Banter RDT 151 - Tom Browne's Burner Thread

[Coasters7]

The way I see it is it’s a matter of personal preference. If you want to step in it’s clearly a heroic act and if you end up dying trying to save the life of someone you don’t know it is the ultimate form of selflessness, no matter how stupid the decision was to help. But it shouldn’t be expected and certainly shouldn’t be frowned on if you don’t help a stranger, that’s just normal survival behaviour.


It sounds really good in principle until you’re actually faced with that situation. It’d take a lot of balls to attempt anything like that and that’s why it’s a rare trait. Theres only a handful of people that would ever instinctively step in to something that isn’t their personal business because it’s not the percentage play by a long way. Even moreso in this case where it looks like there was going to be some form of life lost no matter how the events turned out. You sure as s**t don’t want that one life being yours. If it’s a group of people at risk it’s an entirely different approach but in this situation you’re effectively trading your life for his, which only a small percentage of people would do off the cuff (family and loved ones aside obviously).


Another thing to consider though, would be.. If that were you laying on the floor I have no doubt that everyone would want someone intervening, even if it’s just to shove the dickhead with his knee on your neck so you could take a breath.

 

[RookiePick]

Plus there is always the chance that your actions end up with more deaths if you step in. If you were to dive in and try and push the cop off the guys back, you have a good chance of getting shot while your still three steps from the victim, who may still die anyway. There is also a chance that a George Floyd type doesn't die (without interference) , but you do if you try, bringing the count from 0-1.

Its a horrific scene to watch in person, but ultimately doing nothing is the best move.

It no where near the same level, but I did have a gun (later found out to be fake) pulled on me working at a fast food joint 13 years ago. As a kid you always have these ideas of how you think its going to go, but in reality it is completely different, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.

Il tell the whole story, I'm bored

--------------------------------------

2007, working for a large pizza chain in a less affluent suburb SOR. Late at night, only two staff left in store. Me, 18 year old delivery driver, pasty white kid. Assistant manager, early 20's woman, again, neither of us really the fighting type.

It's late at night, maybe 10pm. All the kids working in store have gone home, its just me and her doing the odd jobs before they close at 11pm. I'm refilling the drinks fridge, she is just finishing putting an order in the oven. Door opens.

Story of me, I hated dealing with customers, either over the phone or in person in the store (didn't mind those in their houses so much, they seemed ok). So I just pretended to not hear the customer come in hoping that the manager would deal with it and I could keep to my high life filling up a fridge with Coke and Sprite.

Maybe 20 seconds go past, I still have't looked at the dude. All of a sudden we hear a very loud "EXCUSE ME" and both of us turn to see some dude, late 40s, pointing a handgun at as both from approx 2m away (both fridge and pizza making area are near front of store). I had a small pencil case we used for keeping money half hanging out of my pocket, so we cleared the till, tossed the money in the bag, handed it to him, maybe $200 in total and he makes his escape.

Me not having been taught anything about what to do if we have a robbery, stood around like a stunned mullet for 20 seconds while the manager activated the alarms and called the cops. Once she finished on the phone with them she turned to me to ask if I was ok. That seemed to wake me up from what I assume was a bit of shock, and in an attempt to seem cool and suave managed to say "well, it's about time something exciting happened here".

Cops arrive 5-10 minutes later and main store manager. I got given free desserts but I am 99% sure I didn't actually clock out that day, meaning I likely lost my $3.70 in tips and probably ~$90 pay. I honestly forgot to ever chase it up. Two months later I filed a payment sheet incorrect saying I did 220 pizza deliveries in a day rather than 22 (absolute accident as a typo, but they never chase it up) and since we got paid a flat fee plus an extra couple bucks a delivery meant I probably turned a profit on the two errors. I called it even, bought a flip phone, and never thought of it again.

Been there, done that. That itty bitty hole at the end of the barrel gets real big.

 

[ashley12]

Very... (gun barrel hole bit)

What's Lumumba like in group therapy? Does he bring his own chair?

Actually reminds me of the later that day story.

I was living on campus at uni at the time (having lived in a small country town in WA). Drive home, obviously a bit shaken up. Get home, grab a beer, tell story to a few of the international kids, end up being told about the 5 times some African kid has had a gun/knife pulled on them, which gives a lot of perspective.

Afternoon the next day, the cops come to do some follow up statements. Undercover cops come to uni housing front desk asking for me. I had already been in the bad books for uni housing, so went with them and told i had follow up meetings with the housing manager afterwards. He assumed I probably was a murderer, so I was panicking about that, but I explained the story and he organised uni counselling which was cool. Also got an extension on two assignments, which would have been great, but they were group projects and I still failed one of them :/

They ended up catching the dude a week later because the owner of a small pizza joint jumped the counter and belted the bloke with the gun. He then got in trouble for putting his co-workers at risk.

Pizza 'heroes' worry watchdog

PIZZA store staff who overpowered an armed robber and held him until police arrived are having their actions investigated by the West Australian work safety watchdog.

www.news.com.au

PIZZA store staff who overpowered an armed robber and held him until police arrived are having their actions investigated by the West Australian work safety watchdog.
Police allege two armed bandits tried to hold up a pizza store in southeastern Kenwick last night, but staff tackled one of the would-be robbers causing him to drop his pistol.

 

[omgfridge]

Finally understand the Quinz jokes now

On SM-G973F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[DanWCE]

working for a large pizza chain in a less affluent suburb SOR. Late at night, only two staff left in store. Me, 18 year old delivery driver, pasty white kid. Assistant manager, early 20's woman

I expected this story to go much differently from here. Quinny has conditioned me to a particular type of workplace story telling

 

[dewcefault]

I expected this story to go much differently from here. Quinny has conditioned me to a particular type of workplace story telling

I actually do have a pizza delivery story that's much more Quinny in nature and even though it's been almost 20yrs I'm still not sure im ready to share it

 

[DanWCE]

I actually do have a pizza delivery story that's much more Quinny in nature and even though it's been almost 20yrs I'm still not sure im ready to share it

I don't think you can dangle a carrot like that and then not share it

 

[TY24]

I actually do have a pizza delivery story that's much more Quinny in nature and even though it's been almost 20yrs I'm still not sure im ready to share it

It’d be rude not to

 

[kane249]

Paleo Pete has gone further off the deep end, claiming the BLM movement is to distract from the COVID 'pandemic'.

They really need to put a health warning on those activated almonds if they are going to have this effect on people

 

[DanWCE]

A friend in NY posted some videos to Instagram of the protest/march occuring outside his apartment. For an epicentre of the Covid pandemic they sure are packed in tight. It's too far away to tell if they're all wearing PPE but I would hope so.

 

[Truckosaurus]

Paleo Pete has gone further off the deep end, claiming the BLM movement is to distract from the COVID 'pandemic'.

They really need to put a health warning on those activated almonds if they are going to have this effect on people

Proof that you are what you eat, he's a nut.

 

[TY24]

Paleo Pete has gone further off the deep end, claiming the BLM movement is to distract from the COVID 'pandemic'.

They really need to put a health warning on those activated almonds if they are going to have this effect on people

That man is Australia’s Antichrist

why can’t he just be like the other food show hosts and grossly underpay his employees instead

 

[CM9000]

You know, all this brings up another point in my mind. Why does this instance in America deserve the international outrage, while when it happens here with Aboriginals, no one seemingly cares? How is it any different when it happens in America? How is that seemingly worse than it happening here?

The moment you take a step towards them they're treating you as a threat even with your hands up and a very slow approach. They don't care what you have to say and you aren't going to overpower police officers.
As terrible as this incident is (and the many other incidents of police brutality) we can't have civilians physically interfering. We don't have all the information so the best we can do is document the abuse and use the law and pressure our politicians to enact change. I know this method doesn't always work and it won't bring back the victim but it's better than destroying another life by interfering.

It’s pretty clear that, in this case, all the information one needs is right there in the actions of the police officers. It seems to me that, at this point, it has happened so many goddamn times, that the one in custody (George Floyd) shouldn’t have to be the one to die. He shouldn’t have to be the one that perishes to kickstart another set of protests which do to not seem to enact the change neccesary to prevent this.

It isn’t fated that someone interfering would die. Doing something to save that man’s life, when this has happened so many times, shouldn’t be an impossibility.

Yes

No

I didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen, I meant it more as a statement of fact. Doesn’t that sound insane in the sense that it actually does happen?

Look up Daniel Shaver's murder via cop in a US hotel. They aren't all of that ilk, obviously, but if a cop is willing to kneel on someone's neck I'd be very hesitant in doing anything to approach that cop or his cronies.

Anyone would, but there just has to come a point where the person in the worst possible situation, in a position like that, doesn’t have to be the one to die.

Yes, it does. But it's also more than plausible, just look at all the police brutality that's emerging from just the last few days. Here's a link to about 100 videos of incidents.

Sorry but the hard truth is that if I'm there I'm not going up against a group of these psychos to save some random guy I don't know. Everyone's a hero until they have a family to get home to at the end of the day.

You gotta remember though, that’s cases during a massive riot in America. I don’t think it’s entirely indicative of the USA in normal operation, at least for some people.

Look, I’m not blaming anyone, I just don’t think it’s as impossible as you think it is.

 

[RookiePick]

Colour me naive but the odds of our police being authorised to indiscriminately pepper crowds of protestors with rubber bullets would be astronomically low, in my opinion.

 

[ashley12]

Couple reasons

1) Aboriginal Australians make up ~3% of our population, and weighted to rural areas as opposed to the cities. African Americans about 14% of the population, and more heavily weighted to the larger urban areas. Less people to directly argue for the cause from a "that could be me" POV.

2) Anything done in America, good or bad, is amplified because its the country the whole world has its eyes on (compared to any smaller Euro country or Australia). It is likely most of your influence is from an American centric POV, which will be sports stars, actors, musicians etc... who will usually champion American causes.

3) As RP mentioned, our history of police brutality against the larger groups is far less, and unless Dutton gets in charge probably isn't changing any time soon.

I honestly thought the Goodes thing would change it up more than it did, but for the most part it hasn't done much at all, if anything just split a further wedge between the "maybe we should treat the indigenous people with a bit more respect, move the date etc" and the "Goodes is a sook, all players get boo'ed, what a flog" types, which ultimately might lead to some bad outcomes further down the track (I sure hope not though).

 

[Luuuc]

 

[Feeling Groovy]

The tester- would you have jumped the cops? Simple yes or no.
No way I would have, I value my own life above that of a stranger.

I remember (being quite pissed at the time) walking in a nightlife area of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and seeing a group of local men hitting and kicking a small teenage kid.

Being pissed up and bigger than all of them (making me tougher in my inebriated state), I yelled at them to leave him the f# alone.

They replied (surprisingly in English) that he was a thief.

I replied to call the f'ing police, somewhat aggressively.

To which they replied "We are the police".

Right you are, kick away then, and I wandered off...

 

[TY24]

Podcast listeners - It’s Time for a Beer by Xavier Ellis is excellent for a laugh. Boots is the first guest and the second episode has Nic on it.

 

[Quinz]

I'm quite disappointed to hear Vishky has deleted his account.

If you're reading this bud hope you're doing well and come back when you feel like it.

 

[Truckosaurus]

I hope he's doing ok because I can't imagine deleting your account while The Misadventures of Quinz continue.

 

[Godfather32]

I'm quite disappointed to here Vishky has deleted his account.

If you're reading this bud hope you're doing well and come back when you feel like it.

Wtf when did this happen? Come back soon Vishy

 

[Godfather32]

Also how did day two go at work Quinz ?

 

[Godfather32]

(Or 3, I've completely lost track of the days this week)

 

[Godfather32]

Did the broom closet get a workout?

 

[Dazzler9]

Come back Vishy. I enjoy your postings mate.