Thu Apr 05, 2018 2:34 pm
#1602847
Spooky - thanks. You are confirming exactly what I am talking about.
I have, through initially bad fortune and then many years of hard graft, a very clear understanding of the dynamics of physical assault and a bit of how the British legal and policing frameworks deal with the “it” of assault.
First fact is, that as a young British male, you have much less respect from all levels of the legal systems than any other category .
Policing, but much more the judicial systems, have for a very long time treated male “yoof v yoof” as a victimless crime until it gets to criminal (as in permanent damage or death) levels.
That leaves a huge training ground for scrotes to pick on “IB” (innocent bystanders),and the implicit understanding that as a young law abiding male that neither plod nor the courts will give sh.. whether you live or die.
I, and many of my close friends, grew up like that.
If you have ever seen one of your closest mates - as in young teenage - in a hospital bed so badly beaten that his own mother didn’t recognise him, you’ll know what I mean.
Someone beaten with brick in the face until unconscious , then beaten some more by grown men for no other reason than “fun”.
Random, male on male violence.
Cops and courts treat it as “minor assault”. Reality is months of severe disability (as in drinking from a straw, failed his high school exams - appeal refused), then years of physical and - even worse - psychological - trauma to deal with.
If anyone could see me right now, and I know the likes of Ghengis will understand, I actually feel physically sick to explain these things. I feel very uncomfortable talking about it.
That is the reality of getting into a “fight”.
The “law” on this respect - like war - doesn’t decide who is right, just who is left.
As I said earlier- I’d never pre-empt how I’d react to a couple of young. armed intruders in my home.
One thing is 100% clear. Anything I did do, within a very broad concept of “reason”, would be civilised. No hard damage on an incapacitated aggressor after I had time to collect my emotions.
I have found myself in a police cell though, after knocking the seven shades of sh.. out of a collection of scrotes, then having to spend several hours desperately trying to recall WTF I did (in a cell, in the physical states of shock, knowing I had done life changing damage to at least 1 person), then spend days/weeks torturing myself that my response was appropriate and proportional to the situation.
Do I feel bad about what I did? A bit, yeah. At not one single point was I the aggressor though.
*several hours after posting this /to many maybe an irrelevant point, but on that occasion the courts also found me totally innocent.
My primal, and tbh complete cnut, self did well not to kill anyone that time. I did as much damage as my training dictated, even though when I think back I was entirely justified in slabbing the b*stards.
It wasn’t the first or last time either. I have the ghosts of 4 men on my tab.
Now? I have neither the currency nor reactions to do “minimal damage”. Some fark wit tries it on, I give it my best, but reality is I’m the one paying hospital bills