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Post by Magnus on Jun 10, 2020 22:38:44 GMT
Isn't it disgraceful and an indictment on our "civilized" societies when one feels the need to carry weapons for their own safety, either actual or improvised, when going out into public areas. The problem is compounded when one can never be completely sure that he/she is safe from the police as well. Macky, here in the NYC area the crime rate isn't anywhere near to what it was when I was growing up, so the feeling of having to 'carry' something is an ingrained habit. I used to work in some really bad areas of NYC at all hours of the day and night, and when needing to make a phone call there was no other choice but to use a pay phone and be vulnerable. I personally knew 2 people who were robbed and killed using pay phones late at night in the shit neighborhoods. Luckily I've never once had to pull out a weapon or was ever even threatened in any real way. The most that ever happened was I had eggs thrown at me in the East New York section of Brooklyn and once while in the notorious south Bronx I had to stop and use a pay phone at 2 am, and a beer bottle came skipping across the sidewalk in my direction from a bunch of punks standing in front of a bodega down the street. I'm not the biggest guy around, but I've always worked out, and people used to tell me that my personality is a bit "intense" at times, so I think my 'attitude' may be a deterrent....btw, I always used to carry a wrist rocket sling shot and large ball bearings in my work truck. Those fuckers standing in front of the bodega never knew what hit them when I took off and then half circled around a few blocks away, parked unseen up the street and then opened fire on them with a barrage of steel balls... HAHAHA... they were screaming pretty good !!!
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Post by mr potatohead on Jun 10, 2020 22:44:06 GMT
Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire, 1, 2 & 3 respectively, have the lowest crime rate in US with Constitutional open carry. It's a good thing if one assumes that low crime indicates living in a civilized state.
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macky
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Post by macky on Jun 10, 2020 23:36:26 GMT
Mags, you larrikin ! Your sling shot activities remind me quite a bit of my own youth. Those were the days. Kotter was popular, and the theme tune is as familiar over here as where you are, among people my age or slightly younger, but not much.......
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Post by Bruce Tackett on Jun 11, 2020 2:52:11 GMT
Isn't it disgraceful and an indictment on our "civilized" societies when one feels the need to carry weapons for their own safety, either actual or improvised, when going out into public areas. It's always been that way. There has always been a bad element in society. Thomas Jefferson once said that a gentleman should be armed at all times.
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macky
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Post by macky on Jun 11, 2020 4:09:10 GMT
Isn't it disgraceful and an indictment on our "civilized" societies when one feels the need to carry weapons for their own safety, either actual or improvised, when going out into public areas. It's always been that way. There has always been a bad element in society. Thomas Jefferson once said that a gentleman should be armed at all times. Yep and he's right ! I've got two of 'em. In 33 years of going into all sorts of places from knock-shops to gang headquarters to embassies to parliament on the "phones", all hours of the day and night, the only times I ever felt uneasy was with a customer's dog, and that only twice. The other jobs I've had including knife-hand in an abattoirs in Melbourne I never felt unsafe, even though there was fighting among the immigrants now and then. Down in the sticking pens we had two tally teams of three each and a team of learners. "New Australian" or not, we were all on good terms. And I've never carried any weapons. The only time I've had grief was when three bastards sent me to hospital for the night "for a bit of humour" and it wouldn't have made any difference if I carried, because they jumped me out of the blue. I was at a party one night and a much larger chappie was going to "fix me up" and threw a right hand which I ducked just enough to take on the forehead. Yes I fell down but got up straight away and asked if he would like another shot. Which he declined because his ring finger knuckle was flattened and his finger broken in two places. I guess there are some uses for being gym punchbag. It was a long time ago in another age. Put it this way, you can be attacked in public down at the mall, but if the police catch you with a knife in your pocket, you're gonna have some explaining to do down at the station.
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jonrock
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Post by jonrock on Jun 11, 2020 12:03:49 GMT
Allowing people to carry weapons means "normal" people will be able to deter attackers, NOT that criminals will have access to them, because criminals always get weapons and resort to violence. Weapons are for us, not for them. It is our deterrence.
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Post by Bruce Tackett on Jun 11, 2020 16:40:37 GMT
macky............
You could spend forever and a day coming up with different scenarios - what if they come up from behind you (I'm very sorry that happened to you.)? What if they have knives? What if they have guns? What if they have .175 ground-to-air missile launchers? All I know is that when I'm walking down a street in, say, Old Town Wichita (Wyatt Earp's old stomping ground), and I see questionable person(s) heading my way, I remember my knife on me, and it gives me a warm sense of security. I'm not worried about anyone taking it from me. They'd first have to get past a 4" blade and a death grip. Like I said before, having a knife on me was my saving grace in three separate real world situations.
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Post by mr potatohead on Jun 11, 2020 20:07:36 GMT
That's important, feeling confident that you're ready. Having a tool, even if that is expert use of your body, let's you breathe easy.
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Post by mr potatohead on Jun 11, 2020 20:13:06 GMT
One of the things I always admired about Mohamed Ali was his graceful dancing. I distracted me from the fight more than once. I always thought George Foreman looked somewhat clumsy, he was a brute though.
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macky
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Post by macky on Jun 11, 2020 23:28:06 GMT
Yes it's tough question all right. I guess you gotta go with what you feel comfortable with, although here the police will have you if you're caught carrying a knife.
We don't have much in the way of handguns here either, except locked up at the club. Air pistol is about all, and they are bulky and not much good.
Yes the crims have no such restrictions, but fortunately they know better than to involve innocent people in their sights, only each other from rival gangs.
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Post by Magnus on Jun 11, 2020 23:43:40 GMT
...All I know is that when I'm walking down a street in, say, Old Town Wichita (Wyatt Earp's old stomping ground), and I see questionable person(s) heading my way, I remember my knife on me, and it gives me a warm sense of security. I'm not worried about anyone taking it from me. They'd first have to get past a 4" blade and a death grip. Like I said before, having a knife on me was my saving grace in three separate real world situations. I've had those "questionable groups" heading in my lonely direction a few times, and what always seemed to work for me was the 'crazy white guy' act... ... Once had a date with a Spanish girl from the projects and I insisted on picking her up at her apartment and dropping her back off at her door at 2 am...in a bad Black & Latino project on Jersey Street in Staten Island that no sane white person should be at any time, never mind at 2 am. When I was getting on the elevator 3 thuggy looking young black guys were getting off but then did an about face and got back on the elevator with me???... I knew the outcome probably wasn't gonna be good, so I immediately went into my "act", asking them "you motherfuckers know that kid Chris or some shit from up around here?..'cause if you do I came here to kill that motherfucker, tell me where he is !!!"..and then I slammed my fist into the elevator wall and started hopping around like I was shadow boxing... They were like "uhhh, no man, we don't know any dude named Chris" and they stood silently until the elevator doors opened and then got off as quick as they could, never once did I even have time to think about the knife in my pocket
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Post by Bruce Tackett on Jun 12, 2020 1:21:18 GMT
That's great, Mags! Fast thinking! The fact that you looked like you could squash them like bugs probably helped.
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Post by Bruce Tackett on Jun 12, 2020 2:15:03 GMT
Might as well relate my experiences.
1 - I was asleep at night in the bedroom of a third floor apartment in Baltimore. The bedroom window overlooked an alley. I was awoken by a girl's screams coming from the alley below. I jumped into my jeans, rushed into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, bolted out the door and down three flights of stairs. I remember as I passed one apartment, I heard a woman's voice from behind a door say, "don't go out there."
I rushed out onto the sidewalk and ran to the corner of the alley and then up the alley where there was some black guy standing over a white girl on the ground. I rushed him and when he saw me coming his eyes got big as saucers. He got into a position as though he was going to fight me, but after a few seconds he turned and ran up the alley. A cop car suddenly pulled into the alley, lights flashing. When the cops got out of the car I dropped the knife and told them what had happened. They got the girl up on her feet - a drugged out hippie who was whining, "He was hurting me." One of the cops said, "She knows that guy."
Later I thought, "Damn. I could have gotten myself killed over some dumb drugged out cunt."
2 - I was walking up Grant Street in San Francisco's North Beach area (for robert's benefit) when I passed a couple of scraggly homeless guys. As I passed them, I caught from the corner of my eye one of them gesturing towards me. As I walked on, I heard footsteps coming up behind me. I had my knife out in a flash and spun around. The guy stopped dead in his tracks, turned around and headed back down the street to his buddy.
3. I was standing at the bus stop in front of the Maritime Museum in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. Across the street the sidewalk was thronged with people in front of shops and restaurants. I saw a black guy running through the crowds and I somehow guessed that he wasn't out jogging. Sure as shit, I saw a purse in his hand. A ways back was a girl looking distressed half heartedly running after him. He turned a corner and ran up a deserted side street. I took off after him. He got to a parked car full of black guys and started to jump in to the front seat.
I had my knife out and I grabbed hold of the car door and pulled it open and leaned in with my knife as though I was going to start stabbing. They all let out a collective yelp. The purse was sitting right there at the edge of the seat, so I grabbed it and stepped back. The guy behind the steering wheel starts saying, "What you doin', nigger?! What's goin' on?!", as though he had nothing to do with this. As they sat in the car, I had the wherewithall to walk behind the car and memorize the licence plate. And then they took off like a bullet. About that time that girl came around the corner and I gave her her purse. We talked for a minute and then some guy in a jacket and tie came up to us and identified himself as a store detective, and he wrote down the license number. He also took our names and phone numbers.
A couple days later I received a phone call from the police asking me to come in and view a lineup. He gave me a date and time to be there. When I got there the girl was there. We viewed the guys standing in the lineup, but no one there was anyone from that car. The girl didn't recognize anyone. When we told a cop this he said that was good because he said a group of guys had just been picked up and he was pretty sure it was them. That was that. Never heard from the cops after that.
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pierinifitness
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Post by pierinifitness on Jun 12, 2020 4:39:07 GMT
OK my turn. A couple stories from when I lived in the midtown area about one mile from downtown, a gentrified neighborhood with lots of homeless bums and others many of whom are up to no good. Bruce and his wife visited me when I lived there and so did Justin Senesac (some of you old timers may remember Justin, I believe Mag called him Justine). I was in my 50's during this period, pretty darn fit, capable of running fast and probably in the best martial arts condition ever. In both instances, I had no knives or other weapons with me.
(1) Behind my house was a church parking lot and it was an area frequented by a large group of skateboarders. Our master bedroom was upstairs and the windows looked into the parking lot. We could hear all the noise from the skateboarders and my wife was extra fed up one day. So, I decided to go out and have a talk with these young fellows knowing that a group of skateboarders had clobbered a middle-age man a few months earlier, clubbing him with their skateboard. I went outside and asked the young men to leave, identifying myself as church security. I kept a safe distance from all of them and watched my back. A couple of them were wise guys and one actually tried to get in my face. I could see his face that he was scared as hell and the way he coped with it was to be the designated tough guy. I remained calm and had my safe distance while contemplating what I would do if the going got rough. They remained steadfast they weren't going to leave and I told them I was calling the police while walking away. While walking away, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and acted as if I was dialing a number and talking to someone while looking at them giving an impression that I was describing them. In about two minutes, they all scrammed. Mission accomplished with no nicks or licks. Had the going got rough, I would have kept my distance and probably tried to take one out big time to send a strong message to the others. I was in pretty good fighting shape at the time so somewhat confident that I was not in danger. In Monday morning quarterback mode, I realized I shouldn't have done what I did.
(2) Another time, my wife and I returned home and there were a couple dudes sitting on the cement steps in front of the sidewalk leading up the stairs to our house. I greeted them and asked them if I could help them. They said they were just taking a break which is a common occurrence in the area. I told them to enjoy their rest and make sure they don't leave anything behind, as my wife and I walked up the stairs to our front door entrance. A short while later, I went out to see if they were still there, discovered they were gone but had left behind about four beer bottles on the cement steps (part of our property) some half-empty. I was pissed. I told my wife I would be back, jumped in my car and went looking for them. I found them about 6 blocks away standing in front of a restaurant. One was a big black guy and the other was a short Hispanic guy all stoned out. I parked my car across the street from where they were and j-walked approaching them. Again, I was pissed. When I approached them, I thought about how big that black guy was and if I could handle him if the going got bad. I didn't worry about the Hispanic guy because he was all red-eyed and stoned out. I asked the black guy if he knew who I was and he said no to which I replied that I was that nice guy allowing him and his friend to sit in front of my house. I also told him that I didn't appreciate that he left bottles behind. I had a stern look and an elevated voice because I was super pissed. I don't know what got over me. He looked me in the eye and said, "Are you talking to me!" I looked him back in the eye and told him yes while making sure I had a safe distance and thinking about what I would do if the going got rough. He was big. He asked me again if I was talking to him and I said yes, while maintaining eye contact the whole time. It seemed like this eye contact lasted forever. He eventually said, "Man I'm sorry, would you like me to go back and clean it up?" I told him no that wasn't necessary, thanked him for his apology and told him never to go there again. I left while watching my back. Later on I realized that what I did was stupid but I was super-pissed. I wouldn't do something like that again.
I probably have a couple more stories but I'll quit while I'm ahead.
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Post by Magnus on Jun 12, 2020 10:03:45 GMT
That's great, Mags! Fast thinking! The fact that you looked like you could squash them like bugs probably helped. Not the biggest cat, I'm a wuss hair over 5' 11" in my sneakers and at that time walked around at about 235 pounds; built sort of like the white boy version of Mr. T in Rocky 3... I was also always a pretty good 'actor' though, when I needed to be
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