[SkateDC] General George Armstrong Custer

[Emily Bennett]

I will concede that a nice big hockey stick might've come in handy, but
ultimately we were mostly lacking in awareness.

These kids were obviously planning to cause trouble. Someone had to go
to the store and buy (or steal) that carton of eggs.  They were arrayed
in the shadows of the trees of the park as we skated by in the full
salmon glare of the streetlights. We were not paying attention to the
perimeters, we were watching the pavement, the traffic, and waving at
little kids. And frankly, we looked like easy targets.

When the attack came, they knew well that confusion would be their ally,
and it was.

As for chasing them down, I'm sort of glad we didn't. There were a LOT
more of them than us in that park, and probably many far more dangerous
progectiles. Even the cops didn't look too enthusiastic about wading in
there. But neither did I like feeling so helpless.



-----Original Message-----
From: skatedc-bounces at www.skatedc.org
[mailto:skatedc-bounces at www.skatedc.org] On Behalf Of Carl Ford
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 12:20 PM
To: WAR Listserv
Subject: RE: [SkateDC] General George Armstrong Custer


ISTM that one lesson in such a situation is to look at the odds of
chasing at least one of the punks down.  No one should get in a
situation where teh outcome gets worse, but sometimes the best defense
is a good offense.

Also, maybe next year at least one person should dress as a hockey
player and carry a stick.  When we met on Freedom Plaza and had similar
issues with skateboarders there, I never had any trouble when I showed
up there carrying a hockey stick.

Quoting Emily Bennett <EBennett at trammellcrow.com>:

> ...
> No real lessons learned here, though I wish I looked a little more 
> closely at the punks so I could identify them later. I don't really 
> know that there was much we could have done to avoid this encounter or

> improve our chances with the assaulters once they got started.
> 
> Let's be careful and vigilant out there!
> 


--
Carl Ford
ford at dcaccess.net

"Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire."
- David Rains Wallace

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