Tonight i had an altercation with 2 druggies (late 20's to early 30's), or they may have been drunks as they were both drinking cheap cider, but they looked like heroin addicts to me. i don't think a discription is needed here is it. I came out of the shop to find them both stood by my dog (a cracking little staffordhire bull terrier called max) and fussing him, but one had unhooked his lead from the shop wall but quickly put it back and thought i hadnt noticed, and immediately tried to distract me by talking about and complimenting me on max (he really is a stunner tho) while the other lad barged into me on his way past, at which point i told him (politely) to watch where he was going, but just received a torrent of abuse back. when i asked the other guy what his mate's problem was he simply shrugged and said i was just lucky he hadnt stabbed me cos ''he's a nutter''. at this point i'm thinking WTF!? but it also got my back up as ive just nicely recovered from being slashed and receiving 6 stitches a few weeks ago. So i just walked away, but at this the second guy started shouting abuse and was joined by the first guy again (knife boy) who then threw a bottle which narrowly missed a woman walking past. I walked round to my sisters nearby and was telling her what had happened and could feel myself getting wound up, mostly due to the implied threat of being stabbed, particularly as it was over nothing and i had done nothing wrong, but also as i'm sick of decent people getting treat like this by scumbag druggies. so decided to leave max there and go for a short run to clear my head and burn off some of the mounting anger. The end result is that i bumped into the same 2 druggies again and had a second altercation, which they provoked by immediately acting aggressive and rushing at me, and in which they didnt fair very well at all. Those of you who have read some of my posts here will know i'm an ex boxer and a keen weight lifter, so don't exactly fit the target or victim discription, so i can only guess that they took my polite, reasonable attitude in the first altercation to mean weak and vulnerable/intimidated, bolstering their confidence to have a go. The only thing on my mind was stopping them before laddo had chance to pull a knife out as being cut the other week is still fresh in my mind obviously, so i admit i wasnt gentle in putting them out as quickly as possible. but i dont feel guilty. it was self defence and they got what they deserved. who knows what might have happened if i'd let them intimidate me. I'm not sure why ive posted this, i almost didnt, but i guess i just want other people's thoughts on this. I'm aware its going to appear that i went back out specifically to find them, but i didnt. not conciously anyway. i just wanted to calm my nerves etc. i'm a decent guy, in my opinion. i'm a family man, and work hard for a living. i dont break the law and i fought for my country. i'm not saying i'm perfect, far from it but i'm definately miles above scum like this and dont see why i should take <beep> off them. sometimes you need to stand your ground, and this was just one of them. I also know a fair number of you are going to criticise me for not just walking away, and i accept that as ordinarily i would have. incidently its turning my back and trying to walk away is what got me slashed a few weeks ago, so it seems i cant win either way at the moment. I'm not stupid enough to believe that this will put them off doing similar to others, they'll just choose weaker targets, but i still feel justified and thought i'd post what happened. Thanks guys. Sam
It doesn't sound like you have anything to feel guilty about. Sorry you had to go through that, but glad you came out unscathed.
Thanks mate. I would much rather have been able to walk to the shop for milk without this sort of thing happening but there you go.
I had a Staffy stolen when I was a kid. I'd be VERY careful where you leave your dog unattended. Staffy's tend to be happy to go off with anyone with a wag and a grin. To some druggies your Staffy could represent their next fix.
does sound like they were trying to steal your dog. Not much you can do about a few drunk hooligans running at you. Hope they wern't too hurt when you finished with them? Maybe you should think about some body weight circuts to do in you back yard Do you live in a dangerous area?
I think maybe you were carrying an attitude when dealing with them. You said that you had them pegged as junkies, do you think this had any effect on how you responded to them? Perhaps they were off their heads but in my experience, it takes two to generate a confrontation like that. But yeah, I'm not buying that you went out without them in mind. You're not the first person to 'go for a stroll' knowing that trouble might find you and God knows I'm the last person to judge anyone for doing it, but if you'd come off worse, you would have been at least partly to blame, in my opinion. Of course I might be wrong, you may have set off in a direction that led you away from where you thought they would be...but that's not how it sounds at first read. Also, I have a policy of not ..ing where I eat. If this is as close to home as it sounds, there is no way I would have helped that conflict to escalate. You should never risk bringing trouble to your doorstep.
Sure you heard the term "It takes a bigger man to avoid a fight than to get into one". This is a classic example. The self-hate that chews us up when we do the right thing and avoid it makes it so hard to look the other way. I would, like holyheadjch above, suggest that you did not intend to find them on your stroll, but subconsciously you wanted to and that's what made it happen. I'm not saying they did not deserve a good butt whoopin, but when men (or women) fight, bad things happen. Be strong and resist it.
Hi Sam, I think that what you did was fine, maybe just not the best that could theoretically be done... My 'cold light of day' advice - and I'm not even going to pretend that I would take my own advice - would have been after the first incident to (when safe) get on the phone and report it to the Police - now I don't know where you live and police responses to threats of violence vary HUGELY - but given that they threatened to use a knife you might have got a result. It's VERY hard not to face up to threats or intimidation - I know that backing away from trouble is for a lot of us harder than facing it - but I also know that fighting with people you suspect of being druggies is a BAD idea - they may not have any reservations at all about the level of violence that they use. They also could be infected with a variety of things that you would not like to get and a fight always carries the risk of contamination with 'bodily fluids' - namely blood or spit...
My experience has been that most junkies are easy to deal with using a firm but polite attitude. That is, unless they're on GHB or suffering from heroin withdrawal.
Yeah my boy is like that, would probably go off happily with them to begin with. and i don't usually tie him up anywhere but this was an exception to that rule as i had no choice. but no, it won't be happening again.
No mate, i didnt hurt them. they were both sleeping soundly when i left and perhaps missing a tooth or 2 but its not like i went to town on them or kicked them when they were down. not my style. As for the bodyweight circuits, i do plenty as part of my training routine, but not sure what your getting at.... do you mean i need to burn off some aggression? It used to be ok around here to be fair. its always been rough, but not as bad as it is now, so yeah fairly dangerous but no more so than most places here in the uk. from what i can gather its the same all over.
In the first confrontation, no i wasnt. i was polite and reasonable and tried to difuse the situation. my first words were ''everything alright lads, can i get past you to unhook my dog please, cheers''. But no i don't think my thinking they were junkies influenced how i responded to them. i can see how it would look that way but its not the case. A few years ago i would have agreed but not now ive matured. the old me would also have ended it outside the shop during the first altercation, and cared little about the trouble it would have brought me. But yes i probably did go out hoping to see them again, but the fact i was slashed less than a month ago requiring 6 stitches was fresh in my mind and the threat of me being stabbed for nothing had stung more than anything else they said or did, and definately affected rational thinking on my part and yes, it was a stupid thing for me to do, but its done now. Had i reported the incident to the police nothing would have happened. yes, the wise move would have been to have a cup of tea with my sister then headed home, but what if they thought they could do the same every time they saw me after this, thinking they could get away with it? they definately viewed me as an easy target after how i responded in the first confrontation, which shows i didnt have an attitude initially and tried to difuse the situation, and in fact walked away. I admit i was a completely different character in the second confrontation, but they were definately going to attack this time around, so it was self defence. i just don't see why i should take <beep> from people like them. I'm an honest, hard working, decent family man and i'll always stand my ground when i feel i'm in the right. they were definately going to steal my dog, then to hint i'd get stabbed if i tried to make anything of it is just outrageous.
Thanks for that mate, and i do agree with you and do usually try to avoid fighting these days unless i really have no other option. I think the main thing here is i could have ended up in trouble over this when it could have been avoided. When i was younger i was terrible for fighting, and must have been a pain in the **** for the police and army authorities alike as i could not resist a challenge. backing down was never an option. (but the army is partly to blame here as they would pump us full of aggression day in, day out, then turn us loose on society at the weekend and expect us not to fight) but i'm different now, and will only fight when absolutely necessary so would consider this to be a slip. incidently the knife wound i received a few weeks ago happened while i was attempting to break up a fight. a lad ran up to stab me but a friend shouted a warning and i managed to deflect the blade so that it slashed but not stabbed me... In hindsight, it may be time to think about moving away from here.
Had i reported it to the police mate nothing would have happened. their still looking for the t**t who slashed the the other week! I agree 100%. its much harder to walk away than to fight, but i'm finding it easier to do. (i know it doesnt look like it but usually its the case and i havent been in trouble for a long time now) And yeah that is a worry. But due to the weather i was wearing gloves luckily and didnt have too much contact with them anyway as it was over pretty quick.
I was just playing with the comment. Cant run into any hooligans if your doing the circut instead of the jog. This...
That will always be the image of new labour im left with, there was def problem before 97, but there was a def HUGE increase in scum ruling the streets and over the past 15 years. Im surprised you never breached there human rights
You did the right thing. You made the effort to be reasonable and friendly and they chose to attack you. Also I don't agree with the people who seem to feel that it was your responsibility to avoid them at all costs. What's so wrong with standing up for yourself? If more people stood up to the likes of these douchebags maybe they'd learn something and not go around thinking the world is their hunting ground where they can do what they like and hurt who they like.
