Analysis

[poliphilo]

I'm not brave. Not constitutionally brave. Give me time to consider the perils of a given situation and I'll usually do the sensible- cowardly- thing. But once in a while I get caught out. Events move too fast and there I suddenly am, in the thick of it, with a gang of kids waving burning sticks in my face and instead of turning away I keep ploughing on.

I remember the incident as a series of stills. The bits in between- the connections between image A and image B- have disappeared.  A kid is blocking the gate into the alley. I know I got past him- but how exactly did I do it? Did I push him aside, or dodge him or did he retreat before me? I really don't know.

I was clearly in some sort of altered state of consciousness. How interesting!

And the altered state carried me through until the task I'd set myself was completed. In all I made three trips from the kitchen to the fire.  The stick waving and the verbals got worse and worse, but my nerve held. Then I stepped back onto my property, shut the gate- and started to shake. 

I'm tempted to say I did a stupid thing, but, then again I'm convinced that- risky or not- it was the right thing. I may have been in an altered state, but I was also completely under control. I didn't offer violence and I didn't say anything abusive. I gave them as little provocation as possible and just slid between them and did what I had to do. 

Could I do it again? Probably not.

Comments

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

Kids can definitely be horrible little things. In packs, with anonymity, and bored, they can do all kinds of bad stuff.

I think a camera might be a good idea. They won't like that. Of course, not enough to let them catch you and break the camera. But enough to get some images. It's mostly their anonymity I think that lets them be bold and get away with that stuff. You don't know who they are or where they come from, and they know it. You can't hurt them at all, and they know it. While on the contrary, they know exactly where YOU live, and they CAN defy you, and even hurt you, and get away with it. They've got you pinned down and on the defensive, as it were.

Times I've been faced with packs of kids- in particular when I was teaching them over here- it was their anonymity that let them get away with stuff. I couldn't stamp out bad behaviour because I didn't know who did it, and had no record of it. Take photos, tell them you'll hand them off to the police if their bad behaviour continues, and see what happens.

My buddy Mike is a cop. One day coming back from work in his car, out of uniform, he came across a pile of stones in the middle of the road. He got out of the car and moved them. Straight after, a gand of kids came out of the bushes and replaced them. Mike moved them again. The kids replaced them, and started mouthing off, trying to intimidate him. He said- "listen, I'm a cop, do you want me to bring all my mates down from the station and nick you?"

They immediately got apologetic and respectful and cleared out. Because they knew he could have power over them, and had the resources to take away their anonymity and hit them where it would hurt.

The kids know you don't have those resources or that power, so are exploiting the holes in the system. Photos and a record of their behaviour might help.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's right about anonymity. if I met those kids on the street tomorrow I wouldn't be able to identify them.

It's disconcerting to be faced by gang of little poersons and not automatically have the whip hand. In the world I grew up in Adults Ruled OK!And, of course, if I'd laid so much as a finger on them I'd have been in deep trouble. Mind you, I'm not sure that's altogether a bad thing.

Ihe camera is a good idea. Or maybe I could pretend I was a cop. After all the kids would have no way of knowing I was bluffing.