Had a minor altercation today.

[reverserboy]

I was utterly surprised how the guy brought race into it.

Don't be. I've seen it time & time again. It's common with certain people. Sometimes it just seems automatic.

My favorite is: they inject race into a conversation,then call you a racist.

[tobor]

Don't be. I've seen it time & time again. It's common with certain people. Sometimes it just seems automatic.

My favorite is: they inject race into a conversation,then call you a racist.

Oh yes, I've seen that a million times. You don't agree with them? You're called a fascist. That's a classic.

[ranger7]

Don't mean to hijack this thread to something else but this reminded me of an "almost confrontation" I had just a few days ago. (No race issue. No police involvement.)

I was returning from my daughter's house with my wife in the car and we were towing a utility trailer. We were going to pass a restaurant/tourist-attraction that was recommended to us by friends. I decided to drive through the parking lot to get a better view of the place. At about 5 mph, I was about half way through the parking lot when a pickup travelling slowly in the opposite direction, veered from his original direction and cut across in front of me at a slow speed. I didn't know what the driver was attenpting so I decided to take evasive action and I began to head toward the back of his vehicle. If we both continued on our then current paths we would clear each other by 10 feet or more. The other guy stopped while blocking our path and I stopped too. Our vehicles were probably 20 feet away from each other.

The female passenger in the pickup (probably driver's wife) preceeded to go ballistic inside the pickup cab, glaring at us, jesturing and apparently screaming words we couldn't hear but certainly could imagine. She got very red in the face and looked indescribably ugly. (Believe me, she was already naturally very ugly without trying in the least.)

We were completely dumb-founded. What was her problem? Then the driver proceeded to back into a parking place we couldn't see until just then, while the woman continued to rant and rave. When we were clear of his truck, we just continued on (probably with our mouths hanging open in surprise) and left the area.

Now, at least, I am 99% sure she thought I was trying to steal "their parking place." I had no way of knowing what they were doing at the time and there was no way I could have made any use of the parking space while I was towing my trailer which she either didn't notice or didn't realize that towing a trailer we couldn't come close to using the parking space. The scarey part is that with some variations - like her exiting the vehicle before we made our exit, or if she was armed in some way, the situation could have escalated explosively. I was CCing and thankfully she wasn't.

I guess on one hand this illustrates, again, the need to be armed and on another level it's so scarey that there are people walking and driving around that are just on the razor's edge of going ballistic and capable of acting violently for some percieved slight.

[625]

That part of Plymouth Township that borders Conshohocken and Norristown certainly has it's share of unsavory characters. This is obvious by the clientele that the Plymouth Meeting Mall attracts.

My rule of thumb:

If the area in question is served by SEPTA buses, avoid it.

Actually, the areas around the mall have very low crime. Germantown Pike is just a pipeline that scum use to move from Norristown to the local highways (I476, I76, Turnpike)

To the OP,

I don't think you did super good, but you didn't do bad either. There are three ways to react to a lunatic like this IMO. One, you completely ignore the jerk. Two, you make no eye contact, but just laugh. The more you laugh, the better. It makes you appear a tad crazy. If you can't pull it off, don't try. Three, provoke the jerk to do something stupid. I don't recommend this. You state that the shit-stain in question was eerily calm. He was merely pretending. It would be easy to turn him into a raging lunatic if you wanted to. When he asked you if you wanted a boot up your ass, you could have said, "No thanks I'm not a foot fetish homo like you are. Is that what your boyfriend likes?" If he still remained calm (highly doubtful), you could have mentioned something about the kid. Something like, "Hey, what's that kid doing in your car? Are you molesting him or something you sick bastard?" You have to be sure nobody can hear this conversation, otherwise you are screwed.

This guy seems to want to play a game. One day he will meet someone who is better at it than he is.

Assuming he gets out of the car, you retreat, yelling, "Help, I'm in fear for my life!! If you don't go away, I will be forced to defend myself!" I'll let you figure out the rest. Hopefully you would just hose him down with spray if he continued.

Choice number three is very risky and highly frowned upon in most cases. This leaves you with the total ignore, or the laughing ignore. The laughing ignore is best since you get some satisfaction, and the A hole doesn't know how to proceed. Laughing at people really seems to piss them off, so you may have mixed reactions and need to defend yourself or run away. Fortunately, most bullies are stupid, so you only need to stay one step ahead of them.

I don't like to be bullied by A-holes, but sometimes (usually), it's just not worth the stress to properly deal with them. Welcome to the modern PC world where jerks like this have too many rights.

[JP8]

WAIT A SEC. If it's your word against his with no other witnesses or evidence, how could the cop write either of you for disorderly and expect it to hold water? That doesn't make any sense. BTW, I don't think a DC could result in a revocation considering you can get a DC citation for practically anything.

If the area in question is served by SEPTA buses, avoid it.

You mean SEPTIC buses

[JLBIII]

That part of Plymouth Township that borders Conshohocken and Norristown certainly has it's share of unsavory characters. This is obvious by the clientele that the Plymouth Meeting Mall attracts

Damn close to where my friend was with the motorcycle incident. IIRC he was on DeKalb Pike between Plymouth and East Norriton. I'll have to give him a call to see exactly why he thought his LTCF could be revoked. I'll post his reply when I get it.

JB

[pex]

That's certainly a relief to know. So I guess I'll have to become a scoutmaster, start a charity, and teach the illiterate how to read. That way I'll have something to balance out the misdemeanor.

Disorderly Conduct is a summary offense unless you persist in the act after being told to cease by a law officer, wherefore you commit Disorderly Conduct in misdemeanor.

[noofus]

I happen to live in the nicer part of Norristown but there are some seriously sketchy people that I see walking around. There is a reason I keep firearms readily available in the house and a perimeter alarm...