"I don't think they'd ever had a street encounter before,"
said Peterec. "I try and tell kids what to
do, but even for me, I just don't understand it"
"There was nothing like this when
I was young," said Peterec.
Peterec is no stranger to teen violence.
He remembers being bullied himself in elementary
school by a highschool boy. He grew up in the 1970s
in Port Alberni - it was a rough town. He learned
self defense through martial arts, and two years
later on advice from his martial arts teacher, he
faced his bully, who left him alone after that.
Today, people of all ages walk through
Peterec's doors looking for self-defense tips. He
also gives seminars on self defense at Victoria
area secondary schools such as Oak Bay high.
The learning
goes both ways: The teens tell Peterec what they
face. For the last decade, he's seen an increasing
number of girls bullied. But the most baffling trend
for Peterec is when teens gang up on one victim.
It lacks the unspoken rules that Peterec remembers.
Back in Peterec's day, fighting was
usually one-on-one. And buddies would break the
fight apart if they felt someone had taken enough.
Now it seems buddies jump in, and curbings lead
to comas and death.
"I've talked to the kids and even
they don't know where it (mobbing) started,"
he said. Peterec thinks that mob attacks are more
common than many people know.
Just yesterday, I had another."
Peterec said a young boy came in to the centre and
said that he and a friend were attacked by six guys
when they were walking through a park.
The assault that Peterec's son witnessed
was the third mobbing in Saanich this summer. On
June 30, two teenaged boys, 15 and 17 years old,
told police they were walking through Hampton Park,
when they were attacked by four older teens. A 17-year-old
and 18-year-old were arrested. |
Just a few days earlier a Saanich resident was walking
home along Cedar Hill Cross Road when he was hit
from behind. As he lay on the ground disoriented
and bleeding from a gash to his head, the man
heard what sounded like the voices of teenagers
making comments such as "hurry up,"
and "come on, get his wallet." The
incident shook the man and his wife's confidence
in her suburban neighbourhood.
Are drugs involved?
Peterec wonders if drugs are adding
an element of unpredictability to attacks. Two
teens recently showed a curious lack of judgment
when they attacked Peterec's friend and fellow
kick boxer, Chris Peak. Peak, a King of the Cage
contestant, is six-foot-three, 240 pounds, bald
and tattooed. "He looks like he just
came out of jail" Peterec said.
Two teens approached Peak outside
a bank machine in Esquimalt. They asked Peak for
the time and when Peak went to look at his watch,
one of the teens punched him. Peak punched back
and one teen went down, the other ran.
"When I heard that he (Peak)
go mugged, I was laughing so hard" said Peterec.
"That's either really crazy - or really high."
More seriously, Peterec speculates the teens were
so desperate for a fix that they didn't notice
who they were targeting.
|
Peterec wonders if the teens involved in his
son's case were on drugs. Shane told his dad that
one guy didn't seem drunk as much as wired, talking
really fast. "It scared the hell out of my
son," Peterec said.
What is the solution?
If you can't ward off an attack with
big biceps and a confident attitude, and you can't
fight your way out when you are outnumbered, what
can you do?
Peterec isn't sure. He blames Americanization
for growing violence and a gang mentality among
teens. One thing he doesn't advocate is living
in fear and only going out in groups. "You
can't walk through life like that," he said.
"The best defense is awareness. I believe
everyone has a sixth sense - bells go off. You
just know something isn't right." When that
happens - run.
|
