"We should have fucking shotguns."
Jul. 23rd, 2012 12:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
uberreinigerSubject line is a quote from Pulp Fiction and it's how work has made me feel the last two days. Last night - less than 24 hours after my last post - I had to sell bullets to some shitty, self-satisfied old man who couldn't walk away from the register without whipping out his conceal & carry permit with so much pride you'd think it gave blowjobs and dispensed $1000 bills. And of course he then started to sermonize about how if somebody licensed to carry a concealed weapon had been concealing one in that theatre...
I couldn't do my normal customer service autopilot and just nod and go along with it. I cut him off and told him that such a person would have died like everyone else, that they wouldn't have stood a chance against a heavily armed and armored assailant with the element of surprise. From the look on grandpa's face you'd think he was a five year-old child who just had his macaroni picture criticized. "Well," he muttered, "not if you got a head shot."
I just said "Yeah, you might get lucky," and wished him a good night. I knew better than to keep arguing. There was no need anyway.
So today I get to work and I see a real live skinhead wearing an anti-Semitic shirt. If you're really curious what it looked like, go here to this NSFW Nazi punk rock record label who sells it. I had no interaction with the man, although I'm sure if I had it would have led to an interesting conversation about my Mjolnir pendant that I wear; a conversation that would have been unpleasant for everyone. What haunts me about it is that he had with him a wife and two beautiful, very young little girls. They were a normal family in every sense except for dad going around broadcasting bigotry on his chest. I can only imagine the kind of talk those girls are going to grow up thinking is normal.
Finally tonight I had a customer rush and tell me there was a man trying to force a child into a pickup truck. Long story short it turned out it was the guy's own kid, but it was pretty rough and suspicious-looking and I could see why the woman and her husband were alarmed. The woman at customer service wanted nothing to do with any of it and washed her hands of it, so I went outside to sort of keep an eye from a distance while the couple phoned the police. The cops came and I left it to them. Apparently the guy saw me snooping around because he assumed I called the cops and he came inside ranting at the aforementioned customer service woman, wanting to speak to my manager, etc. I'm not in any trouble, but she did make sure to stress to me that our company policy is "we don't get involved."
Yeah. I don't think so. I may know I can't win a firefight in a crowded movie theatre but I also know a LOT of the shit in the world that goes down is able to go down because people don't want to get involved. I did what was prudent in the situation and I don't apologize for that.
But yeah, we should have fucking shotguns.
I couldn't do my normal customer service autopilot and just nod and go along with it. I cut him off and told him that such a person would have died like everyone else, that they wouldn't have stood a chance against a heavily armed and armored assailant with the element of surprise. From the look on grandpa's face you'd think he was a five year-old child who just had his macaroni picture criticized. "Well," he muttered, "not if you got a head shot."
I just said "Yeah, you might get lucky," and wished him a good night. I knew better than to keep arguing. There was no need anyway.
So today I get to work and I see a real live skinhead wearing an anti-Semitic shirt. If you're really curious what it looked like, go here to this NSFW Nazi punk rock record label who sells it. I had no interaction with the man, although I'm sure if I had it would have led to an interesting conversation about my Mjolnir pendant that I wear; a conversation that would have been unpleasant for everyone. What haunts me about it is that he had with him a wife and two beautiful, very young little girls. They were a normal family in every sense except for dad going around broadcasting bigotry on his chest. I can only imagine the kind of talk those girls are going to grow up thinking is normal.
Finally tonight I had a customer rush and tell me there was a man trying to force a child into a pickup truck. Long story short it turned out it was the guy's own kid, but it was pretty rough and suspicious-looking and I could see why the woman and her husband were alarmed. The woman at customer service wanted nothing to do with any of it and washed her hands of it, so I went outside to sort of keep an eye from a distance while the couple phoned the police. The cops came and I left it to them. Apparently the guy saw me snooping around because he assumed I called the cops and he came inside ranting at the aforementioned customer service woman, wanting to speak to my manager, etc. I'm not in any trouble, but she did make sure to stress to me that our company policy is "we don't get involved."
Yeah. I don't think so. I may know I can't win a firefight in a crowded movie theatre but I also know a LOT of the shit in the world that goes down is able to go down because people don't want to get involved. I did what was prudent in the situation and I don't apologize for that.
But yeah, we should have fucking shotguns.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 06:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 06:07 am (UTC)also, the guy had tear gas and smoke grenades. If you shot through that you'd end up shooting someone you didn't intend to and kill someone- not the shooter.
D got some information about what the people who send in writing treatments to his company write. I'll try to remind him to forward it to you or to me and I'll forward it to you.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 06:17 am (UTC)I feel like I need a Sarcastic Wonka picture. "Sure, tell me all about how you'd get off a head shot in a dark room full of tear gas and fleeing civilians."
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 04:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 05:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 08:05 am (UTC)I understand "the Bystander effect" but still.
I hate how passive everyone's become in real life yet online everyone FIGHTS FOR THE CAUSE!!
The world is backwards.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 08:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 05:25 pm (UTC)I ran into guys with families like you describe when I lived in rural Ohio. Some with serious Nazi tattoos-- at BBQs, pushing strollers... It was very disconcerting. And you know it bothers me greatly, because the very last thing I want to see is all the social progress we've made being pushed backwards by assholes like that! I'm a "witch" for chrissakes! I have gay friends I love dearly! I love genetic variety and think mixed race children are some of the most beautiful in existence (not to mention healthier-- no in-breeding!) The way the Right has become more and more crazy, mean, and easily manipulated into serving certain elite assholes' best interest (Koch brothers, anyone?) just pissed me off. But worse-- it scares me.
Also? Thank you for getting involved. And you are totally right that people not wanting to get involved is a huge part of the problem. Can you imagine what your co-worker would have felt like if the guy took the kid and it WASN'T his kid-- and the child's body was found later? Wow. Really? I couldn't live with myself if I didn't get involved. And I've pissed people off, too. I can bear it.
When I worked retail, our company's policy was TO GET INVOLVED. We were REQUIRED to call the police. If the problem happened in the store, we were allowed to close the doors and not permit the party involved to leave. If it happens in the parking lot, we're to follow and get plate numbers and all that. I can't believe some companies are so scared of being sued you're not allowed to "get involved" in a possible child abduction!
Reading this post, I can totally understand where you're feeling hot under the collar over recent events. Um yeah-!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 05:11 am (UTC)I can't recall having seen an actual white supremacist up close and in person like this before, although growing up in what was white sheet country in Kansas until not too long ago I certainly saw the attitude. I can't say the guy doesn't have guts for parading it around like that but I'd still have rather not seen it.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-23 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 03:46 am (UTC)Hugz, Justine
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 05:23 am (UTC)Wow...
Date: 2012-07-24 11:44 am (UTC)The first time I was truly face to face with a Nazi was back when I weighed 450 pounds & had a long ass Mohawk. We ran into each other in a gas station in rural Ohio. I was instantly pissed and stared straight into his Swastika-tattooed face. He actually backed up and said "excuse me" :-)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-24 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 04:49 am (UTC)And I mean, I won't lie, I feel some people stick their nose where it doesn't belong far too often....but there are some points you do need to step up as well. People just need to actually find that point and properly follow it. :(
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 04:10 am (UTC)But the spitey part of me wants you to call corporate and point out that, if anything had been happening, your manager's attitude could've gotten a child killed and the company's ass sued.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-28 07:03 am (UTC)