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Rafe wrote: ↑Thu Jun 25, 2020 11:45 amDoesn't TAM have a bunch of years of martial arts experience in him? Not the correct reaction at all in that instance, but it would still have been satisfying as a spectator to see the idiot's hand touch TAM's shoulder, and have TAM instantly do some sort of Jet Li Chin-Na joint locking stuff to drop him to his knees before he had time to blink.

I have some martial arts experience (a brown belt in one art, and other lower belts in others), but that was a long time ago. The last time someone assaulted me from behind was in about mid 1977, in NYC. I didn’t hear his approach because of traffic noise (it was mid-afternoon on a weekday, on Central Park South). When he shoved me, I pivoted on my right foot so I was quartered to him, weak side out, and lashed out with a right backhand punch to the bridge of his nose, producing a satisfying crunching noise. That was the end of the fight. I’ve twice disarmed someone with a knife, using a back roundhouse kick, ending the confrontations both times. I’ve never gotten into a knockdown dragout fight. I didn’t have to.

I had an interesting moment today. I had to go by the LabCorp location at Baylor Grapevine today to have some blood drawn. Anyway, I disarmed in the parking lot as the building is posted '06/'07, and walked in dutifully wearing my mask. I entered the lab's waiting area from the building's lobby, and upon entry, I saw the digital check-in station a few feet to the left and back from the receptionist's window. Directly back from that window was a blue taped cross on the floor where the next person in line for the receptionist was supposed to stand. Rather than standing on that cross, the next guy in line was standing a couple of feet to the left of it.....like he was trying to put a couple of extra feet between himself and the guy standing on the next cross 6 ft behind him. In so doing, he lessened the distance between himself and the check-in station.

I walked around the 1st guy to get to the check-in station, and in doing so, I passed within about 3-4 ft of him. As I passed by him, he reached out and shoved me from behind on my right shoulder, and shouted something like "Hey! Keep 6 ft distance!" or words to that effect. I was so surprised I didn't even respond except to tell him that I was just trying to get to the check-in station, and I put some distance between us. He pointed out a second station at the back of the room, which I had not seen upon first entering, and I went about my business over there.

While I was checking in, I overheard this cretin's conversation with the receptionist, and he was explaining that he was just holding his mother's place in the line while she waited outside because he was too scared to make wait her inside because of all the COVID-19 clouding up the place. Dude is THAT afraid of the cooties, but he has no problem placing his hands on a total stranger. And mind you, this is in a public lab inside an attached professional building, not inside the hospital proper.

Was I hurt? Not in the least. But it definitely was an assault. It wasn’t a gentle tap on the shoulder. It was definitely an aggressive shove, and it was definitely unprovoked. From his perspective, I was probably nothing more than an old man who blundered into his 12' personal circle, and he plainly saw me as harmless enough to assault without fear of retaliation. The dude was a mid-30s to early-40s, nerdy looking fat guy. I seriously doubt he’d have done it to someone he thought would whip his butt for it. The fact is, if I wanted to, I probably could have whipped his butt. After recovering from my initial surprise, I simply chose not to whupp him or to escalate things into an verbal argument, and I left it alone instead.

When I got to my turn at the receptionist window, I asked the woman in the reception window if she’d seen what happened, she said yes, part of it, and agreed that it was assault.

I never found out who the guy was other than his first name being "Karen", nor do I have any interest in pursuing this thing any further even if s⃫h⃫e⃫ he were easily identifiable. But I am fairly certain that what happened meets the legal definition of an unprovoked assault, and had I wanted to, I could have had him arrested. I’m just not that guy.

The point of this is I guess the need to perhaps be a little bit more vigilant than I normally would be. I try to exist in condition yellow when I’m out and about; and whenever I have to disarm in order to enter a medical facility like I did today, I’m obviously thinking more about the potential dangers from something like an active shooter situation, and not really thinking about being assaulted by some nerdy looking guy waiting in a line. He shoved me from behind, so I didn’t see it coming.

I like to think that, had this happened out in the open, while I was armed, I’d react exactly the same way. Why? Because this was definitely not something worth shooting anyone over. The flip side of this is that I did let somebody get inside my OODA loop because I didn’t perceive him as a potential threat. If he had been more sketchy looking, I’d have probably paid more attention to him. The difference between me and him? I saw what appeared to be a harmless person, and I ignored him. He saw what appeared to be a harmless person, and he acted like a bully.

In the greater scheme of things, this was pretty small potatoes. But for me, it was an eye opener, and I’m not certain I could have done a single thing to prevent it.