Saturday, October 15, 2011

violence: calgary stampede (july 8-17, 2011)

Wild West: It has come to my attention that there is a lot of violence during Stampede. It seems that young men see it as a time to get liquored, with the sole intention of fighting. They roam around in gangs. My story about a loved one, who was freshly home from school, in another city, which I relay:

He was quite excited to see his friends, bought himself a cowboy shirt, took his girl and they went out. The sad part is that he was happy to be back in Calgary. After a random beer bottle was flung in their direction, while the couple faced each other, so behind my son's back, and after a hearty, drunken 'Fuck you' (uttered by my son), the dudester came towards them, whipping off his black t-shirt, at which time this couple turned to walk (or stumble) away, because they surmised that dudester was a... nutbar?

And so, the dudester barreled into him from behind, knocked him down. As he started to get up to fight, my son was kicked in the face. ("Curb-stomped," as is the parlance.) The rest is about the ambulance, the presence-of-mind and later disturbed girlfriend who hadn't seen gushing blood until that, the dental surgery, smashed face, so it's lucky the jaw wasn't broken. My other son was so outraged, says it happens all the time and he doesn't even engage in the [whatever it is]. Yes, men will be men.

As an aside, the medical costs are not covered (to reset the teeth) and they'll probably be, say, 2G. There is a program in Alberta for victims of crime, and we were sent the financial benefits package in July, to which we will apply when all the costs are totaled; they're still in process.

Another person I spoke with said the atmosphere downtown was disgusting: the business suits in drunken vomit and stench, so that person isn't too interested in the big annual event, either.

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