Crowd of 30 teens attacks couple in Norfolk

[steveracer]

This has taken more than two weeks to make the papers. I'm ashamed of the VA Pilot for this one:
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/05/beating-church-and-brambleton

 

[Fred Fuller]

From the article:

They had stopped at a red light, in a crowd of at least 100 young people walking on the sidewalk. Rostami locked her car door. Someone threw a rock at her window. Forster got out to confront the rock-thrower, and that's when the beating began.

Need I say more?

 

[Sgt_R]

Pop quiz: You are stopped at a red light in a bad part of town, being approached by a crowd of approx. 100 individuals. One of them throws a rock at your car. Do you:

A) Get out of the car and pick a fight you know you can't win.
B) Run the red light and get away.

 

[Rail Driver]

Bad move by Mr. Forster. It'd have been even worse for at least some of those idiot kids (and their idiot parents that didn't teach them right from wrong) if Mr. Forster had been armed.

*Edit to add- after reading the rest of the article and some of the comments, it seems to be similarly connected to the racial tension that has been exacerbated by the Martin/Zimmerman case as several other incidents that have been mentioned in the news and on the web.

 

[sidheshooter]

+100 on staying in the car first, and then using said car to get out of dodge second.

Another take away, IMNSHO:

She called 911. A recording told her all lines were busy. She called again. Busy. On her third try, she got through and, hysterical, could scream only their location.

We are on our own out there, either for a short time, or a long time, but it will be too much time. Better have a plan.

 

[bikerdoc]

Anyone around here knows,

1 That area is dangerous.
2 The pilot is a 3rd rate, minor league, newspaper.
3 Norfolk Police are top notch but understaffed.
4 Trying that behavior on the other side of the Berkley Bridge, will make the front page.
5 God must love stupid people, he made a bunch of them.

 

[Carl Levitian]

"Pop quiz: You are stopped at a red light in a bad part of town, being approached by a crowd of approx. 100 individuals. One of them throws a rock at your car. Do you:

A) Get out of the car and pick a fight you know you can't win.
B) Run the red light and get away."

_______________

Is this a trick question?

 

[hogshead]

Sounds like they got off pretty light for a mob of thirty.

 

[BeerSleeper]

Things like this are reasons there should be no restrictions on magazine capacity. A glock 17 and a 33 round magazine could have given this story a positive outcome.

 

[Odd Job]

As others have said, you don't get out the car, because you will lose.
Furthermore, you don't want the yutes getting into the car.
Seems you got one option left: move the car away from the yutes.

 

[Pilot]

Agreed. Very stupid move. Why people insist on getting out of their car or opening their front door to strangers is beyond me.

They are very lucky they aren't both dead or hurt really badly.

 

[Fred Fuller]

A note on recently deleted posts...

It is sufficient for us to be aware of the circumstances that seem to prevail in the larger society, without harping on certain aspects of the situation which are currently not fruitful areas for discussion. There are a number of other sites out there which focus to greater or lesser degrees on the specific topic which some of you seem to be bursting buttons to talk about here.

Just as we always suggest with TEOTWAWKI/SHTF/zombie discussions, if you want to talk about those topics exclusively and largely ignore the serious ST&T subjects which this particular place was established to discuss, GO ELSEWHERE to do it.

Note I did not say "please."

 

[Rail Driver]

A note on recently deleted posts...

It is sufficient for us to be aware of the circumstances that seem to prevail in the larger society, without harping on certain aspects of the situation which are currently not fruitful areas for discussion. There are a number of other sites out there which focus to greater or lesser degrees on the specific topic which some of you seem to be bursting buttons to talk about here.

Just as we always suggest with TEOTWAWKI/SHTF/zombie discussions, if you want to talk about those topics exclusively and largely ignore the serious ST&T subjects which this particular place was established to discuss, GO ELSEWHERE to do it.

Note I did not say "please."

You're absolutely right, Mr. Fuller - Awareness that there are direct and indirect causes of these situations is enough, and discussing those causes and how to avoid them has nothing to do with the strategies and tactics of avoiding violent situations or surviving them.

 

[Fred Fuller]

You're absolutely right, Mr. Fuller - Awareness that there are direct and indirect causes of these situations is enough, and discussing those causes and how to avoid them has nothing to do with the strategies and tactics of avoiding violent situations or surviving them.

Awareness is the foundation of avoidance. If there is anyone here who is unaware of the issue in question, then they are probably safe under the rock where they've been living since March.

Leave it be...

 

[Double Naught Spy]

From the article:

They had stopped at a red light, in a crowd of at least 100 young people walking on the sidewalk. Rostami locked her car door. Someone threw a rock at her window. Forster got out to confront the rock-thrower, and that's when the beating began.

Need I say more?

Sadly, such sentiments have been echo'd by members here who are unwilling to back down from a confrontation and while feel it is necessary to them to face adversity and not run away.

 

[Walkalong]

Awareness and retreat is the number one way to avoid conflict and stay safe. Once conflict starts, you stand a good chance of being injured. If you are outnumbered, you stand a great chance.

 

[Rail Driver]

We all seem to be in agreement that in situations like this one, retreat is ideal; I think the next logical question is what strategies can we employ to change our environment from one in which behavior such as these attacks are "acceptable" and even promoted by media and certain authority figures into one in which violent attacks on innocent people are rightly vilified and those that commit these attacks are punished in a way that is permanently effective?

 

[Cosmoline]

A glock 17 and a 33 round magazine could have given this story a positive outcome.

OK, let's break this down. What EXACTLY are you going to do? The stone hits the window, but you have no clue which of 100 teens threw it. Are you going to open the sun roof and reenact "Black Hawk Down"? You'd be committing mass murder. Are you going to cowboy up and waltz over to give the mass of JVD's a good talking too? If they attack you, are you going to start spraying into the mass? Are you only going to brandish? What if your bluff is called?

Going out to confront the mob is a terrible idea. Going out to confront and murder the mob is a *criminal* idea.

You get out of there. You retreat. If you want to do something about the problem then lobby to have that public housing complex shut down. Take photos. Take video. Publish it. Make a political issue out of it because that's what this is--a political issue. And a great many public housing rat nests have indeed been shut down due to this sort of thing. From Pruit Igoe on down. If you want to get rid of rats you shut down their source of food. In this case public assistance in the form of housing. These places have always been a terrible idea. They breed crime and abuse.

 

[tomrkba]

Going out to confront and murder the mob is a *criminal* idea.

It's not if the mob is attacking you.

But, as you stated, the wise move is to leave. They had a 19 million grain projectile they could have used to escape. But, sheep don't think like that.

 

[Tempest 455]

Pop quiz: You are stopped at a red light in a bad part of town, being approached by a crowd of approx. 100 individuals. One of them throws a rock at your car. Do you:

A) Get out of the car and pick a fight you know you can't win.
B) Run the red light and get away."

If I considered (which I would) the rock throwing as deadly force or intent to cause great bodily harm, someone (ie. the thrower) is going to get run over.

 

[Rail Driver]

If I considered (which I would) the rock throwing as deadly force or intent to cause great bodily harm, someone (ie. the thrower) is going to get run over.

how do you propose to avoid running over the 99 innocent members of the crowd while you run over the rock chucker, if you can even figure out which one of those 100 individuals threw the rock?

 

[JustinJ]

If I considered (which I would) the rock throwing as deadly force or intent to cause great bodily harm, someone (ie. the thrower) is going to get run over.

May be hard to convince a jury that you had to run him over to prevent the next potential rock from causing you death or serious bodily harm.

 

[Sav .250]

One thing is for sure.......lesson learned.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

the couple was leaving a club.
young man
booze testosterone and someone hit the girls car.
many a bad decision started with booze testosterone and a male ego and this is a good example.
surprised it didn't end up a lot worse
pull a gun on that crowd?
ever wonder how many other guns in a crowd of a 100 urban youth?

 

[Tempest 455]

May be hard to convince a jury that you had to run him over to prevent the next potential rock from causing you death or serious bodily harm.

Faced with that situation, I could care less.