where i live, its quite a quiet area with the exception of this park that my friends and i found ourselves walking through late one night, on the way from my house to one of there houses, as we got to the the far end of the park, this group of people passed us mocking me and my friends for how we were dressed etc, and as you would expect from a group of imature 17/18 year olds, we were talking up to them and shouting back. though nether group made any agressave motions or even broke stride as we passed each other, about 5 minutes later the same group of people ran back towards us now joined by many more of there friends now outnumbering us about 3:1 thay surrounded us and we demanding that we emptied our pockets, and give them our money and phones etc, out of the 4 of us that were there, im generaly regarded as the most outspoken is such situations, and being the only one who experiences this type of thing on a semi regular basis, having to go though this area often, so thay (my friends) were standing behind me whul i was talking up to the guy who was attempting to rob me, i had no intention of emptying my pockets despite his attemps to search me (i had about £200 in my pocket and was not intending to let him have any of it) whul i was talking to this guy his group of people has positioned themselves around my friends and we were all starting to get abit woried. Then thay started attacking one of my friends and upon seeing this the other 2 people with me started emptying there bags and pockets despite me telling them not to. now i was convinced that thay were about to attack me, by the way thay were all getting closer around me so i went for the guy who had been trying to empty my pockets earlyer, (i dont really know what i was going to do, but i really wanted to hurt him) and as i did so he pulled out this big hooked knife thing, and seeing what thay had done to my friend earlyer i was unsure whether he was just trying to scare we with it or whether he would acturly use it. like i said before this wasnet the first time somthing like this had happened to me, and i am quite adept at talking my way out of it, so somhow i ended up standing about 10meters away looknig back at them, truthly i have no idea what i said. another of my friends had given them hes money and had nothing so thay had let him and we just kept walking away not saying anything to each other or looking back. once round a corner out of site we sat down and looked at each other, him not really believing that that had just happened to him (having been assulted at work afew days before) then the guy who had originaly been beaten came round the corner his jaw swelling up nicly and face kind of cut up from being hit. we were all still woried because one of us was still there. so gathering the courage that i had lacked earlyer i went back and found him lying on the floor. though it was just one lucky punch that brought him down apparantly, and then the attackers left. after, when we got to where we were going we phoned the police and gave our accounts, (far less dramatic then this) and got some first aid for the guys that got hit needless to say i have felt terrable ever since for leaving them there and walking of, everything changed inside me when he pulled out that knife, donig the right thing and standing up for my friends nolonger seemend to matter and all i could think about was getting away from there without him using that thing on me. my friends said after that if thay had had the oppertunity to get away thay would have done the same thing, but i still wonder, could all the violence have been avoidend if i hadnet been talking up to him in the first place, or have just emptied my pockets, and is giving them what thay ask for ever the right thing to do things i have learned for this: - always get a good look at atlesat one of the attackers so you can give the police a description, because saying thay were all wearing tracksuits and white trainers isent much of a descrpition here - never be to hasty i had no idea he was carrying that knife so if i had done anything to anger him whul he was trying to make me empty my pockets it could have got messy - make them listen to you when you say you dont want to walk a "dangerious" way, before leaving i was trying to convince my friends to walk the long, but safer and well lit way round the park, but thay shruged my warning off and chose to cut accross the park. all in all, it could have gone alot worse then it did, afew busted lips and bloody noses, one boys phone, all of each of my friends money, and 4 very brused egos but nothing major maybe im just saying that because i had nothing taken and dident get hit but i think we were quite luckey. any thoughts on what i should do the next time (there is always a next time) or whether you think that running of and just worrying about myself was the right thing to do, considering the people i was with have been my friend since forever and i just left them to get beaten up.
You did your best to protect them, you told them not to go that way. Maybe next time they will listen to your experience. You were in a no win situation as soon as the bad guys got mob handed and decided to humiliate/rob you. Dont beat yourself up over the actions you took. You are all okay. Someone pulling a knife does change the situation. Could you have confidently whupped all ten on your own? Oh and my guess is that some of the others would have had knives as well. Stay lucky.
Do you dress like your Avatar? Sorry. Many of us know what it's like to be targeted because of your image. I think the main thing you should learn from this is to keep on walking. Don't back chat and you will reduce the risk of things like this happening. Don't beat yourself up too much about how things turned out. After all, it is human nature to look after numero uno first. You were set upon by a big group, at least one of which was armed and you got out without serious, long term, physical damage. Learn from it (like you appear to be).
