# I had my boy scout moment today! (or: how to deal with aggressive drunks) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 11, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-my-boy-scout-moment-today-or-how-to-deal-with-aggressive-drunks/612552 "2012-02-11T21:46:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-my-boy-scout-moment-today-or-how-to-deal-with-aggressive-drunks/612552/1 "2012-02-11T21:46:34Z")
At the mall today, while I was standing at the checkout of one of the stores, a woman comes and asks the clerks to call security, she was being harassed by a drunk. The clerks weren’t able to get the security personnel on the phone, and standing at the counter I was watching how the guy followed the woman and her two small children as the kids were cowering in a corner, crying and obviously scared shitless. After a minute, everyone around was still doing absolutely nothing. Now, I’m a rather small (170 cm, about 5’ 8’’ for you metrically challenged) middle-aged guy and wouldn’t have had anything to put up with in any kind of fight (except my 20-year-old quite moldy judo training), but I just wasn’t able to stand and look at this. Or worse, sneak away and leave two children scared out of their minds by an asshole like that. I told the girl at the register to watch my stuff and walked over to the guy. He was definitely not in his best mood. Putting on my “buddy” smile, I asked him politely and in a friendly tone if he would be so kind as to find somewhere else to loiter, as he clearly was scaring those kids. It wasn’t a pleasant episode. He was both bigger and younger than me and doing his best - at least within his current mental abilities - to be obnoxious and intimidating, and he was standing really close to me, well inside my comfort zone. Knowing that drunks’ brains operate somewhere between the Neanderthal and monkey level, I persisted in being nice, polite and friendly to avoid provoking any aggression. However, I managed to keep myself between the guy and the woman with the kids. It took about five minutes before the woman had collected herself enough to slink away and out of the mall, and I saw them disappear outside. I made no notice or indication of where they went, but I suggested quite insistently that the guy walked in the other direction, which he luckily did after some more grumbling and posturing. It took the security guys another five to ten minutes to show up. Good job, guys! :dubious: So, what’s the point of this story? I guess the point is that when dealing with aggressive drunks, it pays off to be nice and friendly rather than trying to police the situation, acting in any way that might be interpreted aggressively. Even if one would rather prefer to punch them in the face. :mad: I was able to defuse the situation by being extremely polite and friendly while still keeping the drunk away from the woman and the children, but I could really feel my blood pressure racing way up to a rather uncomfortable level. And I was very much on the lookout both during the rest of my shopping and in the parking lot while I was walking to my car and getting in. I needed one hour at the gym and two beers to get the adrenaline out of my system and my blood pressure down where it belongs. I think I’ve earned the whisky I’m nurturing right now. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-had-my-boy-scout-moment-today-or-how-to-deal-with-aggressive-drunks/612552)._