Not in the grand scheme of things.
I figured someone would come along and try to rationalize idiot behavior. Shit like this is just all around bad practice. Upset? their lucky I didn’t get upset and pissed. If it were a six yr old I wouldn’t have had a second thought about it. There is a difference between that and a young adult having a ball at others expense. Namely everyone she happens across that day, Bad fuckin idea.
Um no,they are fortunate they didn’t pull that shit.
Haven’t any of you watched David Letterman lately?
I bet those kids had!
It’s great fun. Dave has had someone rig up a hose that squirts water from what appears to be a third story window and out onto a sidewalk in Times Square. Dave has a switch at his desk and can turn the hose on and off at will, while watching the reactions of the mystified tourists.
It’s a hoot!
But then, Dave can get away with things that us mere mortals cannot.
The prank itself is pretty harmless. However, the REASON for the prank is NOT harmless. The young woman (and she is NOT a young lady!) is going around, trying to piss people off for her own amusement. At the very least, she is distracting drivers who need to be alert to road hazards. Notice that in the OP, the guys offered the “we thought you was a tourist” excuse. In other words, they were targeting tourists, who can reasonably be expected to be unfamiliar with the city layout as it is, and distracting them from their driving. This is a safety hazard. More than that, though, it’s simply hassling other people for the sake of hassling them. That’s being an asshole, any way you want to look at it. I don’t care how “harmless” anyone thinks this sort of prank is.
My father once told me that a practical joke should make BOTH parties laugh, otherwise, one shouldn’t do it. I’ve done my share of practical jokes, but most of my victims laugh about them afterwards.
I can’t believe you are all (mostly) calling this a harmless prank. While you are driving a car someone shoots something at you. You’re not walking down the street. Not sitting on a park bench, driving a car. I could see someone getting scared and swerving, or someone getting water in their face, and rear ending some one else. I could see someone turning to see wtf just hit them and missing whatever’s ahead of them.
Then there’s the other side. Danger for the shooters. Someone gets pissed and swerves their car into you for shooting them. Follows you to the local 7-11 and instead of a “talking to” beats you to within an inch of your lives. Returns fire with a real gun.
Sorry for the dad speech, but to say this is as harmelss as you can get is pretty short sighted. I know that as a high schooler I did things far worse too, but that doesn’t make this harmless. I have a pretty healthy idea for stepping back at pranks that are a bit “wrong” and being like, “but you know, that’s still pretty funny.” I don’t get that feel from this one.
Back in 1976, in McComb Mississippi, there were not a whole lot of entertainment avenues open for the good kids … the ones that didn’t smoke dope, get drunk, etc. My cousin lived there and when I visited, we entertained ourselves by having water balloon wars with other teens cruising the main drag. To my knowledge, the worst injuries were to the participants pride when they were hit squarely in the head 
Granted, usually the balloon wars were held after 10ish pm, so most of the family folk were already home for the night and the sidewalks had been properly rolled up :dubious: so we didn’t feel like we were endangering anyone with our fun. The police left us completely alone, with the exception of pointing which direction our combatents had driven off to 
Things sure were alot simpler then.
I’m not sure anyone is trying to rationalize anything. Perhaps they were just pointing out a difference in opinion regarding chasing down a group of kids over a prank.
I’ve been w/paramedics on the scene of accidents as a result of these stupid pranks so believe me, I’m not about to defend the position of the little nitwits. No sir, not me. On the other hand, you called the police and gave their location, direction, and license plate information. Unless you forgot to mention that you were an off duty policeman, I’m thinking your responsibility stopped there. You could have caused an accident or worse by chasing them down. They could have wrecked YOU or pulled a real gun on YOU if they were more than just obnoxious kids. Your temper is quick enough to chase down people in traffic, what would have happened if they got extra lippy or a bit aggressive with you? You mentioned that you were “prepared.” What if you’d gotten into an altercation only to find out they were 16 or 17 years old? It would be you, not them sleeping in a jail cell that night.
Getting into an accident or being shot while playing junior cop (as opposed to junior mod) wouldn’t be worth it, even if you were “right” to begin with. Chasing someone down in traffic even if you were the victim could be considered road rage. Could you imagine the chaos in the streets if EVERYONE chased after someone who posed a danger to them whether it was intentional or not?
That’s a policeman’s job. I agree with your above quote, it was indeed “all around bad practice.”
I was prepared to defend myself. If they were the aggressors they’d wind up in the clink(even if they were 16-17). I kept a cool facade. If you re-read I said I “remained calm”
I never exceeded the posted speed limit at any point nor did I drive dangerously/illegally,didn’t have to. It’s a small town with one main drag.
You don’t need to exceed the posted speed limit. You followed someone who pissed you off in traffic and confronted them. This doesn’t sound like anyone who is remaining calm. It sounds like someone reacting to another driver. Why, that sounds like road rage.
Merriam-Webster:
Road Rage
Function: noun
: a motorist’s uncontrolled anger that is usually incited by an irritating act of another motorist and is expressed in aggressive or violent behavior
Please do not get me wrong, I’m not saying you were violent but following someone who pissed you off is definitely aggressive behavior. I hope no one needs a cite that sometimes road rage leads to death. These little shits are not worth your life. Luckily, it ended with no one hurt.
I apologize if it seems like I’m bitching at you, but this just pokes my buttons. I’ve ridden in an ambulance with a person who, like you, followed an asshole who was a menace on the road. Unfortunately, the asshole was unharmed and the man who followed him to confront him got shot and run over for his trouble. It isn’t worth it, really. Let the police deal with them. If the police don’t catch them this time, chances are good that they’ll end up pissing of a REAL road rager someday and be sorrier than you could ever make them.
Maybe I missed something here but he was squirted with AN UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE that everyone assumes was water, I would have called the police and followed them, this is BS behaviour pure and simple.
Unclviny
That’s what makes this totally annoying to me, it wasn’t even inventive or particularly funny, just stupid. Doing something to annoy people because you think it’s funny when people get pissed off isn’t really much of a punchline.
As for Tony’s behavior, I say good for you. If it’s a small town with one main drag, Daisy Mae there’s a lot less risk involved in following someone to their destination and giving them a talking to. There’s still risk, but I think Tony was aware of it, and I personally think it’s pretty cool that he took that risk to talk to the little losers before somebody shot them. I think it’s representative of good character in general.
uncontrolled anger. I was in total control. Road rage? I think not.
rage: 1)a:violent and uncontrolled anger b:A fit of violent wrath 2)violent action
Wrong characterization anyway you look at it. Am I wrong people?
I think what the OP did was completely justified and appropriate. One of the reasons the local juvenile delinquents do this shit is that no one feels they have the authority to say anything about it! If enough people get in their faces and tell them it’s not acceptable to behave like this, maybe they’ll learn something. I had a situation right in my yard not long ago, where a kid was brandishing a plywood “sword” at another kid. It looked like the kid with the sword wouldn’t think twice about hurting the other kid, either. Also, keep in mind, these kids weren’t friends of my kids, weren’t invited into my yard, and had no need to be there. I went out and told the kid to knock it off. He just stared at me. I said “look, if someone’s going to get hurt, it’s not gonna be on my property; get out of my yard”. He left the yard, muttering the whole time about how I’m a fat bitch, yadda, yadda, yadda. Some of the kids around here don’t like me very much, because I’ll call them on bad behavior. I think more people should.
One summer, long ago(I was in high school, so about 10 years), a friend and I decided it would be realllllllly cute to do what the subjects in the OP were doing. That is, until I sprayed down a couple of young girls who were walking right behind a police vehicle. :eek: I received the requisite 30 minute lecture that button jockey was referring to and was let off with a warning.
The experience taught me a lesson, and if in Tony’s position would do the same thing.
Daisy, don’t make this into something it’s not. This was 3 people who knew they were doing something stupid and needed to be scared/confronted into stopping what they were doing.
Sam
My uncle Gene was once driving through a poor part of Cleveland in his Honda Civic. It was a parboiling kind of a day, and Gene and his passengers were dripping sweat. He saw a little kid sitting on a fire hydrant, which was opened up and lazily pouring into the street. When Gene drove by, the kid pulled a board across most of the opening. The lazy stream was forced through a small opening, shooting straight through the Honda, completely soaking everybody inside. Gene got a good laugh out of it, and the cold water felt pretty good.
“She’s being a jerk. She should be banned.”
Sigh.
Rule #1 for driving in my book: Don’t Startle the Driver.
I don’t care what’s in the squirtgun. I don’t care if it’s not even loaded and you just point it at him. I don’t care if you throw confetti or yell “Bananas! Bananas with wings!”
Don’t Startle the Driver. Bad Things Could Happen.
Don’t make this into something that it’s not? Obviously you didn’t bother to read what I wrote. I said I was not defending these nitwits. What I did say that it isn’t his job to chase them down. I guess everyone should chase down people who piss them off in traffic. We could scare them/confront them all into stopping what they’re doing. Somehow I think the police would be a lot more frightening than “Hey little girl, knock that off.”
Everyone has been in a position where someone has done something to piss them off while driving. We ALL want to do something about it at that moment but common sense usually wins over and we realized that it isn’t worth it.
And yes, I realize that this is a small town (with lots of tourists for some reason) where the OP felt he would be safe in chasing after these people because he has some kind of telepathy that they’re just fun lovin’ kids instead of thugs with weapons. But hey, put yourselves in harm’s way by aggressively chasing people who “do you wrong” while driving. That’s job security for me and it might just make the freeways move better with a few less aggressive drivers.
Obviously I did read what you wrote as I asked you not to make it into something that it’s not(A la Roadrage). Also, I never mentioned, nor did I allude to you defending those “nitwits”.
Sam
Because it’s beautiful here. We get between 10-15 thousand a day during summer.
I can tell fer thugs since I used to be one and some associates still are.
Freeways? I haven’t seen one of them since [looks at watch] Two-thousand ought two.
The OP is entirely right in what he did.
If you say water isn’t a problem (Harmless, who could be hurt by water?) when it is in fact distracting to drivers on the road, where do you draw the line? If someone pegged a handful of pennies through your car window would it be a hazard? They can’t even really hurt, just sting… What about an airhorn? Sound can’t hurt you!
Any unnecessary distraction on the road, especially one created JUST TO DISTRACT FOR THE SAKE OF DISTRACTION is wrong. And what the OP did is good for them, sooner or later they’ll run into someone who will do more than give them a talk on their actions.
A lot of you have made some good points, and I’m sorry for my post, the part about the paintball gun was stupid and confrontational. Whenever I see a group of people all on the same side, it’s kind of a reaction to make a counter-argument. Squirting water at another driver is dangerous, for some reason I was thinking you were squirted while walking on the sidewalk. As long as you didn’t do anything dangerous when following them, then I believe you were justified.