The first time I got robbed I was sixteen, walking down Ann Street towards Aliceanna, almost to the corner. I was reading something, walking along at about four or five in the afternoon and somebody presses a fork to my chest and says, “Give me your fucking jacket or I’m gonna stab you.”
I look down and see this fork and all I can do is laugh. I mean, I’m wearing two inches of material. If it was a big buck knife I might have been scarred. I said, “A fucking fork—are you kidding me?”
The guy is a tall, thin, white-trash dirt bag, about twenty. Of course, I was considered white trash too, by a lot of people. So he gets pissed and steps back saying, “I’ll stab you all up with this fork and beat your face in kid.”
No sooner does he say this then I’m kicking him in the balls—it was just perfect that he stepped back like that—and he stands their gagging, with his eyes rolling back and his mouth open, holding his balls, so I punch him in the throat.
I walked right over him. I was really scared about the punch, that maybe I killed him. So I looked back and he started to twitch and squirm and move a little bit so I went on my way with a clear conscience.
Note that this was in the 1970s. In Baltimore of the 1970s cops routinely beat lower class whites to death and into a coma and no charges or news stories erupted. Black men during this period, were also routinely beaten by cops, for little or no cause, with little legal blowback. The pain of blacks is remembered, but that of poor whites is forgotten. Lower class whites have always been despised and can still be beaten and even killed with impunity. However, in today’s climate, with the government and media having adopted certain segments of society as pets whose every criminal action needs to be excused and every injury avenged by the system, one must rate your level of defense according to the level of social justice that may be expected to be brought to bear on your attacker’s behalf. That punch today, unless delivered against a low class white person, could land you in jail if he recovers, in prison if he does not. Remember, in most cases the law in Harm City views a second strike as intent to do harm, not self defense.
Let the World Fend for Itself
Big Ron's Baltimore: A Working Man's View of Urban Blight
