Here's a story about what happened to me the other day. I'd like to hear what folks have to say:
The other day, it was about 11:00PM and I was out for a walk (I was watching my mom's dog for her). I live in a city. Anyways, as I'm walking home, I see about 1/2 dozen cop cars blast past me with lights flashing, etc.. They were all stopped at this bar that's 2 blocks from my house.
So I put the dog inside and went to the bar for a beer, since it looked like an exciting place. Well, there were about 7 or 8 people in the bar. What had happened was this:
There were 30 or 40 people in the bar. 2 of the people there were in an biker gang and also were quite drunk. They started a fight with some other people and soon there was a brawl between the 2 bikers and bunch of other people. The bikers took off before the cops came and said that they would be back and they were going to bring their "boys." So everyone in the bar took off an went to another bar. There were only a few people left.
So I'm sitting there, drinking a few beers, and about 45 minutes after I showed up at the bar, I notice outside the door a minivan and an SUV park across the street and between the 2 vehicles, over a dozen men get out and start strutting towards the bar. So here comes the biker gang. As soon as they walked in, a gal ran behind the bar and called 911. The bartender (a gal about 19 or 20) and her father (who owns the place) are saying shit like, "Yo, we don't want any trouble!" So the gang is looking to beat some ass, but everyone that they wanted to beat up had fled 40 minutes before. I just drank my beer and watched them strut around like badasses. It was sort of amusing. So the leader says it's time to leave (I guess because there is no one to fight with, plus the police are on the way. The bar was pretty deserted when the gang showed up and it was easy to hear the girl on the phone giving directions to the 911 operator). On the way out the door, one of the guys grabbed the video game machine (this is one of those "touch-screen" type machines that are common in bars with the different card games and such--not a full-sized video game). So one of the guys grabbed the machine and shoved it off the counter onto the floor where it broke. Then they split and the law dogs showed up a few minutes after the gang left. The law dogs questioned some people and they split. As far as I know, they just filled a report and didn't make any arrests. The law was pretty efficient, though. I'd say that from the time the gal placed the call to 911, it took under 5 minutes for 3 cop cars with 2 cops each to roll up.
So overall, it was interesting, and I'm wondering what you folks would have done. I thought about it, and there was really nothing that I thought I would do if I were the bartender or the owner of the bar. There's no way to survive a physical confrontation, because there were so many bikers. Even if I had myself a scattergun behind the bar, I probably would not have brandished it, since there were no weapons visible on any of the guys, and even if they started walking around smashing all my video machines, they never threatened the patrons or the employees. The only wonton destruction was the video machine, and that happened on the way out. So even if I had a scattergun, I wouldn't want to use it, cuz if I blasted some guy and the cops started asking questions, I'd probably go to jail. Or is a group of 14+ men spoiling for a fight considered close enough to lethal force to justify self-defence? Overall, an exciting night!
-Nick Viejo
[fixed Ganges to Gangs in title - Paul]