Posted on 08/08/2019 3:25:13 PM PDT by Celerity
Here is my quandary. And this is proposed for anyone on either side of the red-flag debate. But I will give you a real-world look at how these ridiculous laws work.
This is a TRUE STORY. This is actually happening, I don't know what to do.
I work Uber for side cash. I am also developing a new system to help rideshare drivers better manage their time and make more money.
At our airports are "Queues". When you arrive to the airport and are waiting for a ride, you are geo-fenced into a parking lot and placed into a "First served" style queue. So this means an hour (or 4) of waiting around and talking to other drivers. Learning their stories and getting to know them. Not friends, mind you. To Uber we are all competitors. We don't share advice and we aren't out to help each other. In a queue though, all things are equal and there is nothing more to do against your competition than just wait in line with them.
There is a guy there. He's a creep. The world is full of creeps though. An older gent, he walks around and bums cigarettes off of people. He also talks to you from inches away, says off color stuff and tells really off color jokes.
He always something to say about "The ****ing faggots" the "dirty indians" or "Some kike". The guy is just abrasive as hell and he won't go away.
Well last night after a few seconds of unusual pause in his stream of BS he insulted a young woman there about being gay (She doesn't say anything about being gay, she's pregnant and just has rainbow stickers on her car). She took offense to his profanity-laced anti gay rant. She storms off. He then looks at me and says, without any humor and says "You know, half of the people here in this parking lot need to be killed".
When I approached him (We were alone at this point) he corrected his statement by saying "not because they are faggots or anything, but because this queue needs to be a lot shorter".
Here is the problem. This guy is a classic example of "Yeah, he could totally shoot this place up". And I believe he has the mental stability to do the deed.
1) I call Uber and Lyft and have him tossed out. Saying anti gay things this will be studious and anonymous. He won't be employed 20 minutes after the call. Result: I've taken a job from a man. I've made a crazy person now desperate and angry.
2) I call the police. This NEVER works out. People call the police on shooters all the time. Nothing happens. Instead, as what happens with me every single time, I GET INVESTIGATED. They go up and down me instead of the actual reported crime.
3) I go to the airport security. Things WILL get done. Without incarceration this guy will be back. He will lose his job. He will be in a bad place.
With these three options I've actually accelerated the possible outcome.
Or I approach himself. I can be nice and help him out. People with mental illness need friends, not enemies. I'm not a shrink and I have no time to take on a project human being. And he also simply irritates me. I could scare him away (Believe you me, I could do that) but then I WOULD BE the crazy one at the uber workplace, chasing people out and being stupid.
So what do you all think ? Do you all see the problem with red-flag laws?
There is only one solution to any of this. And it's a solution we have been given as a god-given right. We can carry a weapon to defend ourselves.
THAT is the solution. No red flag laws. No further legislation. Just let people have guns as nature and god intended.
As a human being, you have a right to defend yourself in any way you see fit. And if we all just accepted that then the numbers would be defensive: Imagine considering violence in a place (Any place) where people simply could be armed. Quite the deterrent.
So two purposes to this post - First, my rant. Second I am actually interested to see what FReepers would do in this situation.
Understandable post. How do we help the mentally ill Democrats who want all conservatives killed and/or openly call for harming them? Nothing is done about that either. Just asking....
I would check w/the airport security about loitering laws in your lot.
Barring that, sounds like a bum. Ignore him or explicitly say you don’t want to talk, though that will likely get an angry response.
Could simply be his method for getting people to leave and move him closer on the queue. Hard to make any determination when we only have your description of this person. That is not a slight on you, just that we all have different opinions of people based upon our preferences. Sounds like I would share your sentiments, but I really have no point fro which to reference from.
He sounds like another driver.
Videotape the next Incident, send it to his superiors and give him $200 and a One Way Bus Ticket to Los Angeles or San Francisco where his kind is appreciated, and being homeless is fashionable with a nice climate.
There is an answer to this. It’s the same answer I have been practicing for my whole life.
Leave it alone.
All I can do is try to control the area a few feet around me. I carry a gun, and I’m properly trained on how to do so. I’m here to protect my family, friends, and those around me as well as myself (In that order).
The best I can do is what I always do. Just keep calm and carry a gun. I think I will warn this lesbian woman though. He seemed to be pretty jaded about her and got into a mild confrontation with her.
My first knee-jerk reaction is to tell you that the most dangerous thing about this guy is his mouth. Most mass murderers don’t run their mouth like this. You might tell him that it’s bad for business to speak like this, as someone might hear him. Tell him that a complaint to the airport management could lose that spot for all of you.
I have a different real life story about how red flag laws can be abused, but I’ll save it for another day.
“He sounds like another driver.”
I’ve talked to a lot of drivers in my area and abroad. Not online, but face-to-face.
Most drivers have suffered great personal losses and no longer want to be home / stationary to suffer. These people are all just trying to disappear and work themselves into a grave.
Then some are doing it for fun money.
the Uber / Lyft drivers are all pretty decent people, and just like any group they are sprinkled in with idiots and crazy people.
I’d consider calling (or writing) the police and giving an anonymous report. Tell them you’re concerned about your own safety if you give your name, and suggest they post an undercover cop at the airport to get in the same queue as he, get friendly with them and let them find out and figure it out for themselves.
Then stay away from him.
Then he just sounds like an ahole. Simple enough then to sit in the car if he happens to be there. I wouldn’t worry about it but that’s just me.
“I have a different real life story about how red flag laws can be abused,”
Really I’m not looking to abuse the system. What I’m trying to deal with is that there is no clear way to actually _use_ a red flag system.
None of the options set forth make sense. Like the sexual harassment policy at Yale University. The victim must confront their attacker face to face without management or faculty in the room before any legal action can be taken.
And no one wants to do that.
So in this same situation I see a clear path to violence but there are still no clear paths to stopping it. Well, there is but then I would be the psychokiller.
Any fan of “Dexter” knows what I am talking about.
Loudmouth jerk...disengage and ignore. Free country...people are free to be jerks.
How about this.
Your ex accidentally sends a text to you rather than her new boyfriend of over a year because she lost her phone and they restored her contacts from an old back up.
Your current girlfriend sees it goes bat shit and red flags your guns,not because she is scared but it is a new arrow in her quiver to hurt you at that moment.
She didn’t mean to but now $5,000.00 of your legally owned property is now in police impound while you find money to pay a court ordered psycho analyst to get you a release document.
“This” will go badly.
Our judicial system isn’t configured to handle “red flag” laws. If you pick up your phone and make “the call,” it will be weeks before anything happens. My guess is, the mass shooters will all be doing their mass shootings between court dates.
Great analysis on your options and fallout. I’d probably talk with him once or twice and proceed from there. I agree, human projects are time intensive. But if you had a better knowledge about the nature of his behavior, you could find some kind of resolution. If this, indeed, is your problem.
I do endorse your conclusion.
The right to defend yourself is really the only solution for ‘random crazy’.
Just hope that the ‘random crazy’ isn’t in the form of a car that hops the curb and barrels down the sidewalk.
Or something over which you have no real control...(bomb in luggage of plane, wackjob biologist releases pandemic...)
People can agree to disagree. Do you think he will actually kill half of the people at the airport? If not, it’s just like saying “all 0bama supporters ought to be shot.”
It means nothing outside of sentiment.
Stay safe.
How could you allow this man’s rants to go unanswered even one time...
I’ve never once allowed anyone to be that rude
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