archited
Senior Member
My brother (now retired) was a sergeant in the Edmonton Police Service and spent his latter years working in the Street Crimes Unit. He used to wear very elaborate disguises and hang out in seedy bars where it was not uncommon for idiot criminals to brag about upcoming "planned" heists or wrong doings. He told me about several robberies that were foretold through his unit-- the one that stands out in my mind was one that was planned for the CIBC branch in Lansdowne (my business branch at the time). On the day of, there were a dozen or so officers, some in the bank looking like customers and some outside covering potential escape routes and when the heist "happened" all three idiots were immediately apprehended. On a different occasion and when he was in a patrol car he was called to a scene in an old two-storey house in the Boyle Street district -- turned out to be a hangout for a branch of a motorcycle gang (I think they were known as "the Coffin Cheaters"). When he went into the house the "tough" guys inside started making piggy sounds and as assholes in gangs are prone to do exhibit their bravery in the form of superior numbers. My brother said nothing, bade the idiotic crew a good-night, and made the comment that it was extremely cold outside (mid-winter on one of those super-minus Celsius/Fahrenheit nights when the numbers agreed one with the other. Outside he returned to his squad car, drove to a concealed location, took his sling shot out of the glove box, and from 1/2-block distant proceeded to knock the windows out of the house occupied by the gang members. That wasn't the hilarious part -- it was only act one. One of the gang members dialed 911 to report the incident -- guess who responded to the complaint call? When my brother got there the mood was quite different than the first time he visited -- no more piggy noises. He looked around viewing several broken windows and recovered the steel marble that he had used as weapons in the "window-gate" crime, saying, "I need to take this in as evidence so we can take finger prints if there are any so we might apprehend the perpetrator." His last words as he was leaving the house for the second time were "Oh, and here is the number for a window repair shop... and bundle up it is brutally cold out there."
So... this is not advice just an observation... if I lived downtown in Edmonton and there were some ne'er-do-wells who threatened to stab me if I didn't forfeit $20 to "their cause", I would walk a safe distance off and introduce them to a pelting of steelies fired from a very well constructed sling shot -- not looking to do greater harm than causing some bruising to some lower body extremities. At 6'-4" I am not usually bothered by idiots on the street, but I would not be deterred from expressing my displeasure at their presence.
So... this is not advice just an observation... if I lived downtown in Edmonton and there were some ne'er-do-wells who threatened to stab me if I didn't forfeit $20 to "their cause", I would walk a safe distance off and introduce them to a pelting of steelies fired from a very well constructed sling shot -- not looking to do greater harm than causing some bruising to some lower body extremities. At 6'-4" I am not usually bothered by idiots on the street, but I would not be deterred from expressing my displeasure at their presence.
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