The following story is very close to a mutual combat, and falls into the same category as my friend Ricky declining to obey a cop and then having a fist fight with the cop in front of the bar. Private security persons have traditionally been more careful about imposing their will on criminals because they only have the implicit backing of the State, and are not actual members of the State force pool.
Kenneth was an elderly security guard who is a personal hero of mine, and is featured prominently in the books When You’re Food and The Logic of Steel.
Kenneth
#45-19: night, over a minute, first-person aggressor
“It was in Northeast Baltimore, workin’ security; sure enough in The Hood. I walked up on ‘im stealin’ Young hopper walkin’ with a big stick—‘bout four feet long, could barely get your hand around it. He’s a tall junkie-lookin’ guy—thirty-three or so—tearin’ open a pack of Nicorettes.
“I walked up on ‘im like, ‘Man, what-the-hell you think ya doin? Inquirin’ mind wanna know what-the-hell you doin’?’
“He says, ‘Fuck you man!’
“Then he try ta run. I grab the stick. We was battlin’ for the stick up against the wall by the fire-extinguisher. It was the closest thing I was to. I had him against the wall with my right hand, grabbed the fire-extinguisher with me left—pulled the pin with one hand—and let him have it! He went down like a chicken’ with its head cut off, sayin’, ‘I can’t breathe!’
“I said, ‘Damn right you can’t breathe. Put yo hands behind ya before I bust yo ass!’
“…When I on duty I got the law on my side as long as I don’t go too far.”
If Kenneth would have just walked up to the “hopper” and hit or cuffed him, than this would have been predatory in nature. I make no value judgments. Predation is simply violence that is not welcomed or agreed to by the other party. In this case, the shoplifter argues and resists, even making a demand, turning this into a mutual combat, a fight over whether or not the shoplifter will be able to plunder the store, or whether Kenneth will be able to prevent him from making off with the goods.
