Stabbing of a family member

Hi there everyone. Hope all is well in your world. Soooooo…. Lots of interesting conversations and confrontations happening here on the blog. My personal view is that it’s a good thing. I have always been ”the glass is half full” kind of guy. Over the past couple of posts I think we have all learned a great deal about each other, and I for one am grateful to be a part of it. I look forward to future conversations as I feel we all still have a lot more to offer each other.

I have made it clear in my comments that I am not going to get into the culture / ancestry / heritage debate. It’s not my thing. If it involves hands, weapons and intent, then we’re talking. Well that’s enough of the soppy stuff, it’s time to get down to business.

This post is about a knife assault, a stabbing where one of my extended family members was the victim. Let me first just put it out there that this is not Piper, it’s not a Piper stabbing, but it is the very reason Piper was created, to help survive such situations. I will give a detailed account about what occurred from the victim’s perspective, and attempt to explain the attackers intentions, with regard to weapons choice and intent the best I can. I will also tell about the repercussions. What follows is common where we live, as I am sure it is common all over the world, this is just the way we do it. Maybe in the following comments sections you guys can post some of you own experiences. This could give us all a better understanding about the street life out there and it’s methodologies. This is after all what we are here for…I hope.

Ok. It happened about 3 weeks ago. The dude that got stabbed is my fiancées brother Morne’. He’s a good guy overall, about 20 years old and his is big into riding his bmx. He stays in an area called Elsies River on the Cape Flats. This particular part of Elsies River is called, “ DC” or, Dark City. It’s the area where Nigel grew up. “I can’t believe I mix with these people.” Anyways…Morne’ was riding his bmx around the hood when four guys approached him. They never wasted time with niceties and immediately flanked him and demanded his bike, saying that if he refused they would put the dogs on him, which by now were damn near foaming at the mouth from being hyped up. From Morne’s account these dudes had two pit-bull terriers with them. This is common around here. The guys steal the dogs, breed them and then pit them against each other in dogfights for money. They also use them during robberies, as is the case here.

The two guys with the dogs stayed to his right while the other two blocked his left and tried to grab the bike when he would not give it to them. He held on to the bike with his left arm when they tried to grab it. He then saw one of the guys on his left pull out a knife, but not just any knife, this dude pulled a Stanley knife, I think the common term is box cutter. Now I don’t know about ya’ll, but if I had to choose between being attacked with a Stanley knife or a regular knife, I would opt for the latter. The guy then picked for his chest with a reverse grip,( why a reverse grip with a cutting weapon with barely 20mm worth of exposed blade you ask,” I will explain later.) Morne’ instinctively jumped back and avoided the stab, while holding onto his bike. I am not sure if this was a conscious decision but the bike acted as a buffer between him and the attacker. The guy went for him again, but this time with more intent, Morne’ was unable to evade but did manage to put his hand across his chest with his wrist covering his heart area…and that is just where the blade landed…squarely on his wrist…in front of his heart.

The dudes with the dogs were about to jump in but these few seconds of scuffle were enough to draw some attention from passers by, so they gave up on Morne’ and his bike in hope of an easier victim. I can’t remember exactly who helped Morne’ out after the ordeal I just know that is was either a shop keeper or something who took him inside and bandaged up the wound while waiting for the ambulance. I saw him that evening in the hospital. Now I never saw the wound until after is was bandaged up by the hospital but here’s what the Doc said. If the blade had gone a few millimeters deeper it would have found an artery and the blood loss could have been fatal. The attack did manage to do major damage to the muscle and tendons in his forearm. He was unable to move his thumb and for-finger after the attack, not because of pain but because he just could not feel them there. They operated the next morning and he now has partial mobility of the digits again but just how much mobility he will have in the future is uncertain. I am sure with the right physiotherapy he will be ok though, at least I hope so.

His aunt and cousins that saw the wound could not believe the damage the attack had done to his arm. They told of a huge gaping wound where one could see most everything inside his arm. They say is was just one big hole there. Now some might find this strange when one takes into account that is was a box cutter being used. These things are usually very sharp, cutting instruments. Even blunt ones are sharper than most knives, I know, I work with them and have cut myself numerous times Logically, the wound should have been neat and straight, not ripped and torn.

If you track back in this post I refer to the damage that the attack did, not the blade. This is a Cape Flats thing. The knifers down here stab, rip and tear. They pick at their victims for the reasons above. They do not want a neat wound that a few stitches can fix. They want to damage and maim, just like with Morne’. He may never have full use of his fingers again. These guys know this, and they never learned it in a book or dojo, they learned it by living it and practicing it on real, opposing victims. Maybe these types of attacks happen elsewhere as well, I am sure it does. If so I would like to know so please put that in the comments.

Weapon

Ok so lets talk about the choice of weapon, the Stanley blade. Clearly this weapon does a lot more damage when slashing. When stabbing with this weapon it is a lot less likely, note I said less likely, not impossible, than it would be fatal. The thing is the bad guys know this. Stabbings are so common around here that it hardly even goes to court. Hell, sometimes the police don’t even pitch. A fatal stabbing however, pulls a lot more attention. So the box cutter works for them. It’s capable of causing massive damage by ripping and tearing flesh, and on the other hand can be used to cut at the neck or other sensitive areas and be more fatal. In what happened to Morne’ the guys went for his chest. You can stab with a decent amount of pressure to the chest with this weapon and the blade would not make it far past the breast plate so no fatality there. This guy got lucky when Morne’ put up his arm and managed to do more damage to his wrist, unluckily for Morne’

Retribution

Once all the smoke had cleared that evening, with all the family and cousins sitting around talking about the events it came out that the cousins actually new who the attacker was form Morne’s description. After talking to some of the people around the hood they found out that Morne’ was not the first or the last victim of the day. Prior to Morne’s incident these guys these dudes robbed and stabbed somebody else in the inner thigh. What concerns me here is why go for the inner thigh. We all know about the major artery found there. Do these guys know too? And if so did they plan for it to be fatal? I don’t know cos I was not there. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.

After Morne’ they robbed somebody else too. I am not sure if the blade was used there though. Now that the family knew who the swine was it was time to take things to the next level. They picked Morne’ up from hospital the following afternoon and drove around the hood looking for him. When they found him on the corner they confirmed it with Morne’, who was in the back seat keeping a low profile. They pulled up close to him and called him to the car while Morne’ kept his head turned. He came to the car but did so cautiously with his hand in his pocket holding the blade, a very common approach round here. When he got to the car he saw Morne’ and immediately pulled the knife from his pocket and exposed the blade. By this time the passenger was already out of the car going for the boot where he pulled out the handle of a Pickaxe, which is always in the boot of the car for just such an occasion. The guy turned to run but the guy swung Babe’ Ruth style and connected the guy behind the knees and he fell to the ground. He actually wanted the kneecaps While this was going on one of the other passengers pulled a tyre iron form the boot to get some of the action. The guy then got up and ran…well….limped very quickly to the park where there were friends of his, which was not far away. They laid into him some more and then somebody hear the word….GUN! At which point everybody scattered.

The next day the tables turned again when Morne’s cousins heard they were being hunted for the Pick Axe incident. Apparently this dude was part of one of the neighborhood gangs. He was a small player but a player no less. The cousins laid really low for about a week until things cooled down. They still can’t walk around like they please though. Turns out that the attackers Father came to apologize for his son’s behavior and gave Morne’s family permission to deal with him using whatever means necessary. This is usually a sever beating like with the pickaxe. The Sunday after the incident Morne’s uncle got word that Morne’s attacker was sitting at a shebeen, (illegal drinking house, usually someone’s yard). He planned to go around and just scare the shit out of the dude, which he did. He put a toy gun in his waist and walked to the shebeen. When the attacker saw him he knew what was coming and immediately started talking, saying shit like it was just a misunderstanding. He said that he was only trying to help Morne’ because some other guys were robbing him….funny.

Morne’s uncle never entertained this too long and smacked the dude with a really heavy open hand. Morne’s uncle is a diesel mechanic with diesel mechanic hands, so you can imagine. Also getting hit with a flat hand is really embarrassing. The guy hit the floor and was picked up for another few licks. They showed him the fake gun and this seemed to be too much for him to take and the little bitch started crying. He was slapped a little more and made to apologize. This to the attacker is a lot worse than being dealt with by the police. If the police had gotten him he would most likely have gotten off and then been a hero on the streets for a little while. Now he has been beaten with a flat hand and made to cry in front of all his buddies with a plastic gun. That will stay with him for a long time. His gang now knows how weak he is…and round here, the weak are preyed upon.

Morne’ is back on his bmx again but pulling tricks with one hand, quite impressive actually. The cousins still go about their lives but constantly look over their shoulder. The rest of us will try to stay out of such situations, but should anything arise, we will keep you informed. Stay tuned though. I am currently putting something together on Form Style fighting. The kind that is practiced in our reformatories.

I will post more soon.

Stay well

Jason

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