Indianpolits Star columnist Matt Tully encountered a pretty classic mugging election night -- he was downtown near the Circle when two men asked directions, followed him a bit and then one of them hit him on the head!
Mr. Tully ran into the street, yelling, escaping unscathed other than the initial blow.
Matt, y'know what would have made a difference?
(Wait for it, wait for it...)
Situational-frikkin'-awareness. Like you might learn from a self-defense course. Those two guys were following a pattern and had you recognized it, you probably could have avoided getting hit.
You thought I was gonna say "gun," didn't you? Look, a gun's really handy -- if you know what you're doing. If you're not even aware enough to know you're being sized up (for crime, I mean), being armed probably won't help. (Well, other than as a reminder to try'n avoid situations where you might be shootin' at somebody.)
They say "a Republican is a Democrat who's been mugged." I would not hold my breath -- they also say, "The leopard cannot change his shorts."* Ooo, nice animal-print, Matt!
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* They only say that version on Discworld, actually.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
7 comments:
I bet the animal print has a stain running through it now.
Situational awareness? Why wasn't I informed of this breakthrough?
TJ, what?
...The behavior of the guys that (tried) to mug Tully fit a pattern that should have had him high-tailin' for help. He wasn't paying attention. I don't blame him for getting mugged -- that rests, as ever, on the people who initiated force -- but it's frustrating to hear of yet another lotus-eater wandering in front of an obvious steamroller.
Sometimes, there's just no substitute for that plain ol' Instant Karma.
RX,
I believe he was being sardonic. ;)
I think you were right the first time...A gun would have helped, but not in the way most folks would initially think.
Speaking from my own personal experience here (though I've seen it played out with most carriers I've talked to), for good or ill my own SA skyrocketed when I began to pack.
There's something soberingly serious about carrying the ability to end a life (as well as how badly things can go sideways for me even if there's no discharge) that makes me MUCH more aware of every circumstance around me. Makes me friendlier and more social too, particularly when I OC (goes back to that whole 'things going sideways' bit).
Years ago, I was hanging out with a gym-rat who had a rather disparaging view of all those sit-up/crunch/ab-blaster type gizmoes we were seeing advertised. His opinion was that, as a machine in and of itself it was worthless. However, if a machine was what it took to get someone to regularly perform the exercise, then it would, in the end, serve it's purpose.
Tully got real lucky. Yep.
The light switch is on the side of the head - as a friend of mine (who lived on the street for a few years) could fondly recall of his several muggings.
Sawed off baseball bats pushed up loose sleeves waiting in dark alleys for the preys' government 'paycheck' at the beginning of the month.
Most the time the victim either wakes up in the hospital or in an alley minus the wallet. Sometimes not at all.
The only reason Tully was able to scream and run away is because the mugger missed the light switch. Lucky, lucky, lucky...
Situational awareness indeed.
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