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A true story!; In which bad things happen to me.
Topic Started: January 16, 2009, 8:22 pm (138 Views)
Nagisaki
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Earthbound Signal Interpreter
A true story...

I was at a bar with my wife, a friend whose birthday it was, and said friends niece. It was mutually decided that we would all head to a back-ally karaoke house a few blocks away. Birthday-friend and her other party guests piled into a cab to make the trip over, as it was too chilly for them. My wife, Myself, and Birthday-friends niece decided to walk over.

Now, I'm no stranger to the streets of Manhattan, and Herald square is not even remotely regarded as a dangerous neighborhood. The three of us walk crosstown, headed to 6th Ave, when under the scaffolding of a construction area, we encounter a group of four young people, 2 boys, 2 girls, estimated ages 18-19. As they were crowding the sidewalk, and moving entirely too slow for our liking, I spoke up with a quick “Excuse me.”

They stepped aside, and as I walked past with my two companions, one of the guys quipped “You are excused,” with a healthy dose of Latin American attitude. This triggered a small warning flag in my head, but I pushed it aside. Some people like to be ballsy. So, we continue on, and apparently they also decided to quip “Nice weave,” to birthday-friends niece. This is where things start to go bad.

You should know the people you travel with, even if it's over a short distance: apparently birthday-friends niece is a troublemaker. A bigger person might have brushed it off. A troublemaker will give a full display of attitudinal prowess, and hit back with cracks like: “it's more than your momma can afford, etc..” This exchange prompts the group to follow us, trading insults with the solitary bigmouth as my wife and I try to remain quiet and uninvolved.

My wife, ever the diplomat, turns to retrieve birthday-friends niece, in an attempt to put an end to the infantile exchange. I turn as well. Before this moment, I was pretty much tuning out the words, so I'm not sure how exactly it got to the point that it was. All I recall hearing as I turned to face the group of hecklers is the words from birthday-friends niece: “Oh, ya'll mutha fuckers wanna get maced.” As she furiously digs in her purse, my mind tries to grasp how the hell it went from flippant comments to threats of harm. In a gesture more threat than effect, birthday-friends niece mists the air between the two groups with a small can of pepper spray.

Now, as in most conflicts, once the first shot is fired, the escalation begins. My wife manages to pull the shouting birthday-friends niece away from the group, I decide to remain. I'm non-threatening, attempting to put some space between these people, an irate troublemaker, and my wife, who is the only person whose safety I'm actually concerned about. One of the young men pulls a small folding blade out of his pocket, and tucks it, opened, into his palm. My attention is now focused fully on him and his arm, as he steps toward me, saying “Keep walking man, keep walking.”

I am not a fighter. I'm not a fan of conflict. My mouth was saying the words “I'm walking.” but my body was routed in place. Apparently I had decided to keep my wife away from these hooligans by using myself as some kind of meaty shield. In my state of tunneled vision, I failed to notice one of the girls digging in their purse. To her credit, she actually knows that in order to use pepper spray effectively, you must actually hit someone with it, rather than fog it menacingly. I felt a cold spritz on my eyes.

Tunnel broken, I look over to the girl, see the can in her hand, the scowl on her face. As calmly as possible, which was indeed, quite calm, I said “Did you just mace me? An unarmed man? That was weak.” I looked at them for a few seconds, then turned, and walked over to my wife and the troublemaker.

Now, lessons in getting pepper sprayed. It takes a few seconds, I'd say :30-:45 before you feel it. I had enough time to give the group a good “WTF?” look, turn, and walk a few paces to the corner, before I felt the burning. And indeed, it does burn. Imagine taking a handful of rather spicy peppers, crushing them between your hands, and then rubbing your palms deep into your eyes. The stinging sensation is almost numbing, as my eyelids felt so puffy that I could not open them, though, I don't know if they actually were, or if my eyes simply refused to open. I did have a bottle of water in my backpack, and it was enough to keep the pain under the line of agony until the ambulance arrived. The police and EMTs were professional, and took very good care of me. I doubt they will find the hoodlums.

It is an experience that was unique. It hurt, no lie. Not as bad as when I broke my wrist, that was very painful. But it stings, and your eyes are a bad place to have any problem with. I do say that given the option, I'd much rather go with the pepper spray than the knife. There was no permanent damage to my eyes, and by the time the ambulance got me to the hospital, I could see regularly. If you are sprayed, you'll want to flush the irritant out of your eyes with lots of water. Be sure to flush it away, and not into the other eye.

The moral of this story: Be wary of people who put their attitude ahead of their sense of judgment and self preservation. I will not be spending time around birthday-friends niece ever again.

Cheers and good health!

-Nagisaki
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Blue Phoenix
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WOW what a story... any of you could have been killed! luckily you remained calm, they probably didn't expect anything like that at all.

how old was the niece? i can think of a few things that need to happen to her, lol... and i sure hope they did!


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GC Rust
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Bravo for being the better man! The story sucks (Being maced is no fun), but your adamant refusal to back down to those folks is probably what saved someone from getting a knife to the back.

Calling the bluff is always the better option.
All That I'm After is a life full of Laughter
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LightSlayer
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Wow man, glad your safe.
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own!" ~Adam Savage
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Nagisaki
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Earthbound Signal Interpreter
Thanks all! Yea, it's one of those things that sucked when it happened, but now i have a cool story to tell folks!
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Silverwing Wolf
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Seeing the part about one of them prepering a knife my reacation would be to focus on him as he is the bigger threat, but they must of though "wait she used mase and hes still standing?"

your a very lucky man Nag, if that happend to you in London....chances are you would of been stabbed too.
very lucky
"Lo as I walk thought the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear No evil, for I'm 15,000 feet and climbing!"
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Cyberpumpkin
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Ghetto drama.
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