Posted on 09/04/2007 7:36:50 PM PDT by DieHard the Hunter
Many of you will know me as DieHard the Hunter. I am a Guardian Angel. And this is a Vanity, with apologies to all of you and to the Moderator: I hope I've done this right! If not, please flame me gently...
Three years ago, I was a private individual, a father of two kids, a husband to a wonderful woman married for thirteen years. I was and am a salesman and about as ordinary as they get. I drive a ten-year-old Chrysler and I pay my taxes regularly and otherwise lived an ordinary life.
My life changed permanently one day, and it can never be the same again. You see, I discovered in a moment, like a bolt-out-of-the-blue, that I am a Citizen and that I have responsibilities to help deliver the outcomes that I expect from the Society that I live in.
New Zealand's TV3 covered a milestone in this walk last night. It is found here: http://www.tv3.co.nz/VideoBrowseAll/NationalVideo/tabid/309/articleID/34002/Default.aspx
Three years ago, I was minding my own business in New Zealand, driving between Client sites and listening to the radio. The news was running, and top of the news was the discovery of a P-Methamphetamine lab -- a huge one -- right across the street from where my wife teaches music part-time. Luckily, the cops busted the lab before it could explode. Had it exploded, it would have taken out the school and possibly killed people in it. Including my wife and kids.
I was badly shaken.
A few days later, the cops busted a P-Methamphetamine lab just down the street from where I live. It, too, was huge. And a bit too close to home. And so I got angry. Really angry: pig-biting mad.
I picked up the phone and was about to call our Mayor, Bob Harvey. Because that is what Citizens tend to do when they get upset.
But I never made the call. Somehow, in midair, I came to a realization. It was an epiphany. The Mayor was doing his best to curb Crime in our community, and so were his Councilors. Our Police were doing their best: they had, after all, busted two labs within a few days. And even our Government was doing its best with my money, and if I wanted them to do better they would surely oblige, by raising my taxes.
The person who wasn't doing their best was me: the average Joe Citizen.
I recalled an interview with Barbara Walters, back in 1983, with a guy named Curtis Sliwa of the Guardian Angels, and I remembered being impressed by the vision that he had: ordinary Citizens taking responsibility and cleaning up their neighborhoods. So I hopped onto the Web to see if the Guardian Angels organization was still around. And lo! It was!
I made my phone call, but this time to New York City. And thus began the most amazing journey of my life.
Folks, you do not need to tolerate crime in your community. Crime is entirely optional. The criminals took over bit by bit, piece by piece, because we let them. We listened to the siren's call of "don't get involved". We listened to the advice of the experts to "call 911 and let the police handle things. Don't get involved or you could get hurt." And in this process our give-a-dam'n got busted.
Your neighborhoods can be taken back incrementally, too: bit by bit, piece by piece.
I am not Bruce Lee, and I am not Chuck Norris. I am an ordinary guy, fat and overweight (in the video, I'm the fat guy in the khaki BDUs). About as average a Citizen as we can get. But my journey with the Guardian Angels has been a life-transforming event.
The day came for me to launch my Chapter, having taken my training by e-mail and correspondence: it is a long swim from NYC to Auckland and so there was nobody who could easily train me -- I had to do it on my own -- and many a midnite hour was spent reading The Manual.
At last I was ready to go.
My press release was loaded into the fax machine, with all the media outlets programmed in. And my hand couldn't quite press the green "GO" button: it was an irreversable step. From that day forward, my life would change permanently if I hit the "Go" button. I was about to become the New Zealand National Spokesman for an organization formed in the Bronx in 1979...
...and then I remembered what had happened that day. I had been in Taupo on business, about a hundred miles away from my family. My wife and two kids had been driving thru Henderson to do some shopping. And a nut, probably strung out on P-Methamphetamine, had gone into my friend's sporting goods store, carved up my friend giving him serious injuries, and run outside and stabbed an old-age pensioner to death. Right in front of my wife and kids while she sat waiting for the traffic lites in her little van. The cops had attended, and one officer had shot this crook several times with a Glock. And he still kept coming. Finally, a heroic parking warden crash-tackled the guy to the ground...
...all of this in front of my wife, who was talking to me on the cellphone, terrified, giving me a blow-by-blow account of what was going on.
I had never felt so helpless in all my life!
And so, naturally, I closed my eyes and hit the "Go" button on the fax machine. Never again would I be powerless against criminals. Never again would I want to feel like I did that day, in Taupo, on the end of a phone desperately wanting to be able to do *something* and being physically unable to do anything.
Two years on from our launch, and we are opening our second Chapter. The Lads have stopped two knifings, two riots, one kidnapping, multiple domestic disputes, and multiple drug deals. We have resussitated multiple street people and prevented two beatings. We have cleaned up our neighborhood.
The first time you save someone's life, it is addictive. Better than any drug, better than any opiate.
And we have only used force once.
Folks, you do not need to tolerate crime in your neighborhood. Get involved!
CometBaby
No flames from me! Great job!
Gidday, Kiwi....good job, taking back your neighborhood, one piece at a time, bit by bit.
> Gidday, Kiwi....good job, taking back your neighborhood, one piece at a time, bit by bit.
Cheers, Kathy! Did you like the video coverage? The day actually belongs to “Kimodo”, our newly-appointed CBD Chapter Leader. She is an amazing woman who has brought her entire Medieval Martial Arts club into an effective Patrol. What they do not know about bladed weapons isn’t worth knowing!
She is currently teaching a group of elderly ladies from the Henderson RSA’s women’s section how to defend themselves against muggers and rapists. They learned about knives last Saturday. Crikey!!!
I thought TV3 did an awesome job of the interview: they are welcome to Patrol with us anytime they like. Not all of the MSM are bad: there are some of them that will go out and do the job properly, like Simon and his crew from Campbell Live. They have always, always been fair with us.
For that reason, for as long as they like, the TV3 crew will have exclusive access to the Guardian Angels in NZ.
> Thank you, DieHard the Hunter and the others who have decided to act, you are good citizens.
Cheers for that, mate!
I’m just an ordinary guy, so are the rest of The Lads (that’s what we call ourselves in NZ, even the girls. We do not differentiate or discriminate in any way. We do not make any effort to be PC. So we are all “The Lads” or “The Brotherhood-of-the-Wing”)
I have been blessed with the opportunity to lead some truly amazing New Zealand Citizens. These are folk who have Dared to Care, to be Role Models for Life, Beyond the Streets.
Me, I’m just a fat salesman who one day decided that he’d had enough.
Anyone can do this, it’s not hard.
It was good video coverage...the best of luck to all of you.
> Wow....your story is inspiring....it takes one person with an idea and the guts to run with it.....Good on ya mate !!!!
(Big grin!) Thanks for that! Anybody can do this: it isn’t difficult, and it doesn’t take alot of time. I get to do the Guardian Angels thing using the same time I’d otherwise watch the Rugby with a warm beer and cold pizza on a Friday evening. It is *that* easy.
Do you want your neighborhood back, no crime, no graffiti? It is as easy as a couple hours per week.
You want excitement? Go on Patrol: you will live off the adrenaline for a week. Real Life is much, much better than anything TV can dish out.
Folks, this is easy! Really, honest-to-God! The Bad Guys have taken over because we have all become mesmerized by “Sex in the City” and “Dancing with Stars” and “The Sopranos” — instead, all we really need to do is spend a couple hours each night scaring the Bad Guys away. That’s all.
(and I do mean “scaring” — to my experience, the Bad Guys are all cowards and cretins. They are afraid and they will flee if opposed by resolute law-abiding Citizens. We frighten them. They are like hyenas: lots of noise, pretty scary and sharp teeth. But there is nothing there underneath the noise and snarl.)
This is our Country, not theirs. Let’s take it back. The Bad Guys probably don’t even pay taxes! Whoever said that they get to call the shots???
Don’t wait for the Government to fix things. You each personally have a responsibility to help deliver the outcomes you expect from the Society in which you live.
You must not take the Law into your own hands but by Crikey you must take the Law and run with it. That is what good Citizens should do.
By Crikey, we must all, at very least, be good, active Citizens. We owe that much to each other.
Get involved. And if anyone tells you not to get involved, tell them where to go: they are part of the Problem, not part of the Solution. Get involved. Get stuck in.
I’ll help you do this, as much as I can.
*DieHard the Hunter*
GOOD WORK MATE!
KIA KAHA!
Bah, we have armed groups that I put more faith in. Sorry. Them’s the breaks.
Btw, I carry a gun daily. IMHO, I do more to prevent to crime by joining my fellow armed citizens than the angels ever will. Call it a Texan thing.
> Bah, we have armed groups that I put more faith in. Sorry. Them’s the breaks.
Good luck to you and your armed groups. I hope you never have need to draw down on someone or they on you: they tell me death is an irreversable thing. Not exactly something I’d want to wear on my conscience.
I’ll stick with the Angels, thanks. There’s something appealing to chasing away bad-guys as an unarmed Patrol.
Learning how to throw a good left hook is a heaps more practical life-skill than learning how to hit a bullseye: my left is always loaded, always with me, doesn’t require oiling or even a license.
Yet my left is accurate and decisive, and highly unlikely to put me in the dock in front of the Beak if I have to use it to defend myself.
Nope — unarmed is a much better way to Patrol.
> Btw, I carry a gun daily. IMHO, I do more to prevent to crime by joining my fellow armed citizens than the angels ever will. Call it a Texan thing.
If carrying a gun makes you feel tuff, great: whatever feeds your self-esteem, mate. Just don’t point that thing at me.
Guardian Angels don’t need to carry weapons, and we don’t. We do, however, train in taking weapons off armed yahoos, and some of us are pretty good at it. Call it a Guardian Angel thing.
> Bully.. Meth as a drug is worse than crack.. as hard as that is to believe.. The stuff eats the brain up even worse than crack does.. Hopefully if your Org. spreads into small towns also Meth addiction can be slowed down..
P-Methamphetamine is scary, scary stuff. In New Zealand we have the largest per-capita consumption of this filthy drug in the entire world! And most of it is made in my neighborhood: West Auckland. Crikey!
I particularly hate what it does to the user: it “uses up” his entire Being: he literally wastes away while gaining super-powers: all of his life-force is being crammed into a few moments, sucking the very juice out of his existence. That is why P-Meth addicts lose weight so quickly: it is an unsustainable addiction.
And, naturally, when they are on P-Meth, they are invincible. It takes three Angels to control a P-Meth addict. They become horribly violent and amazingly strong and quite resistent to pain.
God, I hate the stuff! Whoever invented P-Methamphetamine ought to rot in Hell.
Amazing the stuff humans can get addicted too.. You name it somebody is addicted to it.. Humans can obsess on most anything.. even religion.. Who ever came up with the meme obsessive personality was right on.. I've seen people kick some drug only to obsess on something else.. even something "legal".. or another drug.. even FOOD..
Meth and crack is bad but so is some other drugs.. heroin, other opiates and alcohol..
Why do you people always assume that those of who armed don't know how to throw a punch? I happen to have studied martial arts all of my life, holding belts in Judo, Karate, Modern Arnis, and Tae Kwon Do. I can go toe to toe as well as anyone, but you're a lunatice if you think any of the above equals a yellow belt in gun fu.
Btw, is that a bit of liberalism seeping through in your obvious contempt for an armed populace?
> Btw, is that a bit of liberalism seeping through in your obvious contempt for an armed populace?
You live a privileged life, with a Second Amendment to a Constitution. In NZ we have neither. A good left hook is the best I can manage, legally: if that makes me a “liberal” in your books, fine.
> Why do you people always assume that those of who armed don’t know how to throw a punch?
I have said nothing about your capabilities to throw a punch, one way or the other. I have merely stated a preference for an unarmed response to use-of-force. This is something positive that every Citizen can do — with the added bonus that they are also able to sleep at nights with a clean conscience. For all your big talk about guns I doubt you have ever killed someone. If you have, what was it like?
> I happen to have studied martial arts all of my life, holding belts in Judo, Karate, Modern Arnis, and Tae Kwon Do. I can go toe to toe as well as anyone, but you’re a lunatice if you think any of the above equals a yellow belt in gun fu.
All of this may be so: I have no way to check your macho claims and no desire to. If you point your firearm at me, or at any innocent party in my vicinity, I shall arrest you. So keep it in your pocket, mate.
So glad I stumbled on this!
Great story & video Die Hard.
It’s wonderful works that you & the Angels are doing. Thank you!
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