[at-l] Re: Law in the Jungle LONG

[kahley@ptd.net (kahley)]

At 11:39 PM 4/10/02 -0500, Shane Steinkamp wrote:
>If you see hiker X steal hiker Y's granola bar when hiker Y
>isn't looking, what would you do.  Tell hiker Y?  Tell hiker
>X to put it back?  What?

You put that as if it' a different issue than the earlier scenario
but I'm not sure it is.  When you confront a person, you never
know how it will turn out.  True story...

Years ago, we used to spend our Fri and Sat evenings
"partying" down by the river.  Pretty innocent stuff by today's
standards, actually.  Sometimes we'd fish or swim , sometimes we'd
make out, but mostly we sat by the fire, listening to music and
talking about life.  maybe 8-10 of us, splitting a case of beer.

One night, three new guys showed up.  While none of us knew them
personally, they were known to some of us as hard core about the beer
and ham handed when it came to picking up girls, which it seemed was
why they had been coming to our town for the last couple of weekends.
Back then, we called it "cruisin for strange stuff".

They were welcomed to the fire but with a wary eye as happens with
an unknown.  Things went well for an hour or so.  One of them was funny,
one was quiet and one was really pouring down the beers.  Annnnd,
tossing the empties around.  At one point, I went to my car, got a bag
and picked up their empties.  In good humor, I set the bag at their feet
and suggested they use it cause we didn't toss empties around since
that might alert John Law that we were using the spot for more than fishing.

The drunk one looked me in the face and tossed his long neck onto the rocks
where it broke.  I said something about that being uncool cause we had
dogs and people in sandals and we didn't need the broken glass.  He made
a few more comments that led me to suggest they take their act on the road.

By this time, his buds had come to his side and were trying to get him 
headed for
their car so they could "dump this looser scene and find a real party".  He 
turned,
with their help, as if to go.  Suddenly, he breaks free from them and swings a
roundhouse aimed at my head.  Luckily, I was bending down to pick up the bag
of empties and he missed me.  He was waaaay off balance from throwing the punch
and i was pretty stable so I reached out and pushed him and he fell over.

So their we are...him laying on the ground and me standing over him. He 
scrambles
to his feet.  I'm on my toes.  Through some odd freak of x and y chromosomes
distribution, I was the only girl born in my neighborhood during a five 
year period
so lacking girls with whom to play, I learned how to wrestle for fun and fight
for real or at least as real as our fights every got.   At the very least, 
I was not
intimidated by a person just cause he was male and this male wasn't much
bigger than me and drunk to boot.  Annnnnd he had just tried to sucker 
punch me!!!!!

Suddenly, I am snatched backwards four feet by a hand on my shirt and the
place I'd been standing was occupied by three of the guys in our group who made
the point that these three ought to go.  They might have mocking added that
if they didn't leave, they'd turn me loose (in truth, I was quite happy to 
be out
of it).  They left...story over except that I got teased and dubbed 'killer 
kahley' cause
the story morphed, not by me, that I had decked the guy with one punch.

That should have been nothing but a funny tale except that three months later,
we got word that two of those three guys had been arrested for the abduction,
rape and murder of two girls who bodies were found in the coal hills many weeks
earlier.  We never could figure out the timing...whether they had murdered the
girls before or after our encounter.  Regardless, it still freaked me out and
still pops up whenever I think about getting involved.

I'm not saying to not get involved.  I'm saying that when you do, you better be
prepared for what happens.  It never occurred to me that this guy would swing
on me when I first asked him to not litter.  It never occurred to me that I 
might
be dealing with a murderer either.  I still get involved but do it very 
discreetly
if there is alcohol involved.  Drunks are just too dam unpredictable.  Read the
journals about hikers trying to stop drunken brawls and getting hurt or in 
trouble.

That said, yes...I would get involved.  I would tell the person who's food 
was stolen
and unless the victim told me it was some sort of a running gag between them,
I'd spread the word that I had seen the thief steal with my own two eyes.  And
then I'd watch my back.  If we are to maintain "hiker quality"  we have to be
upfront about people who do nasty things.  All that is needed for evil to
triumph is for good people to do nothing...........