Set Upon
I was walking home from the bus stop with some groceries and a book this afternoon, when all at once and nothing first, I heard a few running steps right behind me and was knocked down, and upside the head. I got back up and saw some irrational lunatic I'd never seen before, standing there screaming at me, calling me a motherfucker, claiming I'd stolen his milk (what?) and yelling that he'd beat me up for daring to walk on this street (where I live) again. Then he called me a Raciss! Which I thought was funny, as he looked like a white guy with a good sun tan to me. I reckon that's just an all-purpose insult these days.
I stared at him and he went away slowly. I spent the next hour or so filling out forms with Deppity Debbie, and then got to go home and have a beer. Which had no noticeable effect, the state I was in.
Dang! I thought this was a quiet street, where nothing ever happens.
I stared at him and he went away slowly. I spent the next hour or so filling out forms with Deppity Debbie, and then got to go home and have a beer. Which had no noticeable effect, the state I was in.
Dang! I thought this was a quiet street, where nothing ever happens.
posted by Justthisguy at 7/20/2011 10:37:00 PM
24 Comments:
Dangit. There's never a taser handy when you need one, is there?
Wouldn't have done any good. I was taken completely by surprise. Maybe after I had gotten up it might have helped, maybe not. He did go away when I stared at him. None of my stuff was taken, no blows on me after I went down. Some kinda lunatic monkey dominance game gone really crazy?
I mind a case a few years ago in GA, in which a coupla white trash guys felt insulted by somebody in a black car in a shopping mall parking lot. So, naturally, they went for the first black car they saw, got out, and killed the driver. It wasn't the same guy, wasn't even the same kind of car, just the same color.
They went home and proudly told Daddy, and he went all face-palmy and got the Sheriff on the phone.
Some people don't even have to be half-cocked to go off.
My head stll hurts a little bit, but the aspirin seems to be working.
I thought of a whole lot of curses to dispatch upon that lunatic, but then I realized that he already has been cursed with the affliction of madness. And he has to live with himself for the rest of his life.
Whereas *you* get to hang out with *us.*
Heh.
I hope you feel better soon.
And then there was the time Lord Lucan accidentally murdered his kids' nanny. He actually intended to murder his wife, but the light was bad...
I remember that! Not from personal experience, of course...
Oh, further, on the utility of Tasers or even deadlier weapons in that kind of situation. I really don't think I was totally in Condition White, and an audiologist once told me that I have unusually good hearing. (one of my autistic superpowers, heh)
When I stopped talking to the old gent on the corner and proceeded toward home, there was nobody in sight anywhere. About 30 yards later I heard two or three running footsteps behind me, followed immediately by thump and thwack.
I don't think there's any way to guard against that except for acting like Yossarian in the last part of the book, walking around backwards with hand on pistol, looking in all directions at all times in case Nately's whore shows up.
Any witnesses/audience he was performing for? Otherwise it sounds more like a random encounter with a violent schizophrenic than a dominance game.
Nah, Irene. Everybody was indoors, the sun being almost directly overhead and the air at 90- something Fahrenheit. We're just a few degrees north of the Tropic of Cancer, here.
He really did not seem to be making any sense. He is bigger, younger, stronger, and proved himself meaner, than I am. He could have confronted me in a manly forthright way with no danger to himself, if he wished to complain about something he thought I had done.
Well, at least, unlike Nately's whore, he didn't seem to have a knife. I think he was just as crazy, though.
First-time commenter here, JTG, glad to return the favor. Sorry to hear of your evil encounter.
You would have had to possess the reflexes of a Big Cat to have avoided contact with that rumpkin. Perhaps a large, agile dog might have helped, but then, you have to scoop a LOT of poop to keep a large dog in the city, and my mama done tole me: life is better the less crap you have to actually handle.
Rivr, the physical effects amounted to those of a hard tackle. I am mostly over them, with the aid of aspirin and alcohol.
It was the utter unexpected rudeness of it which shocked me. I can understand a rational criminal who knocks me down to take my stuff, or someone who knows me and has a grudge against me, but this was a total bolt from the blue. That's one of the reasons I filled out the report, to maybe help catch him if he does it to someone else.
This is an ongoing discussion in MA circles -- the Total Surprise.
What do you do if a sniper shots you coming out of your door from a blown down the street?
Depends on how good a shot he is.
What if a big meteor falls on your house while you are asleep?
Most of the hardcore street guys in the Rory Miller camp allow as how the unseen and unexpected attack is the bad one, and what they concentrate on is what to do after the shit has hit the fan, i.e. how best to recover and survive. That is the real trick.
Since you are still here and relatively uninjured, then maybe staring at him was exactly the right response.
If he had kept at you, probably that wouldn't have been the way to go.
If no audience, then no monkey dance. Generally. Didn't take or try to take your stuff, not a predator. Generally. Sounds like either (a) he was schizophrenic and delusional, or (b) it was a case of mistaken identity - he thought you were someone who'd stolen his milk (?) and when you just stared blankly at him he realized he was mistaken but didn't know how to apologize and back away from someone he'd just clobbered from behind.
In either case, you're unharmed, so you handled it correctly.
Rivr, maybe a small cat would do, if it were a big loyal Siamese tomcat. I have read that they were bred for just this kind of situation, to ride on the warrior's shoulder and let him know if something was coming up behind him.
Roman soldiers used Tiger Eye stones to enable them to see the enemy before the enemy saw them.
Anywho... all jokery aside... you doin' okay?
@Susan: Physically, yeah. As I wrote, it was just a hard tackle. Now as someone barely into his seventh decade, I don't think I should have to suffer hard tackles, 'specially if I didn't know there was a game on.
Mentally? This just re-inforces my fear and loathing of the general run of human monkeys. The landlord came by today, and I reclined, being still sore, and let the housemate talk to him. Parenthesis: for somebody who wore the Rose and Dagger as a collar badge in the Army, and later worked for An Agency, the housemate chatters like a teenaged girl. Sorry Housemate, but you know it's true.
If I could just have a 48-hour period from time to time during which it was absolutely guaranteed that I would not have to interact with any Goddamned human monkeys except on the 'net, I would be so very thankful
I agree with Irene; seems like the dreaded random crazy person attack.
Nothing much you can do, other than develop even more awareness. If you really practice being aware, almost constantly asking yourself "where will the next attack come from?", you can eventually reach a point where you may pick up those running steps coming your way. Of course, you'll probably take years off your life with the stress effects...
Strive for a balance, which you seem to do. Be aware of your environment, and pick up on the cues. That's all you can do -- and sometimes, there's nothing you can do. Somebody drops a nuke in my vicinity -- I'm glowing toast. No matter how fast my reflexes are. Sniper setting off several hundred or thousand yards, with a silenced rifle? Unless there's some reason for me to expect it, no chance of stopping the bullet. Even with expectation -- low chance, basically can I live behind adequate cover.
One note on monkey dances and audiences... It is possible for the participants to be each other's audience for a monkey dance, though this can border on an educational beatdown.
The thing is, Jim, I usually have a pretty good spidey-sense on the back of my neck when somebody is coming up behind me. Maybe that only works on normal malicious people, and not loonies.
JTG... so now I am getting all spell-castish and curse-ish again. &@%$#.
It takes a while for this *crap* to evaporate from the psyche. Perhaps The Housemate would be so kind as to run the errands for a bit, to keep you ensconced with the Fun Crowd a bit. We nearly always telegraph our attacks in advance, and are very polite about launching them head on. And the sneak attacks, when they come, never involve being knocked to the pavement. Nor do they come with accusations of milk-theft. : )
The thing is, Jim, I usually have a pretty good spidey-sense on the back of my neck when somebody is coming up behind me. Maybe that only works on normal malicious people, and not loonies.
And that's why I included lots of "mays" and "maybes"...
Do all you can to be reasonably alert -- but the reality is that there's not always much you can do. The sniper or nuke is the extreme. A guy jumping you without reason or purpose out of the blue is another thing you can't always defend against. If I walk up to a guy I've never met or seen, and blast him from behind for no other reason than because I can... Not much he's going to be able to do.
That's why one of the things Rory and others who've got the t-shirt talk about is having techniques that work when you're already behind the curve, when you're hurt and knocked down and are trying to figure out just how that situation came to be. Because that's what a real attack is likely to feel like... Real bad guys just don't often send a messenger the day before, and advise you where & when you'll be attacked. ;)
Oh yeah, Jim, as a very smart gal once pointed out to me, murdering a stranger for no reason except that you just wanted to do so is the easiest crime to get away with.
Ha! I have just consulted my copy of "Anathem", by Stephenson.
I quote from page 490: " Some of the martial artists performed well, others froze up and did no better than those who'd had no training at all.That sort of situation became known as an emergence."
And a bit further down the page, "The most salient feature of the enemy was its thoughtless agression,". That latter is for sure. Had that guy had malice aforethought and any skills, I could have been Dead Right There.
Hey-
Only seven months late but I just saw your request to contact on my blog. You can reach me at rory@easystreet.net
Why the fuck didn't you fight back? what is wrong with you?
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