I'm a nice guy. No really, I am. The closest I've ever come to being a criminal was to stand guard while my friends were cleaning out the apple tree in the garden next to my school when I was 8. Never been into any kind of trouble with the law or law enforcement. Until now, that is. It turns out self defence is an offence in this otherwise so sivilized country.
Anyway, the nightmare started on Friday. I was on my way from work, in a hurry to catch the train. I hate having to wait another two hours to catch the next train out of Oslo. As I approach the main gate to the trainstation, half walking, half running, two younger guys, around 17-18 years old, comes straight at me. Being in a hurry, I take avasive action to avoid collision. To my frustration, they do the same and are still coming straight at me, now only about 5 meters away from me. So I slow down. And that's when things start to get ugly.
I continue trying to avoid them by steering more and more to the right, failing miserably. It is obvious they want something. So I stop. Mistake number one. They ask me if they can borrow some money for train fare. I politely tell them that I don't have any money. Why the hell would I give any money to people I've never seen before and will not ever see again anyway? I'm starting to get uncomfortable with the whole situation and I decide now would be a good time to get out of it. My two newfound "friends" have other plans. One of them puts his hand on my shoulder and says "Listen, you'll give me your money and your cellphone. Right now." I shake off his hand, take two steps back and that's when I see it. His Partner in Cryme is holding something that looks like a screwdriver, half hidden, halfway up the sleeve of his jacket.
I've been in a similar situation before. I ended giving away everything I had, including my pride. The guy with the screwdriver tries to close the gap I created by stepping backwards. I'm running out of time and options and I decide I'm not going to go through what I did last time this happened. Knowing that the police won't lift a finger to catch them if I give them what I have, I decide to stand my ground. Mistake number two. I kick the guy with the screwdriver on the inside of his thigh as he comes towards me. He seems surprised. The kick isn't very painful, but he's off balance and so I move in to get the screwdriver out of play. I grab his wrist with one hand and one of his fingers with the other, quickly snapping the finger sideways and backwards. I hear and feel it break and my "friend" screams in pain and drops the screwdriver. Mistake number three. By now I know I'm in a postition to get out of the situation by just turning around and start running. But I don't. Instead, I lift my right arm and deliver an elbow the the guy's jaw, full force, as he starts to crouch from the pain of his broken finger. Mistake number four. He's out cold and his friend starts running away. The streets around the trainstation are still pretty crowded just after rush hour and people are starting to gather around. I ask one of them to call the police to tell them what's happened. Running away, leaving the guy unconcious in the street never crossed my mind. Which might have been mistake number five. I wait until the police shows up. Just a few seconds later an ambulance arrives to take care of the guy who is still unconcious. Someone in the crowd must have decided to call them too. I spend the next four hours at the policestation answering questions about everything from my civil status to my shoe size.
I'm still pretty shook up about the whole thing. I never thought I'd end up in a situation which might have gotten me seriously injured or worse. Certainly not on the relatively quiet streets of Oslo, compared to other major cities elsewhere in the world. What's even worse is that I now face the possibilty of having to go to jail for using eccesive force, or "Assault with intent to harm" or whatever the phrase is. What my two other "friends" intended to do to me seems to be irrelevant. The officer who took my statement after the fact told me they were both well known troublemakers and will most likely go to jail. Just like me. I was told that an investigation will be conducted to establish if I've done anything that could or would be considered a crime. And I still can't believe what I'm hearing.
Granted, the guy with the screwdriver was hospitalized with a broken finger and a concussion, either from the blow or from when he hit the pavement, but I'm the damn victim here! None of this would have happened if they hadn't decided that I looked like a nice target. They initiated the whole thing, not me. Had the guy not pulled a weapon on me, he wouldn't have had a broken finger. Or a concussion for that matter. I would have just pushed the asswads out of my way and be done with it. For my part anyway.
There are thankfully many If's here, but worst case scenario is that I spend a few months in jail. I just think it's so fucked up that it's even a consideration. I was just defending myself in a potentially lethal situation.
This is actually a good place to blow off steam. I feel so much better now. In my next rant, I'll be telling you how the past two weeks at work have been. But that's a whole different thread.
Anyway, the nightmare started on Friday. I was on my way from work, in a hurry to catch the train. I hate having to wait another two hours to catch the next train out of Oslo. As I approach the main gate to the trainstation, half walking, half running, two younger guys, around 17-18 years old, comes straight at me. Being in a hurry, I take avasive action to avoid collision. To my frustration, they do the same and are still coming straight at me, now only about 5 meters away from me. So I slow down. And that's when things start to get ugly.
I continue trying to avoid them by steering more and more to the right, failing miserably. It is obvious they want something. So I stop. Mistake number one. They ask me if they can borrow some money for train fare. I politely tell them that I don't have any money. Why the hell would I give any money to people I've never seen before and will not ever see again anyway? I'm starting to get uncomfortable with the whole situation and I decide now would be a good time to get out of it. My two newfound "friends" have other plans. One of them puts his hand on my shoulder and says "Listen, you'll give me your money and your cellphone. Right now." I shake off his hand, take two steps back and that's when I see it. His Partner in Cryme is holding something that looks like a screwdriver, half hidden, halfway up the sleeve of his jacket.
I've been in a similar situation before. I ended giving away everything I had, including my pride. The guy with the screwdriver tries to close the gap I created by stepping backwards. I'm running out of time and options and I decide I'm not going to go through what I did last time this happened. Knowing that the police won't lift a finger to catch them if I give them what I have, I decide to stand my ground. Mistake number two. I kick the guy with the screwdriver on the inside of his thigh as he comes towards me. He seems surprised. The kick isn't very painful, but he's off balance and so I move in to get the screwdriver out of play. I grab his wrist with one hand and one of his fingers with the other, quickly snapping the finger sideways and backwards. I hear and feel it break and my "friend" screams in pain and drops the screwdriver. Mistake number three. By now I know I'm in a postition to get out of the situation by just turning around and start running. But I don't. Instead, I lift my right arm and deliver an elbow the the guy's jaw, full force, as he starts to crouch from the pain of his broken finger. Mistake number four. He's out cold and his friend starts running away. The streets around the trainstation are still pretty crowded just after rush hour and people are starting to gather around. I ask one of them to call the police to tell them what's happened. Running away, leaving the guy unconcious in the street never crossed my mind. Which might have been mistake number five. I wait until the police shows up. Just a few seconds later an ambulance arrives to take care of the guy who is still unconcious. Someone in the crowd must have decided to call them too. I spend the next four hours at the policestation answering questions about everything from my civil status to my shoe size.
I'm still pretty shook up about the whole thing. I never thought I'd end up in a situation which might have gotten me seriously injured or worse. Certainly not on the relatively quiet streets of Oslo, compared to other major cities elsewhere in the world. What's even worse is that I now face the possibilty of having to go to jail for using eccesive force, or "Assault with intent to harm" or whatever the phrase is. What my two other "friends" intended to do to me seems to be irrelevant. The officer who took my statement after the fact told me they were both well known troublemakers and will most likely go to jail. Just like me. I was told that an investigation will be conducted to establish if I've done anything that could or would be considered a crime. And I still can't believe what I'm hearing.
Granted, the guy with the screwdriver was hospitalized with a broken finger and a concussion, either from the blow or from when he hit the pavement, but I'm the damn victim here! None of this would have happened if they hadn't decided that I looked like a nice target. They initiated the whole thing, not me. Had the guy not pulled a weapon on me, he wouldn't have had a broken finger. Or a concussion for that matter. I would have just pushed the asswads out of my way and be done with it. For my part anyway.
There are thankfully many If's here, but worst case scenario is that I spend a few months in jail. I just think it's so fucked up that it's even a consideration. I was just defending myself in a potentially lethal situation.
This is actually a good place to blow off steam. I feel so much better now. In my next rant, I'll be telling you how the past two weeks at work have been. But that's a whole different thread.
Good job, really man, I don't see anything wrong with what you did.
