What would you have done (honestly)?

You did the right thing.If it was me however i would of found out were he lived,kidnapped him in the back of a van,take him to a very remote place,remove his socks and trainers,slash his feet with a razerblade and theen leave him to walk home :twisted:.Or is that going a bit to far 😯

I'd avoid the canal / cycle path as a route to work and take the road. Way too much potential for that sort of thing.

That said, once you were in that situation your only option was to defend yourself.

As for calling the police, you're having a laugh. They wouldn't be interested – even if they do pick up the right lads, they'll say nothing, the CPS won't be interested (rightly, as there's little chance of a conviction off the back of it) and they'll be on their way pretty happily. The police know this, so they probably won't bother coming to have a look.

As an aside, the other day I had a smackhead/alcy looking bloke follow me up the road for a good half a mile after he'd seen me take a phone call, doing the "oi, mate, mate, oi mate" routine, clearly hoping I'd stop so he could try and pinch my phone / laptop etc. What the hell are you supposed to do in those situations?

I'd avoid the canal / cycle path as a route to work and take the road. Way too much potential for that sort of thing.

That said, once you were in that situation your only option was to defend yourself.

As for calling the police, you're having a laugh. They wouldn't be interested – even if they do pick up the right lads, they'll say nothing, the CPS won't be interested (rightly, as there's little chance of a conviction off the back of it) and they'll be on their way pretty happily. The police know this, so they probably won't bother coming to have a look.

As an aside, the other day I had a smackhead/alcy looking bloke follow me up the road for a good half a mile after he'd seen me take a phone call, doing the "oi, mate, mate, oi mate" routine, clearly hoping I'd stop so he could try and pinch my phone / laptop etc. What the hell are you supposed to do in those situations?

yes right-thing to do 🙂

rs good point well presented 🙂

Good on you mate! I found myself in a situation once where i was just about to pull into my road, one night in the wifes car. Some lads were stood chating on the pavement at the corner as i turned in. Just as i passed, they decided to cross the junction, not checking it was clear first. On seeing the car, one decided to kick it! I stopped and got out, and they seemed to have grown! There was four of them all holding bottles shouting abuse at me for nearly running them over! Now, i would like to say i unleashed a world of terror on them, but the truth is i had to bottle it and get back in the car! If i had been somewhere else other than 100 yds from my house it would have been different though! So well done fella, just avoid the path for a bit! maybe they will think twice of doing it to someone else, or more likely not give them a chance to get away!!

just a small observation with the replies to this post.
there are a couple of people on here saying it was the right thing to do.
in my headbutting the driver incident the very same people said i was in the wrong…………………..wot gives??

Would have been better if you'd have kicked all their heads in rather than just winding one of them, but at least its a good start.

Ton – the difference is in justifiable force or not. One middleaged man thumping one of a group of lads threatening him is very different from a big lad headbutting someone who was no threat to him.

teej, give your head a shake.
just because someone is big, does not mean that they can handle theirselves.
when someone is in your face screaming that he is gonna kill you, when he has just forced you off your bike, i would say that is justifiable.

One middleaged man

Oi! I'm not that old, middleaged at 33, surely not? 🙁

and I'm pretty broad across the shoulders meself, and I have a big ****-off 'Ed O' style beard 😆

I agree with Ton on this point. He may be large, but I'm sure he'll admit to some trepidation at the thought of getting in a ring with little Barry McGuigan in his prime. It's worse when there are 5 or so overexcited teenagers who alone may not add up to much at all, but together could easily kill you without even having that intention. Or someone who could easily have killed or crippled you and wants you to feel bad about their selfishness/stupidity.

And although I'm no hardman with a realistic limit of a few swings and a sprint, I hate the type of scum that hangs around canals and backstreets safely in numbers and would have no compunction in hurting them were I capable of doing so. My life, my partner's, friends' and family's would all improve if they didn't feel free to do what they do. You make a judgement based on your self assessed ability, the threat and how much it would eat away at your self respect to let yourself be bullied. Hopefully you get it right.

So, on that note, I'm off down the canal for a scrap.

Not sure – I've been in a not dissimilar situation a few years ago, and did more or less what you did, ie chinned the biggest one and the rest of 'em legged it. It leaves you with mixed feelings though (at least it did with me), I was initially elated, thinking I'd done the right thing, then felt a bit ashamed of myself having resorted to violence, then felt even more ashamed after posting on here and getting royally torn to pieces by the usual suspects. 😕

If it was the Regent's Canal then i would steer clear after dark esp. if you're riding something tasty.

I live in Hackney and i've heard that the Police have been patrolling the canal in boats of late as they can't respond to incidents (muggings) quick enough otherwise.

News article reporting this here: http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/content/islington/gazette/news/story.aspx?brand=ISLGOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsislg&itemid=WeED09%20Dec%202009%2014:12:13:600

There are plenty of estates off to one side of the canal that troublemakers can do a runner into.

Personally i don't like riding down that canal as there are too many pedestrians, joggers, obstacles and other cyclists who get in my way. There are enough quiet roads to link together to form a route normally if you know your way about.

Apart from that, nice one.

come on then tj whats the difference between these lads and the ones on the other thread out of interest? Just one set deserve a slap and one get help yet they could be equally as badly brought up and you dont know what they could be capable of ?

about the same here Barnsleymitch. In hindsight I know I should've ridden around them, so I certainly inflamed/provoked the situation, which in turn led to someone getting hit… I don't go out of my way to fight, as mentioned this is probably only the second/third time in my life I've thrown a punch, so it's a weird one for me… and after all, it was a kid for **** sake, at least a 30kg difference between us 😆

Wasn't near here by any chance was it?

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Danbury+Street&sll=51.520308,-0.131447&sspn=0.010868,0.027874&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Danbury+St,+London+N1,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.533683,-0.103791&spn=0.010865,0.036049&z=16

interesting link Airwolf… it happened not far from Danbury St, around a kilometre away in fact, maybe I was luckier than I thought! 😯

EDIT: actually, thought Danbury was further along… I was closer to Mile End

It was me wot did it innit!

I'll get you next time!

Total respect for you mate – well done. Never mind their age – some of these friggin scrotes need to be taught a really important lesson. Theres not enough of what you did around and too many bloody do-gooders quite prepared to say you should never do such thing.
I rode to work this week for the first time this year and theres plenty of very dark canal towpath. I wondered to myself whilst I was riding what I'd do if I ran into a similar circumstance and concluded I'd just go on the attack. I kind of ride half prepared for a confrontation in such circumstances and am well up for it if it happens.
Go for the chin or preferably the nose next time and whatever you do, don't begin to imagine you shouldn't have done what you did. You did society a small favour and its a shame we're not formally encouraged to behave in this way.
Stop me on the canals around Leeds and Bradford and be prepared for a kick off 🙂

"come on then tj whats the difference between these lads and the ones on the other thread out of interest? Just one set deserve a slap and one get help yet they could be equally as badly brought up ?"
They would appear to have been older, a larger group, and were trying to intimidate a grown bloke rather than systematically abuse and torture two younger kids. Apart from that, no difference at all. 😉

Still could be the same gang, if they had any sense they would just move down to a different stretch of the canal after the police started looking out for them in the Danbury Street area.

Or it's another gang who thought – "Wow! what great idea, why don't we go rob people down by the canal too"

There are plenty of gangs in London, so this is perfectly possible IMO.

the way they were blocking the canal towpath was certainly suspicious… and the fact that a larger group materialised fairly quickly was pretty worrying to me! There were only 2 or 3 and suddenly there was 7-8 of them, some quite young, like 11-12yrs old I'd guess! Luckily, they were the ones that gave way and let me through… maybe they're used to scary big violent looking men perhaps? (a possible sop to some of the more 'bleeding heart' liberals on here 😉 )

I got jumped by about 8 kids with my mate about 8 years ago.

My mate put up a fight and got a bottle bashed over his head (didn't break but still split his head open).

I didn't fight and got away with a single feeble punch to the face.

I had my cash card taken and a jar of branston pickle i'd picked up in the corner shop earlier for my packed lunch. I wasn't carrying anything else a s we'd just 'popped out'.

My mate managed to keep his expensive phone, watch, wallet and stuff because he fought back (i reckon they were also confused about the Branston pickle).

I'd rather lose my stuff than have to get my head glued shut (or worse) personally.

barnsleymitch yeah much older at 11 or 12 the other two didnt only do what they did as you know who knows what these kids have done before or will in the future so not that different perhaps

that said id have cracked one of them 🙂

Here's a tale that'll warm your heart.

I was out round Leeds with a mate of mine a few years ago. I went for a leak down an alleyway and heard all this commotion. Hurried back out the alley find my mate up against a wall having an altercation with 4 young scrotes looking for a fight.

Thankfully, unknown to them my mate is plenty more than a little bit handy and set about paggering the smoke out of all 4 of them very quickly indeed. The rozzers appeared and arrested him. He ended up in CROWN court for making such a mess of them.

Only one of them turned up to the trial and the judge threw it out, asking the one that did turn up if he would ever pick on a 5 foot bloke again 😀

"the other two didnt only do what they did as you know who knows what"
Sorry Mick, but I'm not at all sure that's even written in a language I recognise 😉

missed out some punctuation as on my phone. But im sure you undertand what i meant. The two boys didnt start with torture as a first offence they worked up to it . So who is to say that these boys by the canal wouldnt progress to horrendous crimes too. But yet these eleven or twelve year olds should be punched for what they did and the two from donny should be looked after ? Should they be treated any less sympathetically because their crimes arent as bad?

A huge number of differences. firstly the age – they guy that hit the op and was hit by him was not 10. Secondly the OP acted in self defence with a reasonable use of force – allowed within the law whereas hitting someone after the fact is not.

Thats two clear reasons. There are more

I'd have made sure the fecker 'tripped' & fallen in the canal.

You assaulted a minor. You had the opportunity to avoid conflict by riding round them. What makes you think you have more of a right to a piece of ground than they do? Disgraceful behaviour and you should know better.

george, dont talk like a c nut……
can you remember what you nearly did in the zoo.

ah i didnt realise you could hit a minor lawfully i must have missed that along the way. Shame those poor two lads couldnt have defended themselves as strongly as they were attacked 🙁

ton – I can remember exactly what I did at the zoo. Non-aggressive defence is always the best option.

They guy brought it all on himself. If they had simply ridden round there would not have been an issue.

You have done well and nothing wrong that at all.

Children occasionally needs to be taught lesson the hard way.

If their parents cannot manage their own children then someone has to as simple as that.

😛

p/s: try a different route home for a while just in case.

george, explain to me how the op would have road round the 2 bike blocking his way.
and he asked them to move prior to trying to get through.

You are allowed to use reasonable force to defend yourself – from old ladies to dogs to kids to adults. Its all about what is reasonable as defined in law – which has several definitions but " as decided by a jury of your peers" or as " understood by the man on the clapham omnibus" are the two common ones.

Its really clear.

Yep, right move in my book. On my messanger duties to the ruffer parts of town, like Angel, often get yoofs eying up my bike and getting a bit 'close' but although i'm a wee lad, i think the reputation cycle couriers have of being a bit mad, and a long hard stare does the trick and they leave it.

If push came to shove, having lived with a scotsman, my mental scottish nutter routine would come into play and i would hope for the best….

Rather not find out if it works though.