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KNIFE

Knife fight #1.  

Planning a party that night, some members
of my usual gang (no not a Gang gang,
just the high school stage crew gang,
though there isn't necessarily a lot of
difference) parked a shopping cart full
of groceries along the side of my house.
I don't remember if they'd paid full
price for them.  We had some insiders
working at the local supermarket.
Anyway, fifteen minutes later they went
outside and discovered the shopping cart
gone.  We split up and started searching
in different directions.  I asked some
little kids if they'd seen anything: they
said "So *that's* where he got it." and
told me who'd taken it (after getting me
to promise not to say who told me).  I
knew the guy.  He was the younger brother
of a member of my gang (Gang?).  He was
famous for doing stuff like beating up on
his older brother, stealing things, doing
lots of drugs, etc.  Thought he was Jim
Morrison or something.  He was on the
street largely because his parents had
gotten good at talking other parents into
dropping charges against him.  I think he
was up on charges at the time, and he was
still doing petty burglaries: really
dumb.  I went over to his house, and
found him outside (he'd just closed the
garage door after stashing the cart of
groceries).  I demanded the stuff back,
etc.  Eventually some of my freinds came
and found us arguing outside (they were
impressed with how fast I'd zeroed in on
the place...  me I'm impressed with how
fast they'd found me there).  We followed
this guy and his friend inside.  One of
my friends was really pissed off: he
grabbed a plastic bong out of their hands
and broke it on the floor.  This, in
turn, seriously pissed off my least
favorite juvenile delinquent.  He went
into one of his famous rages, grabbed a
large kitchen knife and started
threatening us all with it.  I thought
about throwing a chair at him, but the
one's at hand looked a bit too large and
bulky to use for lion taming.  He walked
around and got close enough to let me
make a grab for his right hand.  He
transfered the knife to his left hand and
tried to bring it down on my back,
over-hand style.  One of my friends got a
hold of his left hand, though.  We pushed
him up against the wall, and I hit his
face with my forehead (hands were busy,
and it was too tight for a kick) until my
freinds had got the knife away from him.
We let go of him, and he took it easier
after that.  I was in a somewhat paranoid
mood, though, and I remained prepared
with a "quarter-staff" in my hands (it
had a lawn rake attached to one end of
it).  Eventually, the Bad Guys left the
house (after stealing the microphone from
the telephone, evidentally in fear we
were going to call the cops).

It was all pretty stupid and clumsy.
Nothing like the image the phrase "knife
fight" calls to mind, right?

While I'm on the subject of the younger
brother from hell: soon after this I
suggested to his older brother that we
set this kid up, and get him locked up
for a while.  He didn't like the idea
(this was his brother, after all), but I
couldn't see anything else to do, except
wait for him to keep going until he
killed someone.

It turns out I was naive about this. I
assumed that if he killed someone he
would spend a significant amount of time
in jail.  What actually happened: he and
a friend got into a fight with someone in
a bar.  They went away and came back with              (1/8/95)
a knife.  The walking advertisment for                "walking advertisement   
abortion held the guy from behind while                for abortion", jesus
his friend stabbed the guy and killed                  what a cliche.  The  
him.  The Suffolk County cops then                     main challenge to 
screwed up the arrest so badly that they               writing this up was 
needed to go the plea bargaining route:                to come up with a 
the first killer I've ever had the                     series of fancy
pleasure of meeting got out free and                   "pronouns", so I 
clear, in return for ratting on his                    could avoid 
friend.                                                naming names or 
                                                       inventing names.
But then, the second killer I've met has               Maybe I wasn't up 
never even been arrested, as far as I                  to the challenge.
know, so maybe I shouldn't complain too
much.




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