I have no idea how to start this, but I’ll try my best. I, 18m, was in a restaurant/fast food place ordering food for somebody else as a favour. I didn’t have anything else to do while I was waiting for my flight date, so I had a lot of free time and figured I may as well after they asked me. Anyway, while I’m waiting for my food, this group of 7-8 teenagers is raising havoc in the store and bullying the ever-loving shit out of this poor woman working alone at the counter. I’m talking straight up screaming and cursing at her for no discernible reason over quite a long period of time, to the point where she was clearly holding back tears. I am not doing it justice by describing it, because i promise that anybody in the proximity of these people would get as angry as I got, if not angrier. I did something very stupid at this moment. I walked up to the main “perpetrator”, grabbed his shoulder firmly and told him that if he kept treating people like that, bad things would happen to him and he’d deserve it. Now that sounds like a threat in retrospect, but I never intended to start a conflict, only to warn him that others wouldn’t go through the effort of warning him. In response, he turns around and punches me in the mouth. At this point, I reflexively hit him back, twice (bad, I know, I should have left right then and there but I wasn’t thinking straight). At this point it turns into a full on brawl where hos friends try to grab me while he tries to tackle me to the ground. Obviously it doesn’t work because this is a very small, douchey kid who is not bery strong, but it results in his friends punching me from the side too. At this point I’ve stopped hitting them back and resorted to just defending myself because I’ve regained my senses and obviously I’m not going to beat up some kids who are like 3 to 4 years younger than me. It basically ended with me getting in my car after yelling at them for a bit about how this woman is a minimum wage worker who has done nothing to them, but now I just feel like an idiot for doing any of that, because not only did I strike someone much younger than me, but I also probably just made things worse for the girl working there if those kids ever decide to come back. Sorry for the yap session, I just needed to confess this somewhere.
Comments
In that situation, even if they’re younger/smaller they ganged up on you. Don’t defend yourself, start dropping fools, fold a couple and give a couple fades. It’s the only way they’ll learn.
Good on you for standing up for someone else. Kids can be assholes and believe me, I get the urge to want to beat their ass but you have to take into consideration that you will be treated as an adult by the law. Gotta be careful.
You have nothing to feel bad about. If someone who lives in society does not receive education at home, they will learn it on the street
I hate it when kids, feeling untouchable, do all sorts of crazy stuff. I think you did the right thing!
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No one would blame you for beating tf out of them
Yeah you basically made every wrong decision there, bud.
Your instinct to stand up for the worker is admirable though. Look into developing de-escalation skills before your next encounter with unsavory tweens.
(Also this isn’t what it means to get jumped. You literally started it lol)
You have nothing to feel bad about. Modern society has lost consequences for bad behavior. Its not fair you had to be the guy but someone has to be. Im sorry you feel such guilt.
Maybe you shouldn’t have put your hands on him, but it doesn’t sound like you hurt him. You were defending the cashier and trying to teach them some manners. There’s nothing wrong with that. Everybody should be happy. They should be happy you didn’t beat the shit out of him after punching you in the face, and you should be happy they didn’t beat the shit out of you. If they go back and bother the cashier, it won’t be because of you, and the job should handle it.
Also, I don’t think you need therapy unless you go around getting involved every time you’re bored. You might just need something to do.
Your skipped the first step of verbal intervention and introduced the physicality in the situation by putting your hand on his body.
That made him fear you, would worked on me and you too and was, tbh, your intention.
You attacked first.
You forgot to simply intervene first.
„ Hey, give her a break, she is a human/mother/daughter/tired/struggling… too!“ or any other VERBAL intervention in the situation.
That would make you the focus of the group, off of her, from a preferable save distance yourself.
Then you have introduced a „verbal fighting ground“, in your control (at least more than a physical), which might never has to be left if you are willing to swallow the urge to be witty and superior looking and focus on de-escalation from that point on, because your main objective is accomplished, stop them from bullying her.
Nah you told him what would happen, he tried you, and he found out you weren’t lying. And the entire group? All of their egos were probably hurt. I mean 7-8 people? And they can’t even get one person, who in retrospect isn’t that much older, down? They’re losers and they know it now lol
You did the right thing.
hey brother, if i was there it would’ve been 8 on 2.