Hello all,
i'd like to say hello first to all you. this forum is so usefull. i actually had an account here but i forgot the email address the nickname i used. so i decided to make new one. i'm sorry

anyway... i want to ask if any of you ever had such a bad day by bothered a strange guy in the street? i had! just had it last Wed 2 Jul in Stockerstrasse around 4:30pm. i was waiting tram no 8, while waiting for the tram i got sms from my boyfriend and read it, when i was busy reading suddenly a black man took and pulled my hand with force and shouted at me in german which i dont understand coz i dont speak german. i was shocked, totally shocked!! felt scared and i realised that everbody around me before have walked away.. i confused and pulled back my hand, asked louder to everyone "who are you? who is this guy?" but nobody care. i dont know why, i knew exactly that i looks scared and need help, coz that man still shouting and keep pulled my hand, but nobody care!!! people dont speak english??? or just didnt care about other people??? this is unbelievable. ok maybe those people thought that i knew that guy or something...

But what a bad day!! i was scared, and soon as the tram there, i got in, and i even start to cry in the tram coz extremly shocked, my hand hurts and i was like shaking. i couldnt control my emotion, then before the tram goes i shout at him (he was still in the station, lucky me he didnt get into the tram too) "fu**k ****"

I told this story to my bf and he said sorry and suggest me to keep focus when at outside and seems i need a pepper and chilli spray for protection, is this a good idea or too much?? my god i'm still schoked!

There are nutters everywhere. What can I tell you. Look on the bright side it was only your hand he grabbed...

Yes i thank God he didnt hit or threatened with gun!
But still i wonder people just enjoy watching.

i heard that sometime in Paradeplatz, something like organization or police not so sure arranged hidden camera and 1 young man act as 1 nutter the other one an old man as a victim, and just souranded by peoples. and.... people just "mir egal"!!

well well well i hope it wont happen again to me and to you all too...

good day

I bet there is a guy on a Swiss forum somewhere saying:

All jokes aside, i doubt many Swiss would get involved.

I on the other hand am a 'have a go hero' and therefore would jump at the chance to save a damsel in distress!!

So far to my name i have run down 3 shoplifters, 2 pick pockets and stopped several beatings.

Threatened with a gun, in the middle of town in the middle of the day in Zurich? Ummmmm. . . . you probably have a better chance of winning the lottery or getting struck by lightening than having that happen.

Crazy people abound regardless of where you are. I particularly happen to know as for some reason I happen to be a crazy person magnet. If there is a nutter within about 20 M of me, they will about 90% of the time come towards me or sit next to me on the bus etc.

I'm sorry but I think you overreacted to the situation.

You could have some difficulty justifying the use of pepper spray in a Swiss court in the situation you described. But then I wasn't there when it happened.

There was a lively discussion about how to react in a somewhat similar bad situation in this thread. Please read the entire thread before you answer.


I've seen this campaign and it wasn't a weak actor against a strong one. The two actors shouted at each other and eventually started to punch each other. If I observed that, I probably would've reacted in some way but consider it unlikely that I would've stepped betweent the two.


ps. icetea, please retrieve the password of your old account, this one will expire in two weeks.

nevermind some folks here will tell you you're over-reacting, physical contact with another person without their consent can be considered assault. but that is another discussion, a futile one without witness. practise the old knee-in-the-groin, and callz it even next time...

How many times has that worked out for you?

'Crazy people abound regardless of where you are. I particularly happen to know as for some reason I happen to be a crazy person magnet. If there is a nutter within about 20 M of me, they will about 90% of the time come towards me or sit next to me on the bus etc.'

Oh my god this is me too!! I don't know what it is.... am I too friendly? ....is it something I do?? ...Do I make eye contact too much?

Crazy people love me what can I say...


Don't worry too much about the thing that happened. My suggestion is just REMAIN ALERT. It suprises me that more people don't pay attention to the other people around them. When I have my ipod on I always check out who is around me and how close they are and if they look dodgy or not. Just don't put yourself in the situation where crazy people can be crazy to YOU.....

Report this to the Police Ice Tea,it is definately a Police matter.

The man assaulted you and is a danger to people.

SWH.

As for the glib replies about how the man was possibly trying to help, would you continue to keep holding onto someone's hand for that long after you'd apparently pulled them from under a tram (which the OP didn't say about)?
To me, it seems that whatever happens here, people are far too quick to build whole stories around events for which they've got nothing to back this up and then have a pop at the person who originally posted.

It always seems to go on here:
1) Someone posts about something bad that happens.
2) 'It's not Switzerland - it's the world over' (usually true).
3) 'It never happened to me, so it can't have happened to you'
4) 'It was your fault'
5) 'It's worse everywhere else'
6) 'If it's that bad here, go home'

And finally the Colonel sums it all up in 6 short points...

If I was DaveA, I'd have done it in three...

Somewhere between step 3 and 5 should be the post "Violence is always the answer", of which there are some good examples in the thread that I linked earlier.

I don't do that sorta thing, because i know both the Death Touch and the shoryuken. I'm merely suggesting the old knee-in-the-groin, until she's learnt it too. (serious answer below)

there is a difference between violence as revenge and violence as self-defence. self-defence comes in many forms, among which violence is one.

it's so easy to say she over-reacted, heck, the dumb girl must be exaggerating! but consider this, a crazie sitting next to you, talking s**t to you is just another crazie, until the physical contact takes on a new dimension.

thanks for the link, just read it, very informative.

someone on that thread said, "If I was the woman I woulda punched him. I wonder what the reponse would have been then? If I'm being assaulted by a random stranger and I punch him in the face, am I being 'violent'? Should I just tell him it's 'not okay'?"

agreed, non-consensual physical contact from a random stranger/crazie is certainly 'not okay.' i don't think there is any disagreement about whether being grabbed on hand, leg or derriere is OK, rather what an appropriate response is, and that discussion, i've seen, takes place in a class called "self-defence."

p/s: i accept criticism for my flippant remarks, but i do not advocate violence, rather self-defence.

uncle max, i don't really mind the disapproval rating; fair enough, i made a flippant comment.

but if you have a constructive suggestion, please do share. it would be for the benefit for one and all.

Hello?? is it true?? whats his nickname??

Well i hope he read this thread, to show him how to behave if you asking people for help. You need help?? ask nicely, say "excuse me" "entschuldigung"... without grab people's hand!! and shouting!! If it was you, dont you notice people around in the tram station walk away with worried face because they scared of you? or because they dont want you to bothered them as you did to me??
of course i shouted at you because you did the SAME dude!!!

Being nice to people you dont measure form the education only but also how been raised!

Anyway i dont think he was the same person, if yes why he could post here in ENGLISH?? when he didnt shout at me in ENGLISH at all in the station. definetly different person!

@PEACHY
Early today I saw a girl who wasn't paying any attention at the tram stop and I pulled her out of the path of an oncoming tram. She then started shouting something at me in English (I have no idea what she was saying) then started shouting to everybody in English. She then got onto a tram still shouting and made obscene gestures at me. I felt so embarrassed, do the English not show any gratitude when you help them?

Hello?? is it true?? whats his nickname??

Well i hope he read this thread, to show him how to behave if you asking people for help. You need help?? ask nicely, say "excuse me" "entschuldigung"... without grab people's hand!! and shouting!! If it was you, dont you notice people around in the tram station walk away with worried face because they scared of you? or because they dont want you to bothered them as you did to me??
of course i shouted at you because you did the SAME dude!!!

Being nice to people you dont measure form the education only but also how been raised!

Anyway i dont think he was the same person, if yes why he could post here in ENGLISH?? when he didnt shout at me in ENGLISH at all in the station. definetly different person!

sorry double post