From Tam, on a preteen birthday party gone sour:
I do know that they take money out of your paycheck for 911 services, and dialing that number will cause a guy dripping with qualified immunity to show up and pepper spray the preteen birthday party, so us bloggers can rake him over the coals for it.
Along the lines of what I blogged about earlier today. We live in a hysterical media-driven society largely devoid of civic virtue. Best to keep that in mind when carrying to defend life.
That is a difficult situation to try to resolve. I agree with the sentiment of at least a couple of the commenters at Tam’s, that I don’t think I could allow the situation to go unchallenged. Yet, I won’t fault anyone who stands back, and video-tapes the incident (while calling 911), either.
I think the best solution, taken from the comments, is to call 911, film a bit, and then to hose them down with water. That would allow you to keep your distance, while hopefully break things up, too.
Thinking about the dangerous option wading into the mess, with the possibility that a ten-year-old could brain you with crowbar, reminds me of my CERT training: if you see a building that is off its foundations, or has major structural damage, or has a basement filling up with water, you do NOT enter that house, even if there are cries of help inside. It’s a horrifying prospect to think about–but then, so is triage (going through a mass of bodies, deciding who is well, who needs minor help, who needs IMMEDIATE help, and who’s dead). You can’t put yourself in deadly peril, even if someone else’s life is at risk, because the possibility is great that instead of one person dying, you may very well die alongside them.
I do not want to be in a situation where I have to save a ten-year-old from being beaten by ten-year-olds, nor do I want to help pick up in the aftermath of an earthquake–these are the stuff of nightmares–but it is the sad reality that sometimes life becomes a nightmare. Thinking about these things in advance helps us to prepare for facing these perils–and then doing the right thing, to save the greatest number of lives possible.
What attention-span for pre-teens? Look a squirrel!! Maybe a Twilight DVD would restore order.