Last night I was on my way home from the pub here in Brighton, England. It was about 1 in the morning and I was taking a short cut through the Royal Pavilion Gardens. This is the small park at the back of the Royal Pavilion which is a former royal holiday palace constructed in the early nineteenth century. I am not pretending I was very sober but two men in their fifties I would guess were walking past me in the opposite direction in the gardens on the path an some sort of altercation ensued. One of them had chunky silver rings on each and every finger of both hands. He punched me on the chin as I wasn't sober enough to have my wits about me and it came very unexpectedly. He tried punching me again but I blocked it and there then followed a grapple with both him and his fat friend.
As a result I tripped and fell over but managed to get up again and carried on defending myself against them both. They were unable to land any further blows on me and at last I found an opening and was able to use An/Push against the man with the rings. I succeeded in flipping him over a low fence about a foot in height and he landed flat on his back on the grass behind the fence to the side of the path. That was the end of the fight.
Neither of them tried anything against me after that. I could have followed up and kicked the utter cr*p out of the man with the rings when he was on the ground but my ethics forbade me from doing so. When he got up he carried on shouting abuse at me and swearing, as did his fat friend, so I just swore back at them and carried on abusing them until they went away. I then realised my chin was bleeding from where the man with the rings had succeeded in hitting it, as presumably one or more or the rings had connected.
It was a small cut but quite deep and when I got home and looked in the mirror I saw a small flap of skin hanging off. The cut was still bleeding eight hours later. It is now about 19 hours since the fight and the cut has now dried up. I went to bed initially when I got home but woke up after a few hours and then decided to phone the police about the incident. I reached their call centre and they said that they would be sending an officer round to visit me next week. I have some hope that the men might be apprehended, as although there is no CCTV in the park, there is CCTV in the main road which they headed towards after the fight. If I can establish their addresses, I also intend to bring a compensation claim for the tort of Assault and Battery in the Civil courts.
I have always forgotten about fights in the past and have never pursued the wrongdoers. But this incident now brings the total of unprovoked attacks against me in since 2001 to six... They have been as follows:
1. In a nightclub in south London (Lewisham) in 2000 a man attempted to grab a womans breasts in front of her boyfriend who stood by and did nothing. I interposed myself between the aggressor and the woman and told him that was enough. He then took a swing at me. I blocked and used again, An/Push and pushed him over, flipping him in fact on to the small stage which was raised about a foot above the floor. He landed on his back but got up and took another swing at me which I blocked and again pushed him over. He was very dazed after the second time and crawled to the edge of the stage and sat there on the edge. I then kicked him off the stage and he was escorted out by security.
2. In Summer 2001 on my way from home some yobs threw a bottle at my head from a passing car in Lewisham, south London. Fortunately it missed and smashed against a wall behind me.
3. In Summer 2001 on my way home from work in Lewisham, south London, a man on a motorbike mounted the pavement and attempted to run me over with it. I managed to dodge out of the way.
4. I Summer 2001 again on my way home from work in Lewisham, south London, I was attacked by a gang of six teenagers, one of whom had a thick stick he had broken off from a tree. They first threw a bottle at my head, which missed, and then all attacked me simultaneously. The one with the stick was whacking me over the head repeatedly with it but I blocked all of the fifteen blows or so apart from one, which got through partially,glancing off the side of my left temple and skidding across the bridge of my nose. I subsequently had to take that individual out as he was clearly not getting the message. I waited until he was separated from the other five and then went for him with the intention of grabbing his stick arm and using Yang Style T'ai Chi Kao Tan Ma to dislocate his shoulder. However, he was moving about rapidly and I had instantaneously to adapt my strike and converted it into elbow stroke to his face, after having grabbed and deflected his stick arm. That stopped him and the others then gave up when they saw what I had done, and they all ran away. One of them, the second most aggressive, slipped on turning to run away and fell flat on his face in the road, which was highly gratifying to watch.
5. In Brighton in 2002 after a row about change in a kebab shop where I had ordered a vegetarian takeaway, three Turkish sales assistants followed me out into the street (it was about 1 in the morning) and all three started kicking and punching me. In fact first one of them followed me out and initiated the assault and he was later joined by the other two. He first threw a punch at me which I blocked and tried to kick him but as I was none to sober, I messed up the kick and fell over. While I was on the road on my back, he kicked me in the head. I got up, however, but by then the other two had joined him and all started punching and kicking me. Also, the one who had attacked me first was trying to burn me on my bare arm with a lighted cigarette while the others tried to punch and kick me. Not a single one of their attacks actually got through and eventually they just gave up when they realised my defences couldn't be penetrated. They went away uttering all sorts of dire threats of course, but it was all bullshit. The fact was, and they knew it, there were three of them trying to do their worst and they had been entirely neutralised by me.
And now there is this latest, sixth incicent. Well, I am sick of being assaulted. On the other hand, thank God I learned T'ai Chi from a highly respected Chinese Grandmaster in London. His classes have really 'saved my bacon' on all of these occasions. But now I really am sick of being assaulted and want vengeance - not physical vengeance, but the more subtle kind: court action, and I intend to have it. I am particularly keen on pursuing the civil claim if I can find the perpetrators. I would assess the likely damages as between £500 and £1000. If I am successful and they delay in paying, I shall execute the judgement and send bailiffs round, freeze their bank accounts, etc, etc. I am absolutely sick of these unprovoked attacks and now I want Justice. Kind regards, T.