:::So today I go to the cafe I like to get a coffee from at the train station before work, and the guy next to me at the counter is having a friendly chat with the barista. Suddenly a guy comes up to him and slams a coke can into his neck. The can sprays one drop of liquid onto my leg and I stare at it stupidly. The two guys are not throwing punches but the guy who was attacked is just meeting his force, they’re just kind of swaying. My stupid brain thinks they know each other, and then I’m like, “hang on why would he hit him with a Coke can?” (I am super dumb before coffee and had half my brain on my birthday). The attacker then headbutts the other guy and walks away. The victim kept an incredibly cool head. It all happened so quickly and was the most unprovoked and totally random thing I have ever seen. The victim looked a bit like Andre Agassi and the perp looked a bit like Catweasel but younger. His neck was scratched up from the can and he had a rapidly growing lump on his face. I told him he needed to get that seen to. I’ve seen the perp around that area and he’s a homeless guy who’s made himself a little encampment I’ve seen. Never seen him act like this before, but has obvious mental health issues. A couple of us gave the victim our numbers, but he said “the police aren’t gonna do anything anyway.” It was just really disturbing in that it was so completely random and unprovoked. When one of the other witnesses asked, the guy said he didn’t know him and had never met him before. For years I had anxiety and was in a heightened hyper vigilant state, and it took years of counselling and medication to actually deprogram myself from that. And then today something like that happens right next to me and I stare like a stunned mullet (to be fair, so did everyone else). When I got to work the kitchen manager said lucky it was just a Coke can, what if it was a knife. I thought shit, that’s true and seriously the guy would’ve been dead.
The day before that, some pervert got arrested for trying to abduct children just down the block from there. He actually climbed into a car to get a kid and the mother was right there! Seriously what the fuck‽ I feel like carrying a ciggie lighter to go with my can of deodorant, if my dumb brain decides to react in time for it to be useful.
WTF. I’m so sorry. This is terrifying. There’s no way to know how a violent person might react if you tried to intervene, he could escalate the violence. The fight/flight/freeze primitive brain is usually very good at making the right choice, otherwise we would have died out as a species. I think mental institutions are not always a bad thing. Nobody benefits from this guy being on the street. Not him, not his victims, not the police, not the bystanders. There must be a better way.
That’s a really scary situation to be involved in, I’m sorry that happened to you and on your birthday too. Something is in the air in Melbourne lately. That random stabbing in the news today and now what you’ve described. After my pumpkin attack episode earlier in the year (which the police did not take seriously at all), I am so much more vigilant of the people around me and keep my distance from anyone acting strangely.
How frightening for you, I don’t think any of us know how we’d react when faced with something like that.
There is something very wrong with our system where an assault like that isn’t worth reporting.
I hope you can process this and it doesn’t change the kind soul you are 🩷
You did the right thing, intervening would have only put yourself in harm’s way. It sounds the aggressor may not only have mental health issues, but meth/drug issues as well, and you can’t know how they’re going to act at any given minute.
Try to occupy your hands and brain with a physical task - a simple game (Tetris, or a simple puzzle game) can help with processing what happened.
You’re going to be okay, sending you good vibes and love 💜
Ok got Jerboa working.
Spoiler: Assault discussion and rant
Title
Assault discussion and rant
:::So today I go to the cafe I like to get a coffee from at the train station before work, and the guy next to me at the counter is having a friendly chat with the barista. Suddenly a guy comes up to him and slams a coke can into his neck. The can sprays one drop of liquid onto my leg and I stare at it stupidly. The two guys are not throwing punches but the guy who was attacked is just meeting his force, they’re just kind of swaying. My stupid brain thinks they know each other, and then I’m like, “hang on why would he hit him with a Coke can?” (I am super dumb before coffee and had half my brain on my birthday). The attacker then headbutts the other guy and walks away. The victim kept an incredibly cool head. It all happened so quickly and was the most unprovoked and totally random thing I have ever seen. The victim looked a bit like Andre Agassi and the perp looked a bit like Catweasel but younger. His neck was scratched up from the can and he had a rapidly growing lump on his face. I told him he needed to get that seen to. I’ve seen the perp around that area and he’s a homeless guy who’s made himself a little encampment I’ve seen. Never seen him act like this before, but has obvious mental health issues. A couple of us gave the victim our numbers, but he said “the police aren’t gonna do anything anyway.” It was just really disturbing in that it was so completely random and unprovoked. When one of the other witnesses asked, the guy said he didn’t know him and had never met him before. For years I had anxiety and was in a heightened hyper vigilant state, and it took years of counselling and medication to actually deprogram myself from that. And then today something like that happens right next to me and I stare like a stunned mullet (to be fair, so did everyone else). When I got to work the kitchen manager said lucky it was just a Coke can, what if it was a knife. I thought shit, that’s true and seriously the guy would’ve been dead.
The day before that, some pervert got arrested for trying to abduct children just down the block from there. He actually climbed into a car to get a kid and the mother was right there! Seriously what the fuck‽ I feel like carrying a ciggie lighter to go with my can of deodorant, if my dumb brain decides to react in time for it to be useful.
Holy shit. I hope you’re ok now. I don’t know what else to say. That’s fucked.
WTF. I’m so sorry. This is terrifying. There’s no way to know how a violent person might react if you tried to intervene, he could escalate the violence. The fight/flight/freeze primitive brain is usually very good at making the right choice, otherwise we would have died out as a species. I think mental institutions are not always a bad thing. Nobody benefits from this guy being on the street. Not him, not his victims, not the police, not the bystanders. There must be a better way.
so many hugs , that’s just terrible, and yes, standing still is a tactic our brain uses, you survived, you did good
and you tried to help too
more hugs
That’s a really scary situation to be involved in, I’m sorry that happened to you and on your birthday too. Something is in the air in Melbourne lately. That random stabbing in the news today and now what you’ve described. After my pumpkin attack episode earlier in the year (which the police did not take seriously at all), I am so much more vigilant of the people around me and keep my distance from anyone acting strangely.
How frightening for you, I don’t think any of us know how we’d react when faced with something like that. There is something very wrong with our system where an assault like that isn’t worth reporting. I hope you can process this and it doesn’t change the kind soul you are 🩷
I’m so sorry, Melbourne is getting so fucked. And it’s illegal to even carry stuff for self defence.
That was the freeze response (which you probably know) and is designed to protect you. I hope you’re doing alright in the aftermath.
You did the right thing, intervening would have only put yourself in harm’s way. It sounds the aggressor may not only have mental health issues, but meth/drug issues as well, and you can’t know how they’re going to act at any given minute.
Try to occupy your hands and brain with a physical task - a simple game (Tetris, or a simple puzzle game) can help with processing what happened.
You’re going to be okay, sending you good vibes and love 💜