Seven Hills Thugs
Seven Hills Thugs
One night, after a train trip to Cronulla (this was long *before* the riots), Jonno and I had arrived at Seven Hills station. It was dark, not sure what time exactly, but it was still light when we had left Cronulla. We got off the train, chatting away, and made our way to my car, which was right up the end of the open-air carpark at seven hills (south side of the station). So we went up the overpass and were halfway down the carpark when Jonno pointed out that a group of about 4-5 teens were walking up the platform, keeping parrallel to us as we walked through the carpark. As I turned to look, I saw them jump off the platform, across the rails, and over the fence into the carpark about 50m behind us. I could hear them talking and laughing between themselves as we quickened our pace, still a long way from the car. I think they called out to us several times, but I don't remember what they said. As they were gaining on us, Jonno said to run, and he did. But my reaction was to try and stay calm, not appear scared, as they seemed to be out just to play around scaring people. I'm not saying it was right, but I didn't run, although I did start to walk even faster. For that, Jonno was kinda annoyed, because he got to the car first, and since it was my car, he didn't have keys, so I did end up running the last bit. We got in and I locked the doors. I was afraid they'd jump in front of the car and jeer or somehting as we left, since we had to drive right past them to exit the carpark. My plan was to just drive slowly if they did, but not stop. Call 000 if it got worse. They did approach as we passed, but nothing more than that. I was deliberatly not looking straight at them the whole time. They were within distance of jumping in front of the car if they wanted to, so I was driving slowly.
A police station was actually only 400m away from where we were, so in hindsight we should have driven there and reported it. I didn't think of it tho, and we just drove away. The police station is also one of those shopfront ones, and i'm not sure if it would have been open.
Dealing with this sort of thing has become a topic of discussion several times between Jonno and I, ever since this happened. Especially as it is brought up concerning his new job. He's had a session of martial arts training, as well as training videos of how to calm a stiuation that might occur on a bus.
The reason I didn't run was that I didn't feel like they would bring out any guns or knives, and I reasoned that it would be best not to appear intimidated. Having said that, I was already walking brisquely, so I guess that was kinda showing anyway. I also felt that if we ran, they would run too, and it would just encourage them. But... we still were likely to reach the car first, wouldn't that be the safer option? To run, and get inside...
I hope Jonno doesn't mind me putting this out in the open, but on a more general level I feel that I should try and break down what I see as Jonno's attitude that anything other than a granny is potentially dangerous. Overly jumpy... (Ok, so that's a bit of an overstatement, but that's the impression I get)
Right- everything about the thugs above this paragraph was written some time in January, but I never got around to posting it because I felt it was unfinished.
Since then, I believe the stark contrast between Jonno's attitude and mine has diminished somewhat, and the issue has been left behind for now. Still... I would like to ask you all: how would you have dealt with the situation at Seven Hills?
One night, after a train trip to Cronulla (this was long *before* the riots), Jonno and I had arrived at Seven Hills station. It was dark, not sure what time exactly, but it was still light when we had left Cronulla. We got off the train, chatting away, and made our way to my car, which was right up the end of the open-air carpark at seven hills (south side of the station). So we went up the overpass and were halfway down the carpark when Jonno pointed out that a group of about 4-5 teens were walking up the platform, keeping parrallel to us as we walked through the carpark. As I turned to look, I saw them jump off the platform, across the rails, and over the fence into the carpark about 50m behind us. I could hear them talking and laughing between themselves as we quickened our pace, still a long way from the car. I think they called out to us several times, but I don't remember what they said. As they were gaining on us, Jonno said to run, and he did. But my reaction was to try and stay calm, not appear scared, as they seemed to be out just to play around scaring people. I'm not saying it was right, but I didn't run, although I did start to walk even faster. For that, Jonno was kinda annoyed, because he got to the car first, and since it was my car, he didn't have keys, so I did end up running the last bit. We got in and I locked the doors. I was afraid they'd jump in front of the car and jeer or somehting as we left, since we had to drive right past them to exit the carpark. My plan was to just drive slowly if they did, but not stop. Call 000 if it got worse. They did approach as we passed, but nothing more than that. I was deliberatly not looking straight at them the whole time. They were within distance of jumping in front of the car if they wanted to, so I was driving slowly.
A police station was actually only 400m away from where we were, so in hindsight we should have driven there and reported it. I didn't think of it tho, and we just drove away. The police station is also one of those shopfront ones, and i'm not sure if it would have been open.
Dealing with this sort of thing has become a topic of discussion several times between Jonno and I, ever since this happened. Especially as it is brought up concerning his new job. He's had a session of martial arts training, as well as training videos of how to calm a stiuation that might occur on a bus.
The reason I didn't run was that I didn't feel like they would bring out any guns or knives, and I reasoned that it would be best not to appear intimidated. Having said that, I was already walking brisquely, so I guess that was kinda showing anyway. I also felt that if we ran, they would run too, and it would just encourage them. But... we still were likely to reach the car first, wouldn't that be the safer option? To run, and get inside...
I hope Jonno doesn't mind me putting this out in the open, but on a more general level I feel that I should try and break down what I see as Jonno's attitude that anything other than a granny is potentially dangerous. Overly jumpy... (Ok, so that's a bit of an overstatement, but that's the impression I get)
Right- everything about the thugs above this paragraph was written some time in January, but I never got around to posting it because I felt it was unfinished.
Since then, I believe the stark contrast between Jonno's attitude and mine has diminished somewhat, and the issue has been left behind for now. Still... I would like to ask you all: how would you have dealt with the situation at Seven Hills?