms of street urchins. I move pretty quick on the scooter, but I knew as soon as I saw them, something was going to go down.

As I drew closer, a couple of them got ready to jump out at me, I hoped they were just moving around, but I was right. As I came close they moved to block my path, and sort of yelled at me. Despite preparing myself for it, I was a bit startled, so I jumped off the scooter, which constitutes a very fast brake. I stood there for a moment, and turned around to look at the immature ass who decided to interfere in my life tonight. I was a bit unhappy they had such an attitude that it would be funny to try and knock me off my scooter, so I glared at the scrappings off my shoe. They didnt like the laser beams so they started trying to pick a fight with me. Considering that I am rather light, and there were four of them, I had no trouble deciding that a look from me would be enough, and just moving on. They hurled insults at me for the rest of the block.

Looking back I could have handled it a bit better. I should have stopped suddenly, turned around quickly and shouted, "BOOGAH BOOGAH BOOGAH!!!" Once sufficiently frightened, they would have either:
a) gotten mad and tried to kick my ass
b) been scared, then laughed because I got them back

The fact that there was option a prevented me, I like to think, from trying to be funny.

I promised myself I wouldn't spend any time griping about this, so I won't, but I thought the idea was funny.

Proud Mary

Sun Apr 12 2009, 11:27AM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

I'm sure the whole world would look much rosier if we could all re-write our personal histories, editing out every loss of face and humiliation, and re-writing the dialogue of conversations where we might have come off the better if the right form of words had come to mind at the moment we needed them most!

It's not funny to be harassed or intimidated by feral youths - street urchins. It's happened to me, and it leaves you unsettled and wary for a long time afterward.

But you're the person who is the winner here. You're working to make something of yourself at college, so you have a decent, worthwhile life ahead of you. There's is the world of the crack pipe and fourteen year old girls pushing prams, of Juvenile Hall and probation officers. So you said and did exactly the right things, and made the right decisions long before your encounter with these young thugs. They know you're one of the winners, which is why they had a go at you in the first place, lad.

ragnar

Sun Apr 12 2009, 01:56PM

Registered Member #63 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425

The TV film 'Menace' comes to mind: I thoroughly recommend you view it, if you can find it. Ignore the nasty reviews; it illustrates the very solemn path between the worlds of your civilized college and their crackpipe-probation exploits.

Think of it this way:

Your decision:
It's hard to tell at first sight whether the kids are harmless little punks or horror-stories in the making. But ultimately, you need to make that decision before you pass them, and ideally avoid them if possible.

Their decision:
Similarly, they are weighing up whether they are going to have some 'fun' by frightening you, or perhaps planning to physically push you.

Your reaction:
Whilst clearly unfair, you jumping off your scooter in response to their threatening body-language and feral verbiage is not justification to swing at them, and it's excellent that you didn't. It's not worth getting your face stomped on or bricks hurled through your front windows if they discover where you live.

Their reaction:
Prominently stopping your scooter and crossing to the other side of the road may attract their attention. And if they follow you, ultimately, you know which decision they have made. If they physically antagonize you after you tried to avoid them, you would be justified in giving their faces a taste of scooter after they physically demonstrate that they're going to rough you up regardless.

Harry makes a very good point: it sucks, but never forget: these kids have nothing to lose - avoid, avoid, avoid.

Given a similar situation here, if you were physically assaulted by these kids and chose to approach the police, you may expect to receive a fine for not wearing a helmet or riding on the pavement. Police are 'results-driven' and you are the easier result. They won't see anything but arrest statistics and christmas bonuses.

Principle doesn't even come in to it. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Chris Russell

Sun Apr 12 2009, 03:01PM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

You made the right call. As the people above said, these types of people have nothing to lose, and little to no sense of right or wrong. It's up to you in cases like this to act like a reasonable human being, and not escalate the matter, regardless of whether you could have won in a physical confrontation.

In the end, you're the winner. You'll be back to studying physics, and they'll be back to the street corner. Where will they be in ten years? Or twenty? Or thirty? Where will you be?

If the confrontation was on campus, I'd let campus security know about it. They generally take providing a safe environment very seriously. If it was off campus, there's not much you can do. I'd certainly think about picking up a can of pepper spray or some other self defense option. However, I must repeat: even if you know you can win in a physical confrontation, it's up to you to not escalate things, even if that means having to cross the street and getting called a few names.

aonomus

Sun Apr 12 2009, 04:55PM

Registered Member #1497 Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801

Simply put, avoid the fight if you can, deflect, distract, stall for time, but do be prepared to fight if you can't avoid it, and do know what you are doing...

the_anomaly

Sun Apr 12 2009, 04:58PM

Registered Member #19 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 03:19PM
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 168

Chances are if they have messed with you they have messed with others aswell. Why not train martial arts? If it was me I would have picked the closest guy and just damaged him. Usually these punks think they are strong but really they are only confident is their friends are around. Besides they all probably have criminal records of small things so as long as you are clean your word has a good chance of beating theirs. Especially if it is one vs. many.

Arcstarter

Sun Apr 12 2009, 05:29PM

Registered Member #1225 Joined: Sat Jan 12 2008, 01:24AM
Location: Beaumont, Texas, USA
Posts: 2253

I have always had the same problem. What i did (not purposely, but im glad it happened) was gain weight (6 or so feet tall, 180 pounds) and built some muscle. The guy that has pushed me around for so long won't even say anything bad about me.

Violence is indeed not the answer to all problems. If anyone has bad problems with this kind of stuff, get BIG. If you can get big enough to scare people that might be picking on you, you don't have to worry about violence!

I am just lucky i come from a big family (mainly obese, but also strong and tough). I am not strong, necessarily but i look big enough.

Talking things out with these senseless bastards will never help, so if you take a beating, you have options XD. Pepper spray, taser, build muscle and take care of some business, or the slightly more violent approach, bring a weapon (not gun, more like something heavy) just to scare them, and if they start kicking your face in, you have a bit of protection.

The guy (Paul) that is putting the other half of our walls in has been down that path. Two of the high schools merged, for some reason, bringing bad people into his school. One day 7 people jumped Paul, and beat him. He spent weeks in the hospital, lost most of his teeth and other stuff.

Some months later, when he was at the urinal, some guy kicked his back and made him fall. After having the traumatic beating, Paul freaked out. He beat the guy about as bad as the 7 guys beat him. There was blood all over the walls and such. The horribly retarded part is they tried to sue him for standing up for himself! But they lost the case, because Paul had already taken a severe beating, and they could not really blame him for what happened.

In short, the world is an unfair place, and you have to deal with that. But when you get beaten in school or picked on, and you turn out to be the owner of the biggest company on the planet, and the other guys have no houses and 100 different baby's mommas... Well, you win the game of life XD.

coillah

Sun Apr 12 2009, 06:09PM

Registered Member #1517 Joined: Wed Jun 04 2008, 06:55AM
Location: Chico CA
Posts: 304

The first thought I had as I rolled away was, "what a bunch of winners."

Nick: I am training in jujitsu, but not for the purpose of combat. When it comes to fighting, I am light and I don't have the time to gain a lot of weight. Admittedly a few pushups here and there would help, but hey...

I am not worried about getting into fights with people, I am not a coward, but I do not believe that physical violence should be the first alternative.

The really surprising part was how easily this has rolled off of me. In the past I might have gone home, fuming. Mad at the fact that I didn't maim the little punks with my spinning scooter tailwhip attack. But last night was different. It was quickly out of my mind, and I was smiling and enjoying the ride again. I guess I am getting older.

Chris Russell

Sun Apr 12 2009, 06:14PM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

Nick wrote ...

Chances are if they have messed with you they have messed with others aswell. Why not train martial arts? If it was me I would have picked the closest guy and just damaged him. Usually these punks think they are strong but really they are only confident is their friends are around. Besides they all probably have criminal records of small things so as long as you are clean your word has a good chance of beating theirs. Especially if it is one vs. many.

You'll have a criminal record in short order as well, if you punch out people who stand in your path or call you mean names. Defending yourself in the face of an unavoidable threat is one thing. Jumping straight to violence is quite another. Suppose one or more of them is armed? All the martial arts in the world aren't going to deflect bullets.

I'm fairly certain most styles of martial arts teach that violence is a last resort. If you can walk away, you should. You don't defend against impeded foot traffic or dirty words with physical violence.

The really surprising part was how easily this has rolled off of me. In the past I might have gone home, fuming. Mad at the fact that I didn't maim the little punks with my spinning scooter tailwhip attack. But last night was different. It was quickly out of my mind, and I was smiling and enjoying the ride again. I guess I am getting older.

Part of growing up is realizing that you don't have anything to prove to a bunch of random losers on the street. Sadly, a lot of people never figure this out at all.

Proud Mary

Sun Apr 12 2009, 06:39PM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

If a rabid dog snarls at you from across the street, you walk on by as quickly as you can, even though you might just get the better of it before it could bite you if you were silly enough to approach it.

In Britain, at least, many of these feral youths have knives, and even guns as Chris suggests, which they usually use to kill each other, or use in muggings, but which they might as well turn on the have-a-go-hero if he or she was unwise to get mixed up with them.

When knives and guns could be involved, all this talk of martial arts is just plain silly.

Coillah should stick with the problems of physics, and leave Law and Order problems to people paid and trained to deal with them.

Why would a young man with a good future ahead of him feel the need to prove himself to street people anyway?

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