Posted on 12/05/2013 9:46:15 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
At just about every place Ive ever worked, theres been one feature in my office that has always stood out.
That feature is a bucket of baseball bats.
I have been collecting miniature baseball bats from major- and minor-league baseball parks since the mid-1990s. At first, it was because these bats, which range in price from $3 to $12, are the cheapest things you can get as souvenirs at the ballpark. But after a while, I started collecting them because they inadvertently sent a message.
That message: Leave me alone, and Ill leave you alone.
Granted, Ive never hit anyone with one of my bats, and I probably never would because they are collectors items to me. But if the perception that Ill take one of my collector bats to your head keeps you from approaching me in a way that could lead to something, that works.
I bring this up because I may have to start sticking one of my bats into the bag I usually carry when I go to my editing job or some of the other places I go when Im out reporting.
Its not because of the usual nonsense that I see and hear on SEPTAs Route 23, a bus so crazy its made the folks at SEPTA start following me on Twitter because I make cracks about it.
Its because I have this fear of being knocked out.
If you havent heard about the so-called Knockout Game, its obvious youve avoided the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. Its all the rage.
Apparently, young people have been challenging each other to walk up to the first total stranger they see and knock said stranger out with one punch. And when I say knock out, I mean out cold. Like a mackerel. Gotta be revived and everything.
Now if Ive learned nothing else between teaching college students at Temple and teaching The Children Of The Corn at the Performance Learning Center, Ive learned you cant tell young people anything these days.
If I had a nickel for every time Ive heard the phrase Im grown from someone who can barely shave, I could retire quite comfortably.
But Im gonna tell the young folks playing this game one thing: STOP. I say this because the knockout you save may be your own.
I turn 50 in May and what you need to know about folks my age is that weve had about enough of your shenanigans. Every time I see a story on my Facebook page about this here Knockout Game, its usually put up there by some guy my age who prefaces it by saying I wish some kid would.
Now some of these folks have boxed at one time or another. Others are armed. Most are just plain old, garden-variety crazy.
In any case, you can take that swing, but your fist might have written a check that your behind cant cash.
Especially if the person youre swinging at is a short lady with a large afro, glasses and braces. Shes carrying a baseball bat, and she will knock you out with it.
You have been warned.
AWARENESS is the key. If you are not paying attention, you will never have the opportunity to defend yourself—armed or not.
http://www.tacticalintelligence.net/blog/the-color-code-of-awareness.htm
Use the system the pros use.
Apparently, young people have been challenging each other to walk up to the first total stranger they see and knock said stranger out with one punch. And when I say knock out, I mean out cold. Like a mackerel. Gotta be revived and everything.
What he should have written:
Apparently, young black people have been challenging each other to walk up to the first total white or asian stranger they see and knock said stranger out with one punch. And when I say knock out, I mean out cold. Like a mackerel. Gotta be revived and everything.
Mine is a little hard to twirl, but it is a good one; and legal in PA.
A 686 4 inch almost enough to bring tears to ones eyes.
Bruce Lee was absolutely correct.
Train yourself to be in Condition Yellow: Relaxed Alertness. A friend of mine was an ex-Secret Service agent and it was uncanny what he noticed just sitting in a Starbucks: in and our of the store.
You go girl!
A person training their attention grows to see the average person as sleepwalking everywhere they go. People who are exceptions stand out a mile away. Like people in a mall moving around like cattle, your eyes are drawn to the twitchy one who’s a thief.
Hard to say, you'd have to check your state laws.
Here in Michigan I think they're illegal even tho I can legally carry a handgun.
I recommend a stun gun.. Mine is 45 caliber.
According to her self description,
she’s not going to be a target for “the knockout game”,
because the “young people” doing it are looking for someone
of a different demographic.
By the time you know that a knockout punch is coming it has arrived. Are you quick enough you can stand back up(assuming consciousness) and swing the bat? You mostly get no chance to pre-empt, only to retaliate. If you are on your back or on your face retaliation is only practical with that Glock others are talking about.
That would be an asp.
I have never boxed, but two out of three is not bad. I am too old for an *** whipping.
Thanks for the link! Very interesting.
You’re welcome. The way the thugs play the knockout game, the look for people who are not paying attention.
If you are not paying attention and they get a free swing at you, it doesn’t matter whether you are carrying a baseball bat, brass knuckles, a knife or a 1911—you are down.
Personally I prefer my buck and a quarter staff. - Daffy
I'll be pushing deer for my son and grandson tomorrow, and I'll be carrying my S & W 357 Magnum.
Mostly because I don't go any where unarmed, but I may get close enough for a clean shot at a nice fat doe {or even better yet, a coyote or a petapest}.
A petapest is a variant of the almost extinct, bluedog demonRAT crossed with a 21 year old white house jap intern...very rare but hard to exterminate.
How hard is it to fake “not paying attention”? Set ‘em up, knock ‘em down applies to more than just bowling.
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