I got harrassed on the street
 

I'm copying a bit from a mail I just sent about what happened to me and my girlfriend mon this afternoon:

What happened to mon and me today is that we got harrassed on the street by some asshole punks. Extraordinarily ugly people, but extremely frightening as well. Mind you, they were buttugly, pudgy and possibly not from here, but the looks on the leader's face was chilling. In his eyes was neither compassion nor anything. As he tried to push me away and hit me on the side of my head once, there was nothing in his eyes save reckless hatred. He didn't enjoy it or laugh or smirk or even said anything humiliating to make himself feel better. There was nothing, only cold aggravation. What can man do against such blind hatred? After he hit me on my head I grabbed his sleeve, but fortunately mon pulled me away then and took me across the street. Needless to say I was shaking where I stood and only managed to compose myself with some last shred of strength. We took a long scenic route through the suburbs to my home, as the foul animals went into the city. When we got home and into my room, I'm not ashamed to tell you I broke down a bit and was quaking. Luckily mon was there to support me. But that was really a frightening experience. I'm pretty frightened to go outside now, so for the coming time I won't go outside without a bicycle or one of my roommates.

I don't know; maybe these are common things that happen all the time, but I'm certainly not used to having people threaten me and hit me across the face on the street for no reason at all. I know this was just a misdemeaning bully with his own trauma's running like scars over his face, but this was certainly an abusive experience for me. I remember that as we walked home, I was thinking that I'd gladly sacrifice my freedom for security. I don't know if that's bad or not, but I was deeply affected by this.

That's tough.

I bet you they were chavs! What did they look like, as in what were they wearing? Because Chavs in the UK think their so hard and that they are unbeatable. They are such sad loser and cold wannabes. I was walking down the street one day and a group of chavs threw 2 oranges at me and hit me really hard on my head, I just try and avoid them because they seriously can out number you. Even if think your King Kong. I hate it when people are like that. It just makes people unsecure, and what gets me the most is when people annoy/terrorize old people. What a world we live in.

I never really knew what chavs are, so I can't say. I understand they're quite the menace in Great Britain, but I don't know if we've got such a group in the Netherlands. Bastards are everywhere, though.

In Scotland we have our own variation, we call them Neds (see this hilarious and informative website for further information.)

America has rougher types. And they're not all ugly.

My brother once stopped in red lights, just as the lights had changed. The person behind him apparently got angry at him stopping a second too early, and in the next lights drove on my brother's side of the car, got out, and knocked on the car window. When my brother opened the window the man hit him in the face and then drove off.

My brother got the number of the car, but as it turned out, it had stolen licence plates and they were unable to track the person down.

So most likely the thug (criminal) was merely annoyed by you being in his way. I have similar experiences, sadly from school.

Wow. That's really scary. :frown:

Several years ago a friend of mine was stabbed walking back to his apartment with a pizza from a restaurant about a block from his house. His brother had a broken leg and my friend was picking up the pizza for the two of them to eat for dinner, and this group of kids came up to him and asked if they could have some. He said no, it was for his brother, and one of the kids took out a boxcutter and slashed him in the face.

The doctors did an incredible job and you could barely see any scars, but he was (understandably) really messed up after that. He didn't feel safe in his own neighborhood (they eventually sold the house and moved) and didn't trust people anymore. I remember being really freaked out at the time (and still am, just thinking about it now) about how a completely random moment of violence like that can turn into something that stays with the people involved for a long, long time.

Anyway. Sorry to hear about what happened to you. Glad your girlfriend was able to offer support, and that no one got hurt.

EDIT: Just recalled another incident - I was driving home from work last year and a guy pulled up next to me at a stop sign and started screaming at me through the window that I was a bitch, cunt, etc. I have no idea what I may have done to him while we were driving that he thought was worth shouting at me over but it was very scary. I locked the car doors and just sat there at the stop sign until he drove away. (Thankfully no one behind me honked!) I was afraid if I drove at the same time he did (it was a two lane street), that he would hit my car with his. Another of those really weird, random events, but it had me freaked out for several days just replaying it in my head. People suck. :(

What are they? Skinheads?

http://www.chavscum.co.uk/

Everything you need to know about chavs and all the different breeds.

Chavs are essentially people who do random crimes such as hitting people, vandalizing and stealing. They dress in track suits wearing white shoes and wear gold/silver chains & love Rap and R&B music. Find out mroe on the site.

Flux did you contact the police?

Doesn't matter where they're from. They're all the same breed. Gang violence is everywhere in the cities, but there's something really insidious about the really evil chavs you get here... I mean, ganstas are scary, but a reed-thin pale white guy wearing adidas, a white cap and with a blank expression has something about the Samara about him.

I got beaten on the street by a chav, walking to meet my cousin at the train station, about seven years ago. Completely out of the blue. Strangely his friends got scared and helped me afterwards before they ran off. Wierd.

Its shocking how randomly violent people can be

One day back in my high school a group of Neds had made their way i9n and stabbed someone right in the middle of the school grounds...

Did the guy just come up to you and hit you or was there shouting?

Wow. We used to have something like those in Serbia in the 90's. They were a bunch of kids imitating the mob culture. We called them "Dizelasi", 'cause they preferred Diesel track suits. Sometimes they would wear a track suit tops tucked into their jeans. It was ridiculous. :crazy:

Jeez, that's rough Flux. Hope you feel better soon.

There seems to be loads of chavs about, always in groups of 20. The only time I've seen any being real twats though is on a train a while back, they were shouting abuse at random women in the carriage (must be the chav mating call). But someone told them to shut the f*ck up and they did.

The only time anyone I know was abused was in town, at a taxi rank. I was there with an asian mate and, randomly, some elderly guy started mumbling threats at him, telling him to get back to his own country! :crazy: I told him to piss off, and that the guy was born in Cambridge.

There were only two of them and they had followed me from the supermarket where one of them had already shoved me out of the way. I had tried to wait a while inside the store before going, but they were waiting for me to exit as well.

A day afterwards I'm pretty OK again. It does keep playing in my head, but I'm not that scared anymore to go outside. I didn't get hurt or anything, I just got frightened a bit. I didn't contact the police, because I feel it wouldn't really help, but also because nothing serious happened. Should they try something again (and I hope to god I'll never even see them again!), then I will definitely contact authorities. At the very least threaten with it. My worst fear is pretty much that they've picked me as a target from now on and won't stop, but as of yet that's an ungrounded fear. We'll see. It's good to hear your stories as well, in any case!

I hope you're feeling better now, Rodi...:frown:

Well, the adventure game community has a way of doing exactly that, so I'm pretty fine again. I got some real support from a lot of directions, which put things in perspective.

Flux, I'm so sorry that happened to you! Random acts are scary because you feel like you can't predict how to protect yourself. But you can become more alert and more aware of your environment and that helps to protect you a little more.

Urgh, something similar happened to me in college. I normally played it safe and wouldn't walk by myself at night through town alone if I could help it, and if I had to, I'd walk in well lighted areas. I didn't think I had to worry much about things during the day.

One afternoon I was walking to the store and a group of guys some obviously very drunk, and probably some fraternity guys walking home from a game, came walking in the opposite direction. I didn't think much of it and tried to walk past -- one of the guys slapped at my backside and called me a bunch of terrible names just out of the blue. I just froze and wanted to yell out, and I was hoping that some of his friends would call him out, but they all just started laughing. Even though it was the middle of the day and there were plenty of other people around, I felt so afraid and just started running off.

I called my then bf at the time and just started crying. I was crying because I felt so violated and helpless and angry that nobody did anything to help me.

It's sad because you realize you have to trust people a little less and be a lot more aware of your surroundings. I hope people don't get offended if I cross the street when a large group of guys passes, but it's the way that I try to avoid putting myself in the path of more random acts of violence.

The most disturbing chavish behavour I personally encountered was when riding on a (moderately busy) road on a bike, two male, probably drunk chavs spun their car straight round, nearly hitting me and started hurling abuse. I just ignored them and rode on, but it left me shaken. This was in broad daylight.

Point is, random acts of senseless violence will always continue to exist, especially when people are in groups, and the best thing anyone can do is stay alert (crossing the road is useful, especially to find out whether someone is following you) and remember that flight is always better than fight if you have the option. If not, use a house key as an improv knuckle-duster.

Tossers:pan: