Watch this video.
Here’s intro story (not much text, watch the video).
Now let’s take in a few things.
The people in the video have no respect for the law.
The people in the video have no respect for (your) life.
They understand how to do what they want, that suits whatever makes them happy and don’t give even half a fuck about you — unless you get in their way, then they’ll hurt you (evidenced by the guy that got run over).
The people in the video understand gang mentality, in the sense of strength in numbers.
They have no fear of the police. In fact, the police feared for their own safety and left.
They don’t fear repercussions from “the system”, given they aren’t hiding their faces on the video and in fact are uploading these videos to YouTube.
Granted, you may not live in Oakland, but that doesn’t mean where you live is immune from people who celebrate their disregard for you. People like this, obviously, exist in this world. Heck, just a couple weeks ago a nasty beating was caught on tape in downtown Austin.
What are you doing to keep yourself safe in the face of this reality?
Do you leave it to others to manage your safety? Again, the police didn’t and couldn’t deal with this and left (I don’t blame them one bit). According to the follow-up article:
“This has been going on for years,” said Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sgt. J.D. Nelson.
“The powers that be in Oakland have depleted the Oakland Police Department, so, this is the kind of activity you’re going to get.”
(Oh, and that Austin beat-down? Happened 2 blocks from APD headquarters).
So what can you do? The police can’t save you. The government can’t save you. Tell me, what can you do? Tell me how constructing a legal system that abridges the law-abiding from protecting themselves from such animals creates a better, more peaceful, more enlightened society? Tell me how banning guns, knives, and other useful self-defense tools is a wise course of action, given what you saw in that video. Tell me how not getting education, training, skills, and knowledge on how to keep yourself safe is not worth your time or money (because just having a gun isn’t enough).
You must accept there are animals in this world. You must accept there are horrible people who do not hold the same standards as you. That because you cannot fathom behaving in some savage way doesn’t mean such savagery doesn’t exist. Once you overcome denial and ignorance, then we can start talking about real useful solutions to these problems.
Stuff From Hsoi 
The last paragraph really drives the point in, good post.
Thank you.
i shared this one on facebook. short and to the point and your last two paragraphs are as good a short summary of the importance of protecting our right to defend ourselves that i’ve seen lately. good job.
bb /s~
Thank you.
What would I do? Get out of that area ASAP. Keep your awareness, and when things start getting hinky- LEAVE.
Well, better would be to avoid the area in the first place. You know.. the whole don’t go to stupid places with stupid people and do stupid things. Seems Oakland has 3 strikes against it right there.
You are right, but I’m striving to make a larger politcal point.
Ouch! I am mostly stunned that people still exist in this world that don’t bother with protecting themselves. Including preparedness. Great points in those last two paragraphs friend. Classic!
We’ve built up a world where we’re pretty insulated from a lot of realities of life. I mean, we think our food comes neatly wrapped on a styrofoam tray. You have to love people that think hunting is barbaric, while they dig into their hamburgers.
In some regards, this insulation is alright. I mean, do we really need to know all the details about how our phones work? our computers work? our cars? our refrigerators? in order to get by in life? No, we don’t. And trying to have all this knowledge, while useful and arguably can help you when things go wrong, it’s just hard to “know it all”. To try to learn it all, know it all, you won’t… you’ll always fall short somewhere. But yet, life is able to go on.
I’m sure right now we can find things in ourselves where we’re deficient.
This isn’t to say we should be complacent nor satisfied nor ignorant. But, it will happen.
What bothers me tho is when people want to create policy and laws based upon ignorance. Or when reality stares you hard in the face, you’d rather close your eyes and say “see? problem doesn’t exist!”.
Perzactly friend!